Hi i recieved an external hard drive from santa, It is very slow transferring from and to external drive, Was wondering if i should buy a usb 2 card or would firewire cable do the same job. Thanx.
(Taken from wikipedia) The signalling rate of USB 2.0 Hi-Speed mode is 480 megabits per second (Mbps), while the signalling rate of FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) is 393.216 Mbps. However, despite the higher signalling rate, USB Hi-Speed connections can rarely transfer data more quickly than FireWire 400 connections, due to the higher overhead of the USB signalling system and protocol, and USB's greater demand on host resources. In 2003, FireWire was updated with the IEEE 1394b specification. This provides a new mode called S800, which operates at 786.432 Mbps. S800 requires a new physical layer, but S800 nodes can be connected to existing FireWire 1394a ports, just as USB Hi-Speed nodes will operate with older full-speed hosts. IEEE 1394b also provides rates up to approximately 3.2 Gbps; however, the higher rates use special physical layers which are incompatible with 1394a devices. ------------------ So, all in all: Go with FireWire if you'll be using an external harddrive. The only problem you may run into is compatibility with other people's computers since more computers are outfitted with USB 2.0. I hope this helps, john
Creaky, This is not the relevant forum as i have not mentioned dvd at all ,My question is about usb 2 or firewire.
Creaky may believe that you aquired is a DVD drive. If this is true, I would have to agree with the move since you're wanting to know about the performance differences USB and Fireware have on that particular type of drive. Dig? If the drive isn't DVD, then i'm sure he/she will have no problem placing it in whatever relevant forum it belongs in.
Hi Jallan, I appreciate that,I would be in the wrong forum if i was asking about dvd drive, Creaky, Does'nt matter about moving it i am just pointing out it is in fact an external hard drive not a dvd drive, I think jallan answered my question anyway unless anybody else has any info. Thanx.
sorry, i'm so used to dealing with DVD stuff that i must have not read the original post properly and when i teleport stuff that i don't intend to comment on/or have no comment on i don't subscribe but glad you found me by PM and thread teleported back again and spectacles cleaned 'fraid i've not used firewire before so can't comment other than i'd read about the 480mbps speed. i use 2 Belkin USB2.0 enclosures flawlessly wth dvd burners but i didn't have much luck with hard drives in those same enclosures.
