USB was designed with the purpose of standardizing connecting of external peripherals. Intel, along with DEC, IBM, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel, started working on the Universal Serial Bus standard. This would make manufacturing easier and cheaper and from the user point of view, this made connecting devices and transferring data a lot less tedious. So check the specs before buying a USB drive, especially from eBay or similar sites.Sometime around the mid-nineties, many companies realized the need for a universal and easier-to-connect port for all devices, instead of incorporating an array of different ports for different devices. But all new devices use USB 2.0, which has a faster transfer speed. The USB 1.0 and 2.0 look exactly the same, so it’s hard to tell which you are using. Most new large, high quality (1 GB or more) backup hard drives have at least two connection options (USB 2.0, FW 400, or FW 800). I was disappointed that my new laptop only had two USB 2.0 ports, so I may be forced to use a USB hub. USB drives need to be connected directly to your computer, or to a USB hub, if you run out of USB ports. The thing I like about the Firewire devices (card readers, DVD burners, hard drives, scanners) is that they can be daisy chained together ending with just one connector going into your computer. Those cheap drugstore brand memory cards may not cut it for you anymore! If you are connecting your camera directly to your computer, the speed of your memory card plays a big factor as well. To be honest I didn’t even know that USB 2.0 was actually faster than Firewire 400 until doing the research for this post! I guess that’s why they didn’t include a Firewire 400 port on my new MacBook Pro.

Please note: Published transfer speeds and actual transfer speeds depend on other variables like cable length and your own computer hardware (bus speed). Your computer should have some of these ports too.

Here’s where the connectors go on your hard drive.

How to firewire 800 to usb