External HDD Enclosure using USB question.

[MS]

Hi,

I'm thinking about getting an External HDD Enclosure such as the Manhattan
USB 2.0 3.5" External HDD Enclosure and have a couple of questions.

1) Assuming they work well, what kind of data transfer rates do they
achieve over USB and is it a lot slower than a normal IDE connection? Is
the speed bottleneck the speed of the USB connection rather than the hard
disk's speed?

2) How can I tell if my USB ports are USB 2.0 or not? I've looked in
'device manager' which doesn't seem to say whether it's v. 2.0 or not.

3. I only have 2 USB ports and both are currently in use by 2 printers.
I've seen a 4 port USB hub, which has one end to connect to a USB port in
my PC and the other end which provides 4 USB input ports. Is there any
reason why I can't buy one of these and use all the devices as normal (the
printers don't get much use) rather than buying a card and having to open
the PC up and install it (I'm physically disabled and opening the PC and
installing things is a major mission)?

Many thanks,

MS

 

[DL]

replied in 'general'
PS learn about crossposting, as apposed to multipost

 

[MS]

DL emailed this:

replied in 'general'
PS learn about crossposting, as apposed to multipost

Thanks... and I forgot to add microsoft.public.win2000.hardware to my
recipient list before posting and so posted here as well. Sorry.

MS

 

[DL]

its ok

DL emailed this:

Thanks... and I forgot to add microsoft.public.win2000.hardware to my
recipient list before posting and so posted here as well. Sorry.

MS