USB 3.0

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:07

i have several 2.5" hard drives laying around at home, so thinking i will stick them in enclosures and use them for backups and stuff.
i already have a couple in enclosures and find them a tad slow, is this down to being usb 2.0 or the enclosure/hdd? if its the speed of the port, would a usb 3.0 enclosure speed up the transfer rate?
also, i find that with the ones i have now (usb powered) anything over 250Gb (320GB sometimes works) seems to struggle to get enough power. again, would usb 3.0 improve this so i could get some of my 500GB drives in enclosures?

thanks in advance

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:22

so i would be better off getting esata enclosures? or do they not carry power?
oh but esata requires drivers for the enclosures doesnt it? so would need to carry the cd around with me too.

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 16:49

ok kool. so a decent usb 3.0 enclosure should make large file transfers a lot quciker (probs not the 10x like the figures would suggest) but do usb 3.0 sockets output more power, allowing larger disc support, or is that mainly down to my enclosures and not usb 2.0?

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 18:39

so could i plug a usb 2.0 enclosure into the usb 3.0 port to get the extra power or should a 500GB drive be able to run without power?