USB or 7200rpm HD ????

[Sark]

Hi all.

Which would produce the faster write speeds, a USB 2 Hard drive, or a 7200rpm IDE drive.

Thanks

Sark

[Van Nugent]

USB HD is actually an ATA (IDE) HD in an external USB enclosure. The majority of external USB HDs are built from 7200RPM IDE drives as they're the most popular drives now. Of course, you can build 1 with a 10,000RPM drive if you want. Just buy a more expensive 10,000RPM IDE drive and an external USB enclosure. :)

[PhilEnfield]

Not sure you can make the comparison .... it's quite normal to have a 7200rpm drive in an external USB2 Enclosure .... I have a few myself, with 8mb cache.

EDIT : You beat me to it Van ;)

[Sark]

Actually it's an item on ebay. I'm looking for a second HD to use as my Photoshop Scratch disk. The listing didn't mention speeds just the fact it was an external USB 2 Drive. Guess I should ask before bidding.

Thanks for the replies.

Sark

[PhilEnfield]

To ne honest, unless it's a real giveaway price, you'd be better off buying new.

You can get a USB2 Enclosure for £18.99 or less and prices of HDD's now are so cheap, it just isn't worth risking your data to second hand drives.

Have a look at SVP http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog/ for enclosures & drives.

HTH

[Sark]

Will take a look. Thanks for the link.

Sark

[PhilEnfield]

{AC 5058} 3.5" IDE HDD External Case is the one to look at.

Fitting the drive is easy peasy.