FW 800/400 vs. USB 2.0 for External HDs

[mikesjo]

I've got a 160GB external and just purchased another Seagate Freeagent 500GB USB 2.0 HD. How much faster are the FW800 drives/enclosures at transfering files vs. the USB 2.0 drives? It took me about 40mins to transfer close to 40GB yesterday...

I'm using my MBP 2.2 SR.

 

[flopticalcube]

I've got a 160GB external and just purchased another Seagate Freeagent 500GB USB 2.0 HD. How much faster are the FW800 drives/enclosures at transfering files vs. the USB 2.0 drives? It took me about 40mins to transfer close to 40GB yesterday...

I'm using my MBP 2.2 SR.

Considering that FW400 is actually faster than USB2.0 at sustained transfers I would venture to guess more than twice as fast.

 

[Veritas&Equitas]

Transferring 40 gb will take about 16 minutes via FW800. I just tried it for you (transferring 40 gb of iTunes to external FW800 HD, says ~16 minutes).

I've always been a USB 2.0 guy, until I recently got the MyBook Pro 500gb with FW800. There is no way I'm going back to USB 2.0. FW is incredible.

 

[alljunks]

Firewire is alot more stable compare to USB 2.0, i would say u can see big change in the speed....when transfering large files!!!!11

 

[mikesjo]

Damnit...I should've looked into FW before jumping on the seagate drive .