external hard drive so slow

hawkwind

Hi, i have just got myself a 160gb hard drive as a birthday prezzie.
It is however, so slow when transferring data, such as burning to a cd from it.
Write speed is 0.70 kb/s.

Now my usb is 1.1 i think.
Is this the reason for the slow speed.

If so, can i just swap my usb hub pci card for something like this...
http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA4010.htm
Would this increase speed sufficiently or would i be wasting my time.

Maybe there is another way to speed the drive up??

All advice gratefully received

j_davies

I would do that for sure as that would be my first concern having 1.1

You can by all means insert a new USB 2.0 USB PCI card

CIS

Your best bet is to get the USB 2 hub, USB1.1 is around 1/40th speed of usb 2.

timread

USB 1.1 is rated at a maximum 12Mbps. USB 2.0 increases this to 480Mbps. You really do need USB 2.0 to use an external hard drive effectively, and yes, fitting a USB 2.0 PCI card would be the best solution for you

hawkwind

wow, i never expected so many replies so quickly.

Thank you for the answer, and the amazon link

matty_c608

By the way

DO NOT buy that item from LEDSHOPPE. It's not actually USB 2.0, seems to only function at 1.1 (even when installing correct drivers!).

Rest of their stuff seems good tho

hawkwind

Thanks again then

Which of these would you recommend then???
(Provided they are suitable of course)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STRONG-5-PORTS-USB-2-0-USB2-0-PCI-CARD-FOR-IPOD-PSP-MP3_W0QQitemZ250069237602QQihZ015QQcategoryZ90718QQcmdZViewItem

or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/4-Port-Internal-USB2-0-Card/dp/B0000WWP60/sr=8-3/qid=1168196384/ref=pd_ka_3/202-7127454-7699001?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

As provided in the link from J Davies.

Both are about the same price

Thank~you