Backing up to external HDD.

copying 30Gb across to external Hdd
I have USB 1 (not sure) but it's not USB2
Copying files across takes about 4 hours
any other way faster?
Thank you

Don't use USB. *Maximum* transfer speeds for USB 1.0 and 1.1 are 1.5Mbps & 12Mbps,
respectively; while USB 2.0 has a max of 480Mbps (Megabits per second), about 40
times faster. A hard drive connected to USB 2.0 will transfer maybe 40MBps
(Megabytes per second). So, your 4 hours is better than anticipated for USB 1.1

Why not install a second hard drive internally to an IDE connection and transfer the
files, then remove the drive?
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Rod" wrote in message
...

copying 30Gb across to external Hdd
I have USB 1 (not sure) but it's not USB2
Copying files across takes about 4 hours
any other way faster?
Thank you

"glee" wrote in message
...
Don't use USB. *Maximum* transfer speeds for USB 1.0 and 1.1 are 1.5Mbps
& 12Mbps,
respectively; while USB 2.0 has a max of 480Mbps (Megabits per second),
about 40
times faster. A hard drive connected to USB 2.0 will transfer maybe
40MBps
(Megabytes per second). So, your 4 hours is better than anticipated for
USB 1.1

Why not install a second hard drive internally to an IDE connection and
transfer the
files, then remove the drive?

Thanks for that Glen,
I have been caught between a rock and a hard place,

I am running a piddly 6Gb HDD as C
then a 40Gb HDD as D

I have been against upgrading the 6Gb as it has a
huge 4 million record database that is proprietory
and I need to organise new
installation disks etc etc.

Is one able to install a 3rd HDD internally?
I have the space

Rodney

"Rod" wrote in message
...

"glee" wrote in message
...
Don't use USB. *Maximum* transfer speeds for USB 1.0 and 1.1 are 1.5Mbps
& 12Mbps,
respectively; while USB 2.0 has a max of 480Mbps (Megabits per second),
about 40
times faster. A hard drive connected to USB 2.0 will transfer maybe
40MBps
(Megabytes per second). So, your 4 hours is better than anticipated for
USB 1.1

Why not install a second hard drive internally to an IDE connection and
transfer the
files, then remove the drive?

Thanks for that Glen,
I have been caught between a rock and a hard place,

I am running a piddly 6Gb HDD as C
then a 40Gb HDD as D

I have been against upgrading the 6Gb as it has a
huge 4 million record database that is proprietory
and I need to organise new
installation disks etc etc.

Is one able to install a 3rd HDD internally?
I have the space

Rodney


You will have to have a mounting bracket secure to the frame of the PC case,
and mounting screws for the 3rd hard drive.
You will have to have a second ide port.
You may need an ide ribbon cable.
If its crowded, you may need additional ventilation.

--
Dave
Profound is we're here due to a chance arrangement
of chemicals in the ocean billions of years ago.
More profound is we made it to the top of the food
chain per our reasoning abilities.
Most profound is the denial of why we may
be on the way out.

If your two hard drives are on the same (primary) IDE cable and you have a CD or
other optical drive on the secondary IDE cable, you can put a third hard drive on
the secondary cable with the optical drive. Jumper the third hard drive as Master
and the optical drive as Slave, unless the third drive is a Western Digital. With a
W-D drive, you'd set it as Single and the optical drive as Slave..

If the optical drive is using a 40-wire, 40-pin cable, you may want to replace the
cable with a newer 80-wire, 40-pin cable. If the drive is "faster" than ATA-66 and
the motherboard IDE controller supports greater than ATA-66, you'll need the newer
cable to utilize ATA-100.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Rod" wrote in message
...

"glee" wrote in message
...
Don't use USB. *Maximum* transfer speeds for USB 1.0 and 1.1 are 1.5Mbps
& 12Mbps,
respectively; while USB 2.0 has a max of 480Mbps (Megabits per second),
about 40
times faster. A hard drive connected to USB 2.0 will transfer maybe
40MBps
(Megabytes per second). So, your 4 hours is better than anticipated for
USB 1.1

Why not install a second hard drive internally to an IDE connection and
transfer the
files, then remove the drive?

Thanks for that Glen,
I have been caught between a rock and a hard place,

I am running a piddly 6Gb HDD as C
then a 40Gb HDD as D

I have been against upgrading the 6Gb as it has a
huge 4 million record database that is proprietory
and I need to organise new
installation disks etc etc.

Is one able to install a 3rd HDD internally?
I have the space

Rodney

Your pc likely has two IDE channels. Each IDE channel can support two
devices, for this scenario that means any combo of hard disks and/or cd
drives with the caveat that there must be one hard disk on the first IDE
channel and it's designated "master" (or first if using cable select
settings) for the OS. Note - BIOS settings can change this basic requirement
to use a second hard disk etc. to boot.

Normally one receives a pc with the hard disk set to "master" on the first
IDE channel and the cd drive set to "master" on the second IDE channel. That
means one can add two hard disks as "Slave" on the respective channels.

You having two hard disks and presumably a cd drive working now means you
must have two ide channels available which means you can temporarily add an
additional hard disk to make your backup. Hopefully power supply provides
enough leads (many don't) but one can get a splitter to provide two power
plugs from the one lead.


"Rod" wrote in message
...

"glee" wrote in message
...
Don't use USB. *Maximum* transfer speeds for USB 1.0 and 1.1 are
1.5Mbps
& 12Mbps,
respectively; while USB 2.0 has a max of 480Mbps (Megabits per second),
about 40
times faster. A hard drive connected to USB 2.0 will transfer maybe
40MBps
(Megabytes per second). So, your 4 hours is better than anticipated for
USB 1.1

Why not install a second hard drive internally to an IDE connection and
transfer the
files, then remove the drive?

Thanks for that Glen,
I have been caught between a rock and a hard place,

I am running a piddly 6Gb HDD as C
then a 40Gb HDD as D

I have been against upgrading the 6Gb as it has a
huge 4 million record database that is proprietory
and I need to organise new
installation disks etc etc.

Is one able to install a 3rd HDD internally?
I have the space

Rodney

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message

Thanks Lil Dave, Glen and Pjp.
I have placed your messages in archive.
Faced with your solutions, I'll probably
initially take the lazy route, I am a bit challenged
with the effort, and the top of the box hasn't been
off for years, I have stalactites of dust in there,
man, it's not pleasant.
I'll whip the cover off and just put an 18Gb disk on
(just swap the leads on the D drive)
then swap back after the backup
any idea how long that would take?

Thanks very much for your time in answering my query

"Rod" wrote in message
...

copying 30Gb across to external Hdd
I have USB 1 (not sure) but it's not USB2
Copying files across takes about 4 hours
any other way faster?
Thank you

You could also buy a USB2 card that fits in a PCI slot for around $10.
Then the whole process should take well under 20 min.
You may have to have Win98SE though, I'm not sure if they work with Win98FE.
I use one with my Win98SE and it works as advertised.

"Buffalo" wrote in message
. ..

You could also buy a USB2 card that fits in a PCI slot for around $10.
Then the whole process should take well under 20 min.
You may have to have Win98SE though, I'm not sure if they work with
Win98FE.
I use one with my Win98SE and it works as advertised.

Aha! I have been given bodgie advice,
as I understood it, USB2 did not work on W98SE
(which I have)
Your route appeals very much,
20 mins is fine, (even up to 90 minutes) is bearable,
time to read a few chapters of a book.
Thanks Buffalo