Anyone have a USB 2.0 HDD?

[Joe Don Baker]

I'm looking to buy a large USB 2.0 HDD. Anyone here have one how is the performance? Also I plan on transporting this HDD back and forth from peoples houses how durable are the external USB 2.0 HDD's? If I drop it accidently is it toast? I would like one that can take a little bit of abuse.

Here check out this one it looks sweet. I never thought I would say that about a Hard Drive but check it out:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-213&depa=0

[kaltag]

I have a 160GB maxtor in an externel enclosure made by ADS and it's served me well for almost a year now. I take it to LANS all the time and I use it for backups. It has usb 2.0 and firewire connections. The firewire is usually a bit faster than the USB 2.0 too.

EDIT: WOOT!!!! 7 stars :D

[FTC]

Hi,

If you want roughness and mobility, get a 2.5". They have the additional benefit of not requiring (in many cases) a power brick, plus they do resist quite of an abuse handling them. As counterparts, they are a bit more expensive (not that much because 2.5" enclosures tend to be quite cheaper than 3.5"), plus current tech is limited to a max. of 100Gb (just announced toshiba drive, or 80Gb).

I´ve got a "Mapower" one (S21) and I´m very happy with it, it is just USB2, but performance is great... I can get 32Mb/sec transfers (buffer to computer) which is quite good for an external drive, and 25Mb/sec STR when accessing the disk, which is exactly the limit of the drive inside (a 40Gb 40GNX).

Regards
FTC

[Joe Don Baker]

I've looked at some 2.5 inch HDD's they look pretty cool and not having a power pack would definetly be nice. But I think I want more space than what they have currently. Plus they are more exspensive as you said.

I'll think I just go with a 3.5 and have to haul around the power pack. I'll look for some good enclosures now.

Thanks for your replies.

[shadowdr]

Be aware that there have been issues with some of these externals or the enclosures.Many are using radeon cards with cat drivers.Do a google search with"delayed write failure usb" or "delayed write failure 1394"for an idea of what is happening.

[Joe Don Baker]

Originally posted by shadowdr
Be aware that there have been issues with some of these externals or the enclosures.Many are using radeon cards with cat drivers.Do a google search with"delayed write failure usb" or "delayed write failure 1394"for an idea of what is happening.

You are right. That is very odd. I searched on Google and found a lot of threads on this. The majority of the problems were with Maxtor drives although a few had Western Digital drives. And a lot of people had Radeon 8500 and Catlylst drivers and many think that is the problem.

I have not found a solution to the problem in any of the threads. And there is no Microsoft or ATI fix that I can find.

[HawainPanda]

well, i have a zen 30gb..and the usb 2 is pretty fast..and then a bit slow..it takes maybe around 20 min i think...um..maybe 15.to put like 25gb on it...i don't really remember, u could go for a zen..they're awsome mp3 players..and they also have a 40gb and 60 gb model

[FTC]

Hi,

Regarding the delay write failures, I also experienced those in my desktop, after a while writing to the external disk. It has no radeon, so I did a set of extensive tests (loop copy during 3 hours) in different scenarios until I could be absolutely sure that the culprit was really the USB host PCI card (based on nec first chipset) when working with win2k usb2 drivers. I switched to another PCI card (based on nec newest chip) and all is well now....

Note that I am not saying that there can not be a "delay write" problem related to RADEONS, but it looks more like the delay write is a consequence quite common when things go wrong over the PCI/AGP bus.

Regards
FTC

[Tabrin]

Originally posted by FTC
[B]Hi,
...plus current tech is limited to a max. of 100Gb (just announced toshiba drive, or 80Gb).

Um, I've got a 5.25" external enclosure that I swap a 200 and 250GB WD drive in. Both are single-partitioned. You can get those enclosures either USB2.0 or Firewire. They've got a power brick though...If you've got a 5.25" enclosure and a 3.5" HDD I see no reason why you can't mod the thing and stick the brick inside it.

But yeah, I get those delayed write failures a lot, but that's only after I've put my laptop in standby while the drive's running. Though I do have a Radeon mobility card in my laptop... But I don't think that is the root of the problem.