Removable Technology Thursday, 04 November 2010 15:29 Written by John

Dear IT Guy,

Dear Removable,

First off, I am glad that you are expanding your peripheral horizons. Removable hard drives are such an easy solution for many problems that the home user runs into (backups, data recovery, space for video editing, etc.). As for the different types, really none of them is the ‘wrong’ decision. It all depends on your current setup on your home PC.

First let’s start with the basics. An external hard drive really is just a standard hard drive in a portable enclosure. These hard drives are normally connected with USB, FireWire, or eSATA cables. These hard drives come in varying sizes and speeds and varying types. What you end up deciding on really comes down to the amount of money that you’d want to spend on the drive.

Now we get to explain all the different types of removal drives that you can run into. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a technology to establish communication between devices. USB is probably the most common type of way devices are connection in modern computing. It was designed for personal computers but has found its way into most modern technology.  USB 2.0 offers performance that is comparable to internal drives. This is typically limited by the number of USB devices attached to the PC at any given time. USB 2.0, in practice, can transfer data at about 40 MB/s while SATA is closer to 60 MB/s. This is not the max transfer rate for these technologies. On paper, SATA II is much faster than USB (~480Mbs vs. 780Mbs). Remember these are all just estimates. It still always comes down to your specific situation and other limiting factors on your setup. USB 2.0 is a fine, easy solution for any sort of removable storage. They are easy to install, on every modern computer, and fast enough that you won’t be able to tell the difference.

The next technology we’ll talk about is IEEE 1394, or FireWire. FireWire is another type of serial bus interface for high-speed, real time data transfer. While this is a very popular form of transfer in the audio visual world it is less common amongst the standard user community because people either don’t know what it is or don’t have a proper connection on their pc. Fire was created about 15 years ago by apple and has become a standard on all Macbooks and many other types of technology. While USB 2.0 touts that they are faster than FireWire, few USB 2.0 devices actually reach the full 480 MBs. This is due to USB’s reliance on the CPU to maintain its transfer rate. FireWire is controlled by the interface hardware and thus can get much closer to its 400 MBs transfer rate. FireWire is also powered much more reliably and thus can work over a much longer data chain (63 devices). FireWire is an excellent choice if you are serious about your data transfer rate. It is definitely a faster solution. However, it is slightly more expensive and there is a chance that it would not be found on your machine.

Finally, let’s talk about eSATA. eSATA is the newest kid on the block. Standardized in ’04 eSATA was released aimed at the consumer market. Because eSATA bypasses bridges in most USB 2.0/FireWire drives it does not suffer the same amount of inefficiency. These disks have a rate of ~157 MB/s in practice with max speed of at least 1.5 GB/s in its lowest revision. eSATA is currently the fastest solution, but it is also the least common.

So now we’ve come to decision time. There are definitely a lot of different choices out there and depending on your situation one should be best for you. If you just want an easy fix and something that will definitely work then get whatever USB 2.0 hard drive that is in your price range. If you want the fastest solution get an eSATA hard drive. If you are very comfortable with your PC you can even buy the necessary hardware adapters if your current PC is not compatible. Personally, I have a 750 GB Western Digital USB 2.0 hard drive at home that I am very happy with. Simple solutions are sometimes the best.

Hopefully we here at It’s Geektime have again shed light on all your PC problems. If you have any questions in the future please feel free to let us know. Finally, remember, when you’re scared and feeling technically unsure. Never fear, IT guy is here!!!