USB vs Firewire on external HDD

Firewire is much better than USB. But if this drive is going to be used to transfer information between machines the MUCH wider spread of USB makes it a better bet.

I love using Firewire discs because they are as close to having an extra internal disc as you can get. Sustained transfer speeds just blow USB out of the water.
 
Get a dual format drive with firewire and USB2 (fw 800 if your hardware supports it).
 
USB 2 goes at 480 MB/s while Firewire 1 goes at a measly 400 MB/s. The difference however is that USB bursts to that speed and thus is not consistent. I'd highly recommend firewire for heavy, sustained transfers but I doubt the average user would really care if their data transfer took a minute or two extra. I wouldn't waste my money on a Firewire drive if I was an average user.
 
If you're going to be using it for Time Machine - or any backup solution for that matter - you'll appreciate the faster speeds from the fw.
 
Firewire drives enclosure's are approx R1000+
USB Sata drives enclosure's are approx R300
 
StbA said:
Firewire drives enclosure's are approx R1000+
USB Sata drives enclosure's are approx R300
Click to expand...
Must be the lack of demand here because I'm looking at one of the UK shops we use and USB2/FW400 are available for under £30.

Cant remember off the top of my head - does the MB have firewire 400 and/or 800?
 
This is the one I've got : Seagate FreeAgent Desktop Drive - 500GB
http://www.take2.co.za/product.php?id=2375691

Bought it at Take2 last year for around R1700, now it's down to R1176.

But I'm wondering if I should wait until this one's price drops as well
http://www.take2.co.za/product.php?id=2375738
(Seagate FreeAgent Pro External Drive - 500GB - USB 2.0 + eSATA + Firewire)

I'm happy with what I've got, but if the Firewire one's startup time is faster it may be worth waiting for.
I keep my tv/movies on it, when I'm using front row, it sometimes takes a while for it to wake up.

With Telkom giving us 30 gigs a month, I'm going to be needing another one.
 
alf101 said:
This is the one I've got : Seagate FreeAgent Desktop Drive - 500GB
http://www.take2.co.za/product.php?id=2375691

Bought it at Take2 last year for around R1700, now it's down to R1176.

But I'm wondering if I should wait until this one's price drops as well
http://www.take2.co.za/product.php?id=2375738
(Seagate FreeAgent Pro External Drive - 500GB - USB 2.0 + eSATA + Firewire)

I'm happy with what I've got, but if the Firewire one's startup time is faster it may be worth waiting for.
I keep my tv/movies on it, when I'm using front row, it sometimes takes a while for it to wake up.

With Telkom giving us 30 gigs a month, I'm going to be needing another one.
Click to expand...
I've got a number of the seagate external drives - it wont be faster waking up if you get firewire but you can add a cron job to keep them awake if the sleeping is bugging you.
 
Last edited:
I bought this last month....

http://www.shopandship.co.za/shop/desktop-hard-drives/lacie-320gb-quadra-301108ek.html

Thought it was a great deal if you want FW 800. Had no problems and time machine backs up nicely.

I also have to add that I recommend this shop to anyone... When I ordered the hard drive they told me that their Lacie suppliers were closed until the 7th Jan. I got my hard drive on the 8th Jan 8.30am - and this was delivered from JHB to CT. That's what I call delivery :D
 
StbA said:
Firewire drives enclosure's are approx R1000+
USB Sata drives enclosure's are approx R300
Click to expand...

:confused: I bought a USB2/Firewire400 Vantec NexStar enclosure in December 2006 (I think from PC International) for around R350.
 
PeterCH said:
I have this one connected to my Mac Pro. Just copied 92GB of QT
files from my Macintosh HD (250GB WD) to it via USB2 - the transfer
rate was a steady 22MB/sec.
Click to expand...

I reckon I'll just get the USB one again after reading the cron job thread.
Firewire doesn't seem to have any advantage.
But costs quite a bit more for some reason.
 
alf101 said:
I reckon I'll just get the USB one again after reading the cron job thread.
Firewire doesn't seem to have any advantage.
But costs quite a bit more for some reason.
Click to expand...
Apart from speed.

As for cost I payed the same for a usb2/fw400 as I did for a straight USB2 at Macro.

Have you tested the cron job? Did it help?
 
How about eSATA (External SATA)?

My NexStar 3 has that and USB. It offers you full SATA speed when using eSATA, yet also offers you portability with the USB option. It also comes with an external SATA adapter, in case your motherboard doesn't have one of those.
 
bwana said:
Apart from speed.

As for cost I payed the same for a usb2/fw400 as I did for a straight USB2 at Macro.

Have you tested the cron job? Did it help?
Click to expand...

Nope, haven't tried it yet.

I'm on leave since yesterday and will be making a trip to the Apple shop today.
Going to fetch Leopard and iWork, have some time to play around with it now.

Busy making my 2nd backup.
Keep thinking that there's something I'm forgetting...

Will give the cron job a try once all is done.
 
RAID 0, 2 120GB 10.000 RPM drives and connect by FW800. That should be quite fast, no? :)
 
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