Which Portable Hard Drive?

[UglyCasanova]

OK, I need to transfer large files from my computer with the internet to my new computer without. I have tried a Powered USB Zip 250, but on my Win XP machine it gave me so many headaches that I need to try something else. I was thinking about a portable HD. I have a few questions though.

1. Will a USB 2.0 HD run on a standard USB 1.1 port, just not at the fast speeds?

2. Which is better, a portable HD or one of the enclosures that you stick a drive in. I don't have a spare drive to use, so I was thinking the cheapest route would be just a portable drive, although I could take the drive out of the enclosure, though.

3. Are there any problems (Especially with XP) with these drives, like how my Zip drive is unable to read under XP even with updates. Are there any USB issues, because I have seen those before.

Any help would be appreciated, as would model suggestions and places to buy. Thanks .

 

[UglyCasanova]

Ok, I am looking at the Lacie 60 gb usb 2.0 hd. Is this any good? It doesn't say it is compatible with Win XP, but it is with Win 2K. It should work on XP, right?

 

[Wolfsraider]

<< 1. Will a USB 2.0 HD run on a standard USB 1.1 port, just not at the fast speeds? >>

yes

2 and 3 can't help you

but this was listed in a similar post:

Firewire - 400 Mbps
USB 2.0 - 480 Mbps
SCSI - depends on what flavor - SCSI, Fast SCSI, Fast-Wide SCSI, Ultra2 SCSI, Ultra160, Ultra320, etc. (80 Mbps through 2560 Mbps)

You are going to be limited to the speed of the drive, not the potential throughput of the interface bus.
hope this helps

 

[Mingon]

Depending on the capacity you want, you could go for the archos jukebox mp3 player, nomad or rio volt which are all around 20gb.