Connection extension for USB hard drives

michael baxter · 17 Oct 2006 at 22:34

I've got a number of hard drives mounted in USB cases, and I use them for offline backups of my main rig.

However, I'm moving PC onto a filing cabinet which is about 5 meters away from my desk. I have extended my VGA cable to suit. I have also daisy chained two 1.8 meter USB cables and two usb hubs to my mouse and keyboard, as below:

PC - 1.8m cable - hub - 1.8 meter cable - hub - mouse+keyboard

I'm on the understanding 1.8 meters is the recommended limit for a single USB cable, hence the hubs. This setup seems to work fine.

My question is, will it be safe to plug in a USB hard drive as well? Or will I be asking for trouble and possible data failures?

Bandwidth isn't a huge issue, but reliable operation is!

michael baxter · 18 Oct 2006 at 00:13

smids,

I've got PSUs for both hubs, but they aren't hooked up. I'll power them up, and test with MD5.

Many thanks,

Michael

michael baxter · 18 Oct 2006 at 15:37

Thank you both for the input, I'll be putting the setup through some tests first. I'll also get some decent quality cables too, as the ones I have were only a couple of quid, so probably won't have good screening.

Thanks again!

Michael

michael baxter · 18 Oct 2006 at 19:55

rpstewart,

I'm using the USB drives for backup purposes, and want to be able to hook them up at my desk, as necessary.

This is entirely for convenience, nothing more.

Regards,

Michael