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USB 2/FW800/eSata transfer rates

Posted: May 21st, 2010, 11:35 pm
by mikeaz123
I have a new Macbook Pro, and bought a expresscard 34 esata adapter on Amazon.  I have a 2tb external hard drive (7200 rpm 32mb cache) with an esata and USB 2.0 options.  I did a test, and for a 15gb folder (video files), it took 5 minutes on the esata connection and nearly 15min via USB 2.0.  I then took my mini external drive (500gb, I believe its 7200 rpm but might be 5400), and transferred the same folder via FW800, and it took just under 6 minutes.  So eSata is only about 10% faster in my tests.  Reading reviews and posts on other sites and forums, I got the impression that esata was at least twice as fast as FW800.  Anyone have a similar experience, or maybe there is some sort of setting I wasn't aware of?

Re: USB 2/FW800/eSata transfer rates

Posted: May 24th, 2010, 5:21 pm
by shypike
The speed is determined by the chain of all components.
My guess is that the source of the data is the same in both tests: the internal harddisk.
How fast is it? It wouldn't surprise me if it determined the actual speed.