Hi, I usually use a usb hard drive enclosure to get data off customers pc's, but now I'm considering buying a usb data transfer cable (Tornado or PC-to-PC File Transfer for Dummies Kit) because my drives are only 80 GB. My question is are these things slower than the enclosure method? Are there any other drawbacks?
Which is faster- Data transfer cable or hard drive in enclosure?
- Thread starter ell
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If they're both connecting via USB they'll be the same speed in general.
If I'm not mistaken data transfer speeds over various mediums should look something like this based on theoretical maximums:
eSATA > 1000 ethernet > Firewire 1394b > USB 2.0 > Firewire 1394a > 100 ethernet > USB 1.1 > 10 ethernet
If I'm not mistaken data transfer speeds over various mediums should look something like this based on theoretical maximums:
eSATA > 1000 ethernet > Firewire 1394b > USB 2.0 > Firewire 1394a > 100 ethernet > USB 1.1 > 10 ethernet
seedubya
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Absolutely, get a hot swappable SATA drive enclosure that fits into a 51/4" bay + an IDE to SATA convertor. Really fast compared to USB anything.
Of course if you're on site then a USB transfer cable makes sense since you won't have to disassemble their system - or if both machines have Gigabit that's even better.
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