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General discussion

External Hard drive limiting factor

Jul 23, 2006 3:00AM PDT

I understand that the hard drive's RPM, buffer, and read/write speed all relate to how fast you can get data to and from the hard drive. But I was wondering, when it comes down to it, what is the rate limiting step in the whole process for an external hard drive?

For example: Is a 7200rpm drive actually faster than a 5400rpm disk when connected by USB 2.0? Or can the USB 2.0 handle nearly any data that the hard drive can send through it?

Discussion is locked

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Haven't done any research but suspect it's USB 480Mb/s..
Jul 23, 2006 4:20AM PDT

SATA claims 'Up to 300 MB/s SATA transfer rates'

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can the USB 2.0 handle nearly any data that the hard drive..
Jul 26, 2006 1:31AM PDT

"can the USB 2.0 handle nearly any data that the hard drive can send through it?"

It can handle the data fine, your question may be related to if USB 2.0 limits the transfer rate or if USB 2.0 is slower than the hard disk. That answer is simple. Yes, USB 2.0 is slower than PATA or SATA drives.

Bob