123 minutes remaining....

[digital flower]

I have not backed up since the November 05 New York meet-up, it about 447gb I need to backup, think I need to get started soon

Yeah you better get moving. That is a lot of data even by today's standards.

Jeff do you have multiple personalities here at TPF? :er: :mrgreen:

 

[awe]

A little clarification from the forum geek: USB II (480MBit/s) is faster than FW (400MBit/s). Unless it's FWII, which has a stunning transfer rate of 800MBit/s.

Yeah, I know. I'm a smart ass.

 

[Alex_B]

A little clarification from the forum geek: USB II (480MBit/s) is faster than FW (400MBit/s). Unless it's FWII, which has a stunning transfer rate of 800MBit/s.

Yeah, I know. I'm a smart ass.

thanks, then my firewire is probably the old one and the usb the new one

 

[digital flower]

I decided to look into this a little further. I found these two articles:

firewire-vs-usb article link

FireWire vs. USB 2.0
Question: Which is faster Hi-Speed USB 2.0 or FireWire?
Answer: In sustained throughput FireWire is faster than USB 2.0.

Question: If Hi-Speed USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbps interface and FireWire is a 400 Mbps interface, how can FireWire be faster?
Answer: Differences in the architecture of the two interfaces have a huge impact on the sustained throughput.

FireWire vs. USB 2.0 - Architecture
FireWire, uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a data transfer

Hi-Speed USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and resulting in slower data flow control)

FireWire vs. USB 2.0 Hard Drive Performance Comparison
Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and then Hi-Speed USB 2.0 show:

Read Test:

* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0

Write Test:


* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0

and this one:

g4techtv.ca article link

Firewire vs. USB 2.0 Derby
By: Andy Walker

Which connection technology is faster?


USB is a widely used connection technology implemented on all new PCs. The original version called USB 1.1 moved data at XX Mbps. USB 2.0 moves data at potentially 480 Mbps.

Firewire is an Apple technology used on Apple computers under the name “Firewire”. When it is implemented on PCs, it’s called IEEE 1394. Sony calls it iLink. It’s primarily used for transfer of video content from camcorders. It has a maximum possible speed of 400 Mbps. However an 800 Mbps version is also available, but is rare on shipping computers these days.

Here what Mikey tested in the lab:

Description:
Speed test Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 against each other on both a PC and a Mac.

Method:
Move a folder of approx 10 GB of data comprising of picture text and music files from a PC and Mac onto a Seagate Firewire and USB 2.0 external hard drive.

We timed the transfers from the computer to an external hard drive.

Tools:

Mac OS X Tiger machine - make/model ——> G5 iMac
Windows XP machine ——> Dell Optiplex GX270 with PCI Firewire/USB 2.0 card
Seagate 400 GB Firewire/USB HD with USB 2.0 and Firewire cables

Firewire:
— Built in on Mac
— Use the Orange Micro PCI card on a PC

Test results:

Transfer time: Loose files from PC via USB 2.0 : 13 mins 26 seconds
Transfer time: Loose files from MAC via USB 2.0 : 23 mins 34 seconds
Transfer time: Loose files from PC via Firewire 12 mins 34 seconds
Transfer time: Loose files from MAC via Firewire 10 mins 17 seconds

Mike’s notes:
The MAC OS Journaled file system total size 10.26 GB
The Windows NTFS file system total size is 10.99 GB

On the Mac Firewire and USB 2.0 was built in
On the PC Firewire and USB 2.0 was off of a PCI Card

Andy’s bottom line:

On a Mac, always use Firewire if you have the option and want to move data quickly.

On a PC, use Firewire (or IEEE 1394) if you can. But USB 2.0 is more universal.

USB is faster on a PC than on the Mac.

Firewire has the speed edge on a Mac, but marginally.

 

[lostprophet]

Andy’s bottom line

Oi you leave my bottom out of it

 

[James79]

hmm ... burning massive sets of backup DVDs ...

sounds like an ideal time to either drink some beer or play guitar :thumbup: