[skyhawkmatthew]

With USB, there is a "host" device (the computer), and then all other devices are "slaves", working off that host. USB hubs simply split off to allow more devices to connect to the host. These slaves can only communicate with the host, not any other device connected to the chain. All data transfers, etc have to be dealt with by the CPU.

With FireWire, it is literally a "chain". Every device can communicate with every other device, and each has equal priority. You can mix FireWire 400 and 800, but not cross protocols (FireWire+ USB). Of course, if the data has to pass through a FireWire 400 interface in its travel to the computer or other device, it will be limited to that slower 400Mbps speed (which, incidentally, ends up being much faster in the real world than USB's 480Mbps). Basically, with FireWire, as long as there's a signal path between two devices, they can communicate. There's no direction either: every device has the same ports and there's no rule as to which way round devices have to be connected (ie I can plug a FireWire cable from my computer into one of the ports on the back of my Cinema Display, then plug a hard drive into the cable hardwired onto the display (the one in the bundle containing power, display, usb, firewire) and it will work.

FireWire transfers are handled by the FireWire interface card in the computer, not the CPU, allowing much lower CPU load, faster transfers and much less latency (which is why many professional audio and video systems use FireWire).

[rachp]

Thanks for the detailed reply skyhawk, it's very helpful.
So if I had 2 FireWire drives daisy-chained they would both be visible as mounted drives on my Mac?

[skyhawkmatthew]

Yes - they will all show up, so long as they have a path to the computer, I have three FireWire drives connected to my MacBook Pro, which only has one FireWire port.

[Ben_]

Also if I buy another USB HD is a USB hub suitable to use them with?

I have used my USB drive through my Logitech hub without any problems before. But I have since changed it because I just felt it would be better if the drive plugged in directly. I'm not sure what I will do if I get another drive in the future. Maybe I'll get a firewire drive also, my firewire ports are sitting there empty.

[Ben_]

I can now recommend the new range of Western Digital passport drives. I got a 320 GB My Passport for Mac and it's fantastic. Ironically I haven't used it with my mac yet (it's being repaired), but I reformatted it as FAT32 volume and have set it up in Windows.

It comes with software to encrypt the drive as well as software tomanage backup etc. It even has its own drive diagnostics utility that will report the SMART status, do a quick scan or do a full scan for bad sectors. So scrub what I said about USB drives not reporting SMART status.

It is tiny and extremely quiet and puts itself into standby after a set time (which you can set). It even turns on and off with your computer.

My only concern is the new micro USB plug - I've heard the metal prongs on it aren't that robust and the plug can start to get a bit loose. So I think I'll be careful unplugging it.

[rachp]

Ok I'm still working through what hard drive to buy. I was about to buy a 1TB Lacie which is FireWire, however now I'm thinking it would be great to have the hard drive wireless.

I like the idea of Time Capsule and am I reading correctly that it works just like an Airport Extreme base station. Which means I can continue to add more external hard drives to it?

My other thought was to buy an Airport Extreme and plug a hard drive into that.

Does anyone recommend either of these options?
And can the hard drives be daisy chained in either of these options?

Rach

[skyhawkmatthew]

The Time Capsule is essentially identical to the AirPort Extreme except it has the hard drive built-in. You can add storage to both the Extreme and the Time Capsule via their USB ports - use a hub to add more than one drive.

Unless you're connecting through Ethernet, access to the drive will be much slower than if it was connected directly. If you're after performance, you'll want to still connect it straight to the computer with FireWire.

[rachp]

I'll be using the hard drive to store my movies and music. Once they are on the hard drive, will the transfer rate be too slow from the airport extreme to itunes or to the appleTV?

[Ben_]

I've never used an airport extreme or Time Capsule, but I'm assuming that the transfer rate will probably be fast enough to watch standard definition video (eg. divx video). But I think that it would be too slow to stream high definition content.

Edit: I might be wrong. I think the 802.11n spec airports can probably stream high definition video. I found a post at the bottom of this page, the poster says he has no problems with his airport extreme and HD content.

[skyhawkmatthew]

It may be hit-and-miss streaming from the AirPort/Time Capsule all the way to the computer and back to the tv... but you can definitely stream one-way fine. I frequently watch almost-HD (576p so that the iPod can still play the same file!) video streamed from the Mac to tv that goes:

LaCie drive---[FW800]---Mac---[2.4GHz n]---AirPort Extreme---[2.4GHz n]---Time Capsule---[5GHz n]---tv

so it may well be fine unless the network gets too clagged up sending the video from the AirPort/TC to the Mac and back again.

[jacklinjones]

From Apple store you will get the proper information and also from Internet. I am a regular CNET viewer and found out that ClickFree C2N of 500 GB and Seagate FreeAgent Xtreame of 1TB are good external hard drives. Many other hard drives are also available with different capacities so now you have to decide that what you want. As per my experience Seagate gives the much better quality of its products.