Is it worth getting an external hard drive with USB 1.0 ports?

espresso

isofa wrote: »

Although I agree you pay more for a brand, I had nothing but trouble from a cheapo Trust USB 2 card I purchased, it just wouldn't function correctly (driver/hardware issue), cost a tenna. Replaced it with a £20 Belkin card, which worked perfectly, and even when I needed new drivers, they were available on their support site.

YMMV and is not the same as the reviews on my link, particularly the first review by: Robin Dickinson.

free4440273

any thoughts about ebuyer as a supplier?? otherwise, i'll stick to Amazon: i always find them reliable

espresso

free4440273 wrote: »

any thoughts about ebuyer as a supplier?? otherwise, i'll stick to Amazon: i always find them reliable

Not personally had any problems with them, £11.57 delivered.

isofa

espresso wrote: »

YMMV and is not the same as the reviews on my link, particularly the first review by: Robin Dickinson.

As I said previously "some people have had trouble with cheaper cards, some not."

For everyone you'll find posting a problem with one card, you'll find someone else having good service from it, unless it really is a dud company / product, then the reviews are universally bad.

I've four different cards, two in PCs and two in Macs from Belkin, 3 FireWire/USB2, one SCSI and all work perfectly. I've had two cards from other brands I've had problems with - just my experience.The Trust was the worst, I'd never buy that brand again, support and driver help was useless.

However other Belkin products have been a complete pain. Horses for courses.

free4440273 wrote:

any thoughts about ebuyer as a supplier?? otherwise, i'll stick to Amazon: i always find them reliable

If you want another good supplier free4440273, try Scan - the link to the category you require is: http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-47-496-0 they have a Lycom EK-110 USB2.0 2Ports ExpressCard to under £8.

Personally I'm happy with Amazon for these quick purchases, never had a problem.

free4440273

thank you both: I probably shall stick with tried and trusted Amazon; and make a decision on which card, belkin or otherwise. great stuff this tech forum:)

superjaggybunnet

I have an external drive running on USB 1.0 and it is not a problem.

I store iTunes and photo's on it.

So it takes a while to copy across but you just leave it to run while you do something else.

Once they are on there any additions do not take very long.

Mine is a Lacie 80gb which will run on USB 2 as well.

bazzlad

With a 40 times quicker connection you wouldn't have to go do something else. It'd be done in no time.

Time is money therefore, time saving, is money saving.

weegie.geek

A 2ghz celeron with only USB1 ports? Are you sure it's not just that the proper drivers aren't installed?

It's 5 years old, fair enough, but even 5 years ago USB2 had been around a while.

free4440273

weegie.geek wrote: »

A 2ghz celeron with only USB1 ports? Are you sure it's not just that the proper drivers aren't installed?

It's 5 years old, fair enough, but even 5 years ago USB2 had been around a while.

to be fair to myself, i did say i need to check this:o. anyone know of a sure-fire way to check? i looked in device manager, the usb ports and hub are 'working properly' but they don't say whether they are 1.0 or 2.0.

weegie.geek

Best way's to check the spec of the machine and see what it's advertised as having. With a desktop it'd be easy-ish, just checking the motherboard model number, but stuff like that can be harder to find for a laptop, so it's pretty much a case of googling for the model number of the laptop or checking the manufacturer's site.

Annoyingly though, it can sometimes be easier finding info like that on an ebay listing, because some of the manufacturer's websites are terrible for finding out stuff about old hardware.

If you tell us the model number here I'm sure one of us will be able to find out for you.