SATA to Fire Wire 2.5 SSD/HDD Enclosure

Hello guys I ordered one 2.5 enclosure and I want to ask is the fire wire faster than usb 2.0 ?
So if I put my HDD in to enclosure and I will connect it to laptop with Fire Wire will it be faster transfering data ?
thnx

 

Firewire is really good for sustained transfers. Here is an article about the two interfaces and it has a couple of file transfer tests: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles/usb20vsfirewire/. This is an old article, though. USB enclosures have likely gotten much better at maintaining quick transfer speeds. I can usually copy large files to my WD Passport 320 at about 20 MB/s over USB 2.0. That's fast enough for my needs.

Firewire beats USB 2.0 in all of the transfers posted in that article. I really dislike the four pin Firewire ports found on most notebooks, though. Mine have always been loose and very unreliable. I'd always go with USB 2.0 over four pin Firewire because of the reliability. On my Macbook, however, I love the 6 pin port and use it for my external hard drives and audio recording interfaces.

If you have the necessary ports on your computer and the right cables then you should just try both and see which is faster.

If you want the fastest possible transfer rate from an external enclosure then you'll want something with eSATA (and you may need an eSATA Expresscard, depending on your computer). USB 2.0 is still just fine, though. The enclosure that you purchased will still do the job just fine!

 

That is really old article 2002 oh dear ..
I have only 3x USB on my laptop and there is iLink 1394 ( S400) unused even Express Card is unused ..
So I want give a try
I have seen eSATA and its same as USB ..
I thought IEEE is fastest ..

 

eSATA is not the same as USB, though there are a lot of laptops that come with eSATA/USB combo ports. Using the eSATA port will allow the drive to operate as if it were just another internal drive, essentially; the read and write speeds are a huge improvement over USB and Firewire. It will be much faster. It's not really worth worrying about right now, though, since your enclosure is only USB and Firewire. Firewire should be the faster of the two options. It will still be plenty fast.

Here is another, more recent, site that may have some helpful information. They have reached the same conclusion: Firewire is superior for sustained throughput. They don't mention eSATA in that shootout but it certainly is the fastest option.

Enjoy the enclosure, regardless of what connection you use.

 

I received this and there was cable fire wire and usb but not mini fire wire
and i bought separate ( it was cheap) and that crap wont work on fire wire
I connected big (6 pin to the crap enclosure and 4 pin to the laptop)
Why i need aditional power? that crap my god!
And at the end I connected that supplied fire wire to the apple and that crapping thing blew up !!!
am not joking it blew up !!
thnx god my hdd is OK
looks like fire wire is total crap !!
I think best is eSATA !
oh well gonna send it back and - full refund

 

Laptops 4pin firewire port does not supply power. Its missing the 2 power pins found in a 6 pin connector.

 

yeah i realized that when i connected another cable (supplied) 6pin and 6pin to apple
so usb got 4 and mini 5 there is power .. hmmm
I thought fire wire will be better and at this point I'm not thinking that it is , am gonna send it back

 

did you received my msgs?

 

For the record, eSATA is also usually unpowered, so you'd also have to use external/extra power with that as well. Firewire is generally faster for data transfer of all sorts than USB, but it's real strength is its use as a general data transfer medium, not so much for its use with hard drives (this is not to say it can't be used for that, but it's much more common as the main transmission device for audio/visual equipment).

 

it's noot fire wire is cra*
look :
and esata is usually powered over one cable (last pic)

 

That's using a ESATA/USB combo port, where the power comes from the USB part as shown here. If you've got just an e-sata port, an e-sata expresscard or PCMCIA card, you'd need a separate power lead to drive the enclosure.

 

Your pictures say the same thing I do, that Firewire is faster than USB. I didn't compare Firewire to eSATA. Still, my point was that Firewire isn't really intended as much for hooking up HDDs specifically, it's used more often for hooking up A/V equipment, which eSATA is not designed for (being a pure HDD interface standard). That last picture of yours is for a very specific type of enclosure, which requires a combo USB/eSATA port (which is not a standard eSATA port). Most enclosures that support eSATA will _not_ come with that sort of cable, and will require an external power supply.

 

I I DEFINETLY DONT NEED SEPARATE POWER LEAD TO ENCLOSURE !!
man you live in paast ..
look on first pic he has only one cable connected ..
look on that second pic there says : esata+usb esata is just usb with one more pin so it takes power from there ..

 

this is what am trying to talk about ... maan ooooh u got it ..
this esata ... there is new latest cable + enclosure what everybody talking about in Vaio F lounge thread ... this is what I want to buy .. that's it .
end of story . I really DONT WANT milions wires messing over table my god why they bothering to make 2.5 enclosures with adaptor power ..
its so unpractical .. hmm one cable is enough
they could make wireless enclosure that would be great !

 

In actuality these two have identical transfer rates. Though FW 800 is faster.

Hmm, must be those mitts of yours , as there is no inherent reliability issues with 4 pin vs 6 pin (though it is larger and therefore, a bit more sturdy).

If you have the necessary ports on your computer and the right cables then you should just try both and see which is faster.

 

The problem is that sometimes one port isn't enough power. Some HDD models require more power than a single USB port can put out. Additionally, some notebooks have underpowered ports, so again, a single port won't provide enough power.

 

+1. A USB port is rated at 500ma at 5V, or 2.5W of power. Many HDDs require 4W to spinup. That means 2xUSB ports, or 1xUSB + external power can supply the required power.

 

I think that was in the past whether 2.5 HDDs were 12 mm thick ..
they required additional power ?
I have just basic enclosure as well usb and mini usb to enclosure and my fujitsu 320 GB (9 mm) works great just with that one usb .. even when i connect ssd working OK
do you think additional power will increase transfer speed? (dont think so ..)

 

It really depends on the individual HDD model. Different models have different power requirements, for various different reasons, ranging from speed (5400 vs 7200) to the age of the technology involved (newer technology is usually more power efficient) to the number of platters involed, or to just different manufacturing specifications and techniques. 12.5 mm models are a little more likely to require more power (due to the fact that they're likely to be 3 platter instead of one or two), but this is not a hard and fast rule; it's not unlikely that a 7200 RPM 2 platter drive might require more power than a 3 platter 5400 RPM drive.

Additional power won't increase transfer speed, no, but if you need that additional power to even start up the drive in the first place...