Hard Drive Enclosure Question

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blueberryfreckle

New Member
Hi,

I recently purchased a Western Digital SE Caviar 120Gb HD intending to set it up as an external drive using Mapower's 3.5" USB 2.0 enclosure (KC31U2). My concern with this is that my Dell Inspiron 4000 has a USB 1.0 connection.

1. Will the transfer rate be exceedingly slow? What speeds should I expect?
2. Is there any way to "upgrade" the USB 1.0 to 2.0 (i.e., through a motherboard BIOS or Windows XP driver upgrade)?
3. Suggestions on speeding this up? I can only think of purchasing a PCMCIA card with USB 2.0 ports. But I prefer not to do so as that would mean removing my wireless card every time I use the external hard drive.
4. Ximeta has their line of Netdisk drives allowing for direct connection to the network (ethernet). Is there a drive enclosure that can do this?
5. This may be the newbie in me, but following on the same train of thought as item 4 above, can I connect my enclosure with a USB to ethernet adapter cable to the network?

Thanks!!!

Steven
 
1. Transfer will be at max 1.2 meg a second for USB 1.0. Expect that.
2. No, different circuitry, otherwise all USB 1.0 could be upgraded using software. :)
Buy a USB 2 PCI card.
3. Is it a laptop?
4. DOnt know.
5. That would be quite hard, if you could do that i would be impressesd. :)
 
Hi dave597,

Thanks for your expert insight! Yes, the Inspiron 4000 is a (old) laptop. I'm disappointed there isn't an alternative to the PCMCIA card but it is better than being stuck with 1.2Mbps using USB 1.0.

Again, thanks!

Steven
 
blueberryfreckle said:
2. Is there any way to "upgrade" the USB 1.0 to 2.0 (i.e., through a motherboard BIOS or Windows XP driver upgrade)?
Click to expand...

You cant upgrade a USB 1.0 to a USB 2.0 with drivers, you will need to get a new USB 2.0 Controller http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=15-124-007&depa=0 This will allow you to plug your USB 2.0 device into your computer.

And i have a USB 2.0 external enclosure and i use it with a USB 1.0 port, it works fine, it does go slower, but not so slow that it takes hours to transfer a 1gb file.
 
You cant upgrade a USB 1.0 to a USB 2.0 with drivers, you will need to get a new USB 2.0 Controller http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-124-007&depa=0 This will allow you to plug your USB 2.0 device into your computer.
Click to expand...
Well, if it were a desktop that would work...

3) w/o a PCMCIA card.. no
4) I'm pretty sure you can buy routers that have USB ports meant for network drives. I haven't seen any network enclosures, but like you said the drives w/ enclosures do exist so you might want to keep searching.
5) hmmm.. I don't think so
 
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