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How durable are iMac G5 USB ports?

B

bigwig

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 15, 2005
679
0
I like to religiously back up my home directory on my Rev B, but I prefer not to leave the backup (usually a small external hard drive, sometimes a flash disk) permanently attached, lest it
A) gets fried by the same lightning strike that fries my iMac, or
B) gets stolen along with my iMac

I'm worried that daily connect/disconnect cycles are going to wear out the ports and damage them. It requires substantial force to unplug them; they "pop" out rather than smoothly disconnecting using very low force.
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
They really should be fine. I know what you mean though, the USB ports on my iMac do seem particularly tight. Let's hope this thread doesn't start gettin' all dirty on us...
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
If you are worried buy a cheap USB2 hub and leave that plugged in and wear out the ports on that!

I would expect that the ports are designed to cope with stuff being plugged in and removed though...
 
eXan

eXan

macrumors 601
Jan 10, 2005
4,731
63
Russia
I think that USB ports are MENT to be consantly used (plug in wires and plug out), its not like some prehistoric ports that required restart after device connect. (excluding monitor connectors on GPU). So i guess its fine to plug in and out constantly on iMac (I do this myself very often)
 
kwajo.com

kwajo.com

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2002
895
0
Bay of Fundy
bigwig said:
I'm worried that daily connect/disconnect cycles are going to wear out the ports and damage them. It requires substantial force to unplug them; they "pop" out rather than smoothly disconnecting using very low force.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about it, as others have siad, they are meant to be used fairly frequently. I once had a similar concern about my Powerbook, but I stopped worrying about it because life's too short. personally I prefer ports like you described that require a bit of force, it make me feel re-assured that the cable will stay seated properly, a nice firm connexion
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Frank (Atlanta) said:
As an alternative, you could use a USB hub for this task. At worst, the risk would be damaging the hub vs. the iMac.

Frank
Click to expand...
I already said that 6 and a bit hours ago! :D


I still think it's quite a good idea as you can have the hub where it's easy to reach and you can see what you are doing
 
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