Hi Diane,
Although USB 2.0 is rated faster than Firewire (480 Mbps vs. 400 Mbps), in
sustained throughput, Firewire is faster. Speed can be an important factor
when transferring large amounts of data. So, if speed is top priority and
justifies the difference in price, go for it. On the other hand, if you plan
to use the drive for other than personal backups, in terms of convenience
and compatibility between multiple computers, USB 2.0 would probably be the
better choice (since practically every computer has a USB port).
Mounting the drive internally connected directly to the motherboard is the
fastest option, but I do not recommend it for backups. Under normal
circumstances your backups are fairly safe, but since the drive is
continuously connected, it's vulnerable to anything that happens to the
computer. Once I experienced a power supply failure and, on it's way to
power supply heaven, it took two hard drives and a video card with it.
Windows is the only thing on my C: drive. Everything else, installed
programs, My Documents folder, etc., is on a second hard drive. Fortunately,
I was able to restore C: drive from a Ghost image (on DVD) and restore my
second drive contents from backups on an external drive.
Here are links for more information you may find useful. Fred Langa has some
excellent articles on backups that are well worth reading:
USB 2.0 vs. Firewire - Google Search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=USB+2.0+vs.+Firewire
Backups For Win98/ME/NT/2K/XP:
http://www.langa.com/backups/backups.htm
LangaList Std Edition 2003-07-03:
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-07-03.htm
Sven Swanson, Sr.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Kroeckel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 7:51 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] external HD Backup
I would like to know what is better. Hooking up an external HD (actually
an internal HD using an external HD kit) to a USB 2.0 connection or using
Firewire. I know there is a price difference for the kits, but is it
worth it? How much faster is hooking up an internal backup drive inside
your computer directly to a ribbon? My backup HD's range from 10 GB to
80 GB.
I'm running Win XP2 and have a main 120 GB HD which I'm backing up.
Thanks.
Diane Kroeckel
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