FireWire or USB 2.0

[rneale]

I'm going to put a hard drive in an external enclosure. What do y'all recommend--a FireWire or USB 2.0 box?

[Neil Herber]

Some enclosures come with both - that's the best for max compatibility.

I personally prefer USB 2.0 that is powered by the USB port. Compatible with almost any system that has USB. No big ugly transformer to cart around. Note that this option only works for small form-factor, low-power drives (like laptop drives). If you are taking a 3.5-inch drive out of a desktop machine to put in the enclosure - forget it, you will need external power.

If you are buying new, look for the Daytek portable hard drive series. Up to 60 Gigs powered by USB.

[jasonh]

Depends on the host computer, if its anything on the slower side go for a firewire drive. Even if its not go for a firewire drive. The speed of firewire is hardware based.

[vince]

I recently used a USB external inclosure with a 5in IDE hard drive. Unless you're planning on consistently transfer large volumes of data, the USB2.0 speed should be quite satisfactory. Look for a silent drive though (ex: Western Digital JB series), and an inclosure with a fan, I read, is more recommended (although the fan can be noizy...). Also, a firewire enclosure will cost twice the price as a USB one. Here is the one I had:

http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=27&ID=229, Only 39$, plus say a $100 200Gb HDD = a pretty nice and cheap 200Gb external drive! Of course, there's a a lot of different possibilities out there, depending on your need and budjet.

[righthandman]

some HDD enclosures supports booting from the external hard drive and this is only possible with firewire and NOT usb

[sam]

I would have to agree that Firewire is much better since the transfer rate of it is constant as opposed to USB 2.0 which sends out bursts of data... And it is much more compatible with your mac when it comes to booting up with an external Firewire drive. You should opt for the Firewire b version (IEEE 1394b) which is a new technology and has transfer rates of up to 800mbps.

You might want to check if your computer has the appropriate connections. I know my powerbook 1.33 ghz has the firewire b connector, but if your computer is a bit older than mine, it might not have it !

Check this web page : http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/storage/0,39024060,39197316,00.htm

- Regards,

Sam

[ben schmidt]

Hi rneale,

If at all possible I'd look for an enclosure that had _both_ USB 2 and firewire. The advantage of firewire is that your external disk can then be a boot disk for a Mac. The advantage of USB 2 is that the drive will work for storage or file transfer with computers that don't have firewire. Here's an example 'combo' FW400/USB2 hard drive enclosure kit from transintl.com:

   http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2522&RequestTimeOut=500

With regard to FW800 vs FW400, obviously FW800 is faster, but it costs more, and unless your computer also has (or will have) a FW800 interface, you won't benefit from the speed advantage. And while FW800 is downward compatible to FW400, the connector is different, and FW800 to FW400 cables may take a bit of work to source.

Finally, while this won't apply to you or anyone else building an external drive with an enclosure kit, if anyone is shopping for an already-built external drive, I've noticed at places like Staples, amongst the "USB 2.0" drives, you may find one or two that are actually 'combo' drives -- i.e. "USB 2.0" may be written in big letters on the box, but if you read the fine print, they're _also_ firewire drives!  I'm even found a USB 2.0 hard drive online on Futureshop.ca where the _only_ clue that it was a 'combo' drive (i.e. also had firewire) was in the description of the included cables, where they listed a firewire cable as included. Just a head's up, if it helps anyone, looking for a 'combo' drive, in the sea of "USB 2.0-labelled" external drives.

all the best,
...ben