Curse

Dark Kal · Mar 19, 2008, 02:53 PM // 14:53

It won't make a difference but hey it's your money.

Could it be that your motherboard only supports USB 1.1?

Quaker · Mar 19, 2008, 02:55 PM // 14:55

Have you actually tried connecting only the hard drive to see if it would be any faster if it wasn't "sharing" the bandwidth? That is, temporarily, disconnect the web-cam and the wireless internet, and replace the wireless keyboard & mouse with any old wired ones, and see if you actually get more speed out of the HD.

Edit - and, good point, does your computer have USB 2 ports?

Pasha the Mighty · Mar 19, 2008, 03:22 PM // 15:22

It's a 1 and a half year old pavilion, so I'm sure it supports USB 2.0, but i've not tried disconnecting the other devices yet. I'll give it a shot.

Tarun · Mar 19, 2008, 04:08 PM // 16:08

USB has three rates as of this date. There is a fourth coming that is "super speed" and thus is experimental.

A Low Speed (1.1, 2.0) rate of 1.5 Mbit/s (187 kB/s) that is mostly used for Human Interface Devices (HID) such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks.
A Full Speed (1.1, 2.0) rate of 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MB/s). Full Speed was the fastest rate before the USB 2.0 specification and many devices fall back to Full Speed. Full Speed devices divide the USB bandwidth between them in a first-come first-served basis and it is not uncommon to run out of bandwidth with several isochronous devices. All USB Hubs support Full Speed.
A Hi-Speed (2.0) rate of 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s).

Experimental:
A Super-Speed (3.0) rate of 4.8 Gbit/s (600 MB/s). The USB 3.0 specification will be released by Intel and its partners in mid 2008 according to early reports from CNET news. According to Intel, bus speeds will be 10 times faster than USB 2.0 due to the inclusion of a fiber optic link that works with traditional copper connectors. Products using the 3.0 specification are likely to arrive in 2009 or 2010.

USB signals are transmitted on a twisted pair data cable with 90Ω ±15% impedance, labeled D+ and D−. These collectively use half-duplex differential signaling to combat the effects of electromagnetic noise on longer lines. D+ and D− usually operate together; they are not separate simplex connections. Transmitted signal levels are 0.0–0.3 volts for low and 2.8–3.6 volts for high in Full Speed and Low Speed modes, and +-400mV in High Speed (HS) mode. In FS mode the cable wires are not terminated, but the HS mode has termination of 45Ω to ground, or 90Ω differential to match the data cable impedance.

USB uses a special protocol to negotiate the High Speed mode called "chirping". In simplified terms, a device that is HS capable always connects as an FS device first, but after receiving a USB RESET (both D+ and D- are driven LOW by host) it tries to pull the D- line high. If the host (or hub) is also HS capable, it returns alternating signals on D- and D+ lines letting the device know that the tier will operate at High Speed.

Though Hi-Speed devices are commonly referred to as "USB 2.0" and advertised as "up to 480 Mbit/s", not all USB 2.0 devices are Hi-Speed. The USB-IF certifies devices and provides licenses to use special marketing logos for either "Basic-Speed" (low and full) or Hi-Speed after passing a compliance test and paying a licensing fee. All devices are tested according to the latest spec, so recently-compliant Low-Speed devices are also 2.0 devices.

The actual throughput (around 2006) attained with real devices is about two thirds of the maximum theoretical bulk data transfer rate of 53.248 MB/s. Typical hi-speed USB devices operate at lower speeds, often about 3 MB/s overall, sometimes up to 10-20 MB/s.

So unless you are using USB 1.x devices you're already getting the full speed.

Pasha the Mighty · Mar 19, 2008, 04:59 PM // 16:59

I didn't really understand your post, but before i bought the HDD, I checked the WD site, and they said it was capable of up to 480 mbits/s. So are they lying?

Dark Kal · Mar 20, 2008, 12:37 PM // 12:37

You probably do have a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed external drive then. Like Quaker said remove the other USB devices and see what happens.

Kattar · Mar 20, 2008, 12:53 PM // 12:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pasha the Mighty

I didn't really understand your post, but before i bought the HDD, I checked the WD site, and they said it was capable of up to 480 mbits. So are they lying?

It's not lying so much as it's marketing. And carefully holding back information from advertising. "Capable of" doesn't mean that's what you'll necessarily get. Just like ranges on wireless routers.

Tachyon · Mar 20, 2008, 05:31 PM // 17:31

Same as "up to 24MB" broadband fro example, because it's marketed as "up to" they can argue that even 1MB on your line is within the contract.

Tarun · Mar 20, 2008, 08:00 PM // 20:00

No, they're not lying. 480 Megabits = 60 MegaBytes

A USB Hi-Speed (2.0) has a rate of 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s).