Expresscard to USB3 Adapters and External Hard Drives

My VGN-FZ190 is currently "out of action," pending a motherboard replacement following a graphics card failure. If it gets out of the infirmary, though, I'd like to get it a new external drive. The trouble is that there are only 3 USB-2 ports, usually busy, and I don't like to swap the drives because it can confuse the drive letter ID used by my video editor. If possible, I'd like to use the idle Expresscard port. J&R sells Expresscard to USB3 adaptors, which would allow me to plug in a newer external HDD with a faster transfer rate. However, will the VGN-FZ190 actually support USB3 speeds by that means? Any hazards to the motherboard? Or will the drive and port simply revert to USB2 speeds?

Shopping for external drives is a pain, anyway, since such a high quotient seem to have remarkable failure rates, if the Amazon single-star customer reviews mean anything. Is it a sheer dumb-luck miracle that I also have a 2003-vintage VAIO desktop whose internal HDD continues to operate without trouble? Aren't external drives simply internal ones with an enclosure? If so, what else would account for the out-of-the-box trouble or quick burn-out problems so many external hard drive purchasers seem to have? Even venerable names like WD and Seagate seem to have sold outright lemons. Some drives may last a long time, if used only for occasional back-up, but I need one as supplementary storage and temp-file space for video editing, whose back-up would disrupt the editing programs or take too long. Thus, I don't even install the auto-backup programs.

Any comments or advice appreciated.

 

I don't know about any of your other questions, but if you want quality external HDD: go with La Cie. Or get an internal SATA drive and a really really good quality enclosure.