USB reliable enough for heavy transfers?

NachT

NachT

NachT

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20 May 2006
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I was looking at getting an Icy Box with a 500GB drive in, for backing up my system and other things.

What I would like to know is, would transfering data constantly over USB for about 4 - 6 hours be reliable? Would it be possible for certain data to get corrupt or anything?

I was thinking about getting an e-sata drive, but the one I like the looks of only comes in USB. The slow transfer isn't a problem for me as I could just do it overnight or while I'm at work.

Thought?! :p

Also, what hard disk would be the most reliable to use? I was thinking the western digital 500gig, I've never had a problem with WD before. And the drive will be getting written to for long 4 - 6 hours at a time ( slow transfer though. )
 
I've never heard of any problems with USB transfers. I've backed up 200Gb in a session before so no issues here.

As for drives the only ones I'd avoid are Maxtors, the other manufacturers are all pretty much of a muchness in terms of reliability.
 
It is possible that the data could get corrupted but that applies to any data transferred or otherwise, like rpstewart I've never heard of any problems specific to USB transfers.

I personally don't think Maxtors are all that bad but I do accept that it appears to come down to luck of the draw as they seem to have a higher instance of failure than most currently. :)
 
Corruption isn't a problem I've had with my WD 250 external USB box but speed is, transferring anything in bulk can be very very slow even over USB2. My WD also has Firewire and the diff that makes to speed is just amazing, feels 10x faster but I'm sure it's not, oh hang on it might actually be as Firewire was designed with sustained high transfer speeds whereas USB and USB2 just can't cope with sustained high transfers and are more designed for burst mode where there's a high blip every now and again.
 
I also found that too many USB devices can overload the Controller.

My external LG dvd burner's Burst Rate went from 14Mbs p/s (not really enough for 16x burning, let alone 18x burning) to 24Mbs p/s when I disconnected 5 USB devices.
 
I've only got 2 USB devices that are constantly in-use ( mouse / keyboard )

External hard disk is switched off most of the time.

Oh by the way!! :D I don't need to buy a new external hard disk anymore, I fixed a problem I was having with my current one. I'll explain incase anyone els has this problem.

I have a Maxtor One Touch III , the 320GB version. And was trying to use it with Vista. If you have problems with this drive and vista, you need to disable your password / security on the drive ( using another machine with XP on it ) then you can use it with vista! :)

While i'm here I may aswell ask, whats the transfer speeds for USB2.0 and the 2 different Fire Wire's? I thought USB2 was the fastest out of the 3 :eek:
 
USB1.1: 11Mbps
USB2.0: 480Mbps
Firewire: 400Mbps
Firewire 2: 786.432 Mbps (looked it up on Wikipedia)

The difference is that Firewire is designed for sustained high transfers, e.g. DV Camcorders whereas USB is more for peripheral devices like printers, cameras, memory sticks and so on, so although the max speed for USB2.0 is higher than Firewire, Firewire should easily beat USB2.0 on sustained transfers like backups to external drives.
 
Last edited:
Swaped the wire from USB2.0 to FireWire 400.

USB2.0

usb2ah5.jpg


FireWire 400

firewirext2.jpg


:D
 
lol, somthing must be up with my USB config or somthing! :eek:

I have a wireless mouse, and there's always a battery being charged in the dock - thats run of USB, aswell as my keyboard. I don't know if that would have effected the speed tho.
 
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