Chris Pirillo » usb-2.0

SATA or IDE USB 2.0 Cable Converter with Power Supply

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:23:34 +0000

SATA or IDE USB 2.0 Cable Converter with Power Supply

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As time goes on, hardware does evolve. It’s likely if you buy a computer these days, you may not be able to connect some of your older devices. I was recently in that position, and found myself looking for an uber adapter. I came across an unbranded SATA or IDE USB 2.0 Cable Converter Adapter on Amazon. I was worried at first, I admit it. I’ve long had a habit of not really trusting something that’s unbranded. But, I decided to give it a shot.

The Hi-Speed USB 2.0 to Serial ATA (SATA) or IDE 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drive adapter creates a bridge between one USB 1.1/2.0 port and one SATA-based mass storage device port. This adapter turns any SATA or IDE hard drive into a convenient external drive.

Now you can easily transfer files from computer or notebook, back up files, or store large file archives on hard drives. The high-speed USB 2.0 interface has a plug-and-play design for easy installation. Plus, the power adapter uses 2A AC power supply to ensure enough power for the most power-consuming drives. This adapter is compatible with any SATA or IDE drives of any brand or any size. It requires a PC running Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME, or Windows XP; or a Mac running OSX. (A driver is necessary for Windows 98SE only.)

The kit comes with the AC adapter cable, and the power adapter. There’s a univeral USB 2.0 to IDE and SATA adapter. It even comes with a little micro SATA, which is nice. You have the driver’s and utilities disc, of course. For only $20.00, it was worth a shot for me to try it out. The big reason I bought this, is because I had a smaller hard drive that I had pulled out of an mp3 player. I needed to get the mp3s off of it, but didn’t have any way to do so. Certainly, there may come a point when I need something like this again.

If you know of other good kits that may help you with legacy devices in this day and age, please pass them on. I’m sure as technology evolves faster in the months and years to come, we will find ourselves needing more things like this.

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The Hi-Speed USB 2.0 to Serial ATA (SATA) or IDE 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drive adapter creates a bridge between one USB 1.1/2.0 port and one SATA-based mass storage device port. This adapter turns any SATA or IDE hard drive into a convenient external drive.

Now you can easily transfer files from computer or notebook, back up files, or store large file archives on hard drives. The high-speed USB 2.0 interface has a plug-and-play design for easy installation. Plus, the power adapter uses 2A AC power supply to ensure enough power for the most power-consuming drives. This adapter is compatible with any SATA or IDE drives of any brand or any size. It requires a PC running Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME, or Windows XP; or a Mac running OSX. (A driver is necessary for Windows 98SE only.)

The kit comes with the AC adapter cable, and the power adapter. There’s a universal USB 2.0 to IDE and SATA adapter. It even comes with a little micro SATA, which is nice. You have the driver’s and utilities disc, of course. For only $20.00, it was worth a shot for me to try it out. The big reason I bought this, is because I had a smaller hard drive that I had pulled out of an mp3 player. I needed to get the mp3s off of it, but didn’t have any way to do so. Certainly, there may come a point when I need something like this again.

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SATA or IDE USB 2.0 Cable Converter with Power Supply

Which is Faster: USB or FireWire?

Chris Pirillo — Sat, 26 May 2007 09:31:16 +0000

Which is Faster: USB or FireWire?

In response to the general question (which is faster, FireWire or USB), jorowi posts a follow-up video explaining that there, indeed, are FireWire 800 devices – specifically, in external hard drives of the high capacity variety. I’ve opted for an eSATA external drive, which should be fine for the time being. Still, if I had a choice between USB or FireWire for devices (generally speaking), I’d go with USB – with the exceptions to the rule being hard drives and video cameras (camcorders).

USB is seriously Universal. FireWire is… likely going to die at some point in the future. That my Sony HDR-SR1 doesn’t even come with a FireWire port is quite telling. Investing in FireWire devices isn’t advised, 400 or 800. You’d be better off getting cross-compatibility with USB connectivity on the same device (or at least thinking in the eSATA direction).

My original video:

Jorowi, showing off the LaCie Big Disk Extreme (1 Terabyte) external hard drive – which does support USB 2.0 as well as FireWire 400 and 800:

I’m really digging this YouTube video response thing.

Which is Faster: USB or FireWire?

FireWire vs USB 2.0

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:45:38 +0000

FireWire vs USB 2.0

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – There are many USB devices – keyboards, mice, webcams, microphones – but not nearly as many FireWire devices – mostly digital cameras. DougTech wants to know what the difference between USB 2.0 and FireWire is.

FireWire and USB 2.0 use two completely different architectures and handles data in different ways.

FireWire uses a "peer to peer" architecture, where the peripherals are intelligent enough to handle bus conflicts on their own. FireWire also has less overhead, which increases its sustained throughput. This is the main reason why you’ll see digital cameras and video capture cards use FireWire over USB 2.0

USB uses a "master-slave" configuration where the computer handles all conflicts and data flow. Since USB has more overhead the sustained throughput is significantly decreased, making this a less attractive option for applications that need a higher sustained throughput.

Since USB has lower hardware requirements, common peripherals tend to use USB, which lowers the overall cost of the product.

USB-Ware has a hard drive performance comparison showing the speed difference between USB and FireWire:

Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and then Hi-Speed USB 2.0 show:

Read Test:

5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0

160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0

Write Test:

5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0

160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0

USB 2.0 vs FireWire, who wins?

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FireWire vs USB 2.0

Vista ReadyBoost

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 25 May 2006 02:53:17 +0000

Vista ReadyBoost

So, one of the nifty new features of Windows Vista is ReadyBoost – a feature that enables you to plug in a USB 2.0 Thumb Drive and have it show up as physical memory in your system. I wanted to give this a shot, so I rushed out and picked up the highest capacity USB 2.0 drive that I could find: A PNY Attache 4.0GB USB stick. I plugged ‘er in, selected the “Speed up my System” AutoPlay option, and waited for the magic to happen. Turns out, it’s not fast enough!? Okay, so back to the store I’ll go – looking for a high-capacity, high-speed USB 2.0 thumb drive to ReadyBoost my Vista laptop. Since Microsoft isn’t making any recommendations, I need to start compiling a list of which sticks work and which ones won’t. Gotta find a Wiki plugin for WordPress!

Vista ReadyBoost