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USB vs firewire , corrupting the data

PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:05 pm
by faithfoo
I am using a LG 4082 DVD writer mounted on an external casing attached to the notebook via a PCMCIA card

what is the advantage /disdavantages of using USB 2.0 vs firewire , especially pertaining to corrupting the data while wriiting with the writer

PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:42 pm
by Justin42
I don't think there is any corruption possibility difference between the two. I personally like firewire better, and it's been very, very reliable for me (with both DVD burners and hard drives). USB 2.0 just seems to run a little more "clunky" on my systems. (i.e., it feels smoother, not necessarily more reliable). I have a Panasonic USB 2 DVD burner and it's fine as well.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 8:21 am
by dmakogon
Theoretically, USB 2.0, with max. 480Mbps, edges out Firewire400, with 400Mbps. In practice, though, the USB drivers for Windows tend to be CPU-intensive (don't know if this is the same for Linux).

For a single-device setup, you won't really see a throughput difference between a USB2.0 and firewire400 device, although you'll probably see a bit more CPU activity in the USB scenaio.

Once you get into multiple external devices, you should start seeing better throughput with Firewire.

Reliability-wise, I haven't seen any difference. A device is connected or it isn't.

David

PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 10:34 pm
by faithfoo
Justin mentions that for USB 2.0 (i.e., it feels smoother, not necessarily
more reliable).

can you elaborate ?

If I am not wrong, maybe more CPU intensive for USB may lead to data corruption or lack of reliability ?