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which is faster: USB2.0 or firewire for external HDD???

ok 2 more questions:

how long would it take to transfer a 700 mb file for an IDE drive to a USB 2.0 drive?
also, it is possible to run a computer with a USB HDD instead of an IDE?? thanx all
 
Originally posted by: shady06
ok 2 more questions:

how long would it take to transfer a 700 mb file for an IDE drive to a USB 2.0 drive?
also, it is possible to run a computer with a USB HDD instead of an IDE?? thanx all
Click to expand...

first part i dunno. 2nd part is yes if your mobo's bios allows you to boot from a USB device
 
USB2.0 is 480mb/s and firewire is 400mb/s, but I have found that firewire drive have lower cpu usage and are generally slightly quicker.
 
FireWire also has the advantage of lower operating overhead (as well as better speed), so definately get the FireWire, or a combo USB2\FW box for compatibility.
 
As has been said, FW is faster than USB2 in real life 🙂

Therefore I would go for FW, however I would get one that does both FW and USB in case another computer doesn't have FW and only USB 🙂


Confused
 
Both are the same speed. Firewire is 400 or 800, USB is 500. Hard drives are only about 130.
400 and 500 are both bigger than 130 so it doesn't really matter.
 
Originally posted by: shady06
ok 2 more questions:

how long would it take to transfer a 700 mb file for an IDE drive to a USB 2.0 drive?
also, it is possible to run a computer with a USB HDD instead of an IDE?? thanx all
Click to expand...

1) USB 2.0 = 480Mb/s = 60MB/Sec
700MB / 60MB = 11.66666667 sec (maybe an additional 15 to 20% for OS overhead and error correction s 11.66666667 + 2.33333333 = 14.000000003 sec)
Note: That assumes that you have definately reach the theoretical max bandwidth for USB2.0 (however the current best IDE drives on the market only average ~48MB/Sec which is well below the 60MB/Sec max of USB2.0 [adjusted result ~17.5 sec])

2) If your BIOS allows you to select USB as one of the options for boot device then yes.

Thorin
 
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