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Faster way to transfer stuff too and from HD?

A

Atypical

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 3, 2009
27
0
I have a 2009 MacBookPro 5,5, and I was just wondering if there was anything I can do about the slow transfer of files too and from an external HD? I have heard many different things such as usb 3.0, thunderbolt, firewire - are any of these features available to my setup?
Thanks in advance
 
Are you using USB 2.0 currently?

Does your computer have a firewire port? If so then you can do firewire.
 
I believe I am using usb 2.0 because in my system profiler it says I have a max speed on my usb port of "up to 12mb/sec." As for the firewire, I do have one of those ports. Question is, can I use this port with my external HD if they are USB only?
 
Atypical said:
I believe I am using usb 2.0 because in my system profiler it says I have a max speed on my usb port of "up to 12mb/sec." As for the firewire, I do have one of those ports. Question is, can I use this port with my external HD if they are USB only?
Click to expand...

The drive itself needs to have a firewire port and cable. It's something you decide on before hand, some drives have both USB 2.0 and FireWire capabilities though.

USB 2.0 is the rectangular port. There are probably two of them on your computer. Is that what you are using? I know you don't have access to Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 given the model, but if you are not using the FireWire Port that you can identify then you must be using USB 2.0.
 
I have two rectangular ports for my standard usb. does that mean it is 2.0? I tried to google image the usb 3.0, but i am not entirely sure I know what the difference looks like as there was images of usb 2.0 and 3.0 that looked completely the same. Is there anything I can do to speed up transfers of files to and from my external hd?
 
have a look..

Atypical said:
I believe I am using usb 2.0 because in my system profiler it says I have a max speed on my usb port of "up to 12mb/sec." As for the firewire, I do have one of those ports. Question is, can I use this port with my external HD if they are USB only?
Click to expand...

You most likely purchased a consumer grade external HD. Usually they do not come with a firewire port of any sort. Your way to go is to buy a professional grade external enclosure and transfer the HD to that. An example would be this one here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347025

Be careful, there are firewire 400 and 800 out there. If you have the 17' MBP, you can use the even faster eSATA with an express card.
 
Atypical said:
I have two rectangular ports for my standard usb. does that mean it is 2.0? I tried to google image the usb 3.0, but i am not entirely sure I know what the difference looks like as there was images of usb 2.0 and 3.0 that looked completely the same. Is there anything I can do to speed up transfers of files to and from my external hd?
Click to expand...

Yeah those are 2.0.

Unfortunately without buying anything there is no way I know of that you can speed them up as is. If you were to buy a SSD in an enclosure (with 2.0 interface) or a FireWire drive those are a couple of options. Personally I would just deal with 2.0, it's not that bad.
 
USB 2.0 is 480Mb/s with a proper USB 2.0 specced case.
USB 1.0 is 12Mb/s. USB 2.0 is backward compatible and a mouse or older case HD will toggle it to 12mb/s.
FW 400 is 400Mb/s
FW 800 is 800Mb/s
You can run a 400 case on an 800 bus with a crossover cable. Weigh the cost. Usually a proper USB 2.0 HD is most cost effective as they plop in real slow drives anyway.
 
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