Hiya,
I'm looking for an external hard disk drive either 80 or120gb that i could hook up to my sony vaio and other computers via a USB port.

Had a look on some websites and they are all going on about firewire and USB 2. I take it USB 2 is the new version of USB port coming out that is alot quicker? and as i have the normal USB then it wouldn't work?

Can anyone give me a pointer to what i should be looking at? or know anywhere that has the kind of thing i'm looking for?
Thanks,
Hos

 

www.vipower.com

drop me an email if you need to know more.

Cheers

Lee.

 

if you got a sony, then it will have a built-in firewire port (sony call it i-Link). if you need to use the external HDD on a desktop, then you need to get a firewire PCI card which cost about £15.

most modern notebook and desktop will have USB 1.1 which is very slow in terms of data transfer into external HDD. a newer version of USB is USB 2.0 which is as fast[1] as firewire. again you will need a new interface (PCMCIA/PCI card) for USB 2.0. you can use USB 2.0 on USB 1.1 but at the slow USB 1.1 speed.

maxtor do a firewire and a USB 2.0 external HDD with the capacity you are looking for. alternatively, have a look at IceCube which have both interface! just buy the external case and use any HDD you want!

i had a friend who was in your shoes, sony vaio notebook and compaq desktops. he opted for maxtor USB 2.0 coz he can use the external HDD on USB 1.1 when he goes to client's site, etc. there are a lot more USB 1.1 out there than firewire.


[1] ok, so USB 2.0 is faster on paper at 480Mbit against 400Mbit for firewire. there's not a lot in it when using it in real world situation.

edit coz typo on URL. difficult when one eye on PC and one eye on football!

[Edited by suba - 6/13/2002 4:09:52 PM]

 

Suba,
Thanks so much for the info! been a great help.
It's between the personal storage 3000XT. and the Icecube combo (if i can find a 160gb drive for it?)

Anyway, thanks once again for the help. Didn't have had a clue where to start/look before.
Hos