Retrospect Express

[rookie1010]

Hi
I just bought an external hard drive with USB and firewire. I am backing up my hard drive on the external drive. I found out that the USb transfer speeds vary between 700 MBp minute(yes minute) to 3 MBp minute(yes minute), why is it so, i mean at 3 MBpm it is gonna take eons to make my hard drive up.

I got a WD Media Centre 160 Gig, i was wondering what happens if i turn of my hard disk without disconnecting the USB port.

 

[koldapu]

well, dont you have firewire on your computer? that would be MUCH faster . . .

also, do you have usb 1.1 or 2.0?

dont turn off the hard disk when your computer is accessing it . . . if youre using XP, then disable the device first, then turn it off

 

[rookie1010]

firewire

Hi
I just bought an external hard disk which has both USB and firewire. The firewire wires are as shown in picture 1 whereas the firewire ports on the motherboard are shown in picture 2. How do i connect the two together. even the motherboard has two different types of firewire connectors.

 

[rookie1010]

and image 2

 

[rookie1010]

I am not sure how to use the firewire option as described in the previous two posts.

i have got usb 2.0.

what do you mean by disable the drive, you mean using the "usb: safely remove hardware "?

 

[Nubius]

ok from both pictures you've showed I didn't see a firewire link. If its external there should be an external firewire port on the outside of your computer just like a USB. This is a fire wire plug

http://www.vittoni.it/catalog/images/1394-6M4M-018.jpg

Hope you can see it. But the connectors are tiny

 

[koldapu]

i think those are firewire headers, not ports

can you give us the specs?

 

[rookie1010]

you mean the stuff in picture 2?
the two headers in picture 2 with F1_1394 and F2_1394 written on them are firewire headers not ports then?

my mobo is a gigabyte 81875 ultra

what do i need to do to convert my headers to ports?

 

[koldapu]

umm, the easiest thing actually would be to get a firewire pci card . . .

or a firewire/usb 2.0 card .. .

 

[Nubius]

do some googling and look for some sort of adapters. Just do a search on like Firewire Adapter or something to that effect and see what you come up with. Cause firewire is somewhat like USB in that its just a little cord to plug in. Thats how my little mp3 player works. Although yeah I realize a HD would be a little diff.