USB Question...

[grace0418]

I have a bunch of my art and design work on my computer/server at the office. I'd really like to bring it home as an additional backup and because people get fired all the time at my office. I have an 250G external hard drive at home but it's USB 2.0 and my computer at work (Mac G4) is USB 1.1 (very old equipment).

Is there anything I can do besides buying a USB 1.1 hard drive somewhere? Are they even available anymore? I don' t have a dvd burner on my work computer so I would have to burn about 30 cds to copy everything. It would be so easy to just copy it to my external because that's where I keep my design work at home. I back it up to dvds for safekeeping.

Any suggestions? Is there anything that can safely convert a USB 2.0 device so it can be plugged into a USB 1.1 port? Please help. I really don't want to spend days burning cds. Thanks!

[krispos42]

It's backwards-compatable

Just plug it in and go.

[grace0418]

2. I thought a USB 2.0 port could take either plug but that a USB 1.1. port couldn't

take a device that's USB 2.0. I just want to be sure. I'm *technically* not supposed to bring in outside devices (although everyone does) so I don't want to screw anything up.

[krispos42]

8. No, it's the same plug

The 1.1 standard is just slower, that's all. You'll be fine. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#History

[grace0418]

9. Thanks! You rock.

Thanks for the link as well.

[LeftyMom]

1. They're backward compatible

It'll just go slower.

Unless I'm really missing something here.

[grace0418]

7. Thanks. Slower I'm okay with, I was just under the impression than you couldn't

plug a USB 2.0 device into a 1.1 port.

[KitchenWitch]

3. You should be able to just plug it in and go.

Since the drive is USB 2.0, it has the capacity to load as fast as the USB 2.0 specs, but it will still load from a USB 1.1, only a lot slower.

[grace0418]

6. Okay well, great. Since I have a consensus, I will try it. I'm okay with it loading

slowly, I just didn't want it to damage my computer or my external drive in any way.

[Duer 157099]

4. How many gigs of data is it?

First of all, the USB plug, physically, is the same, so it fits in the port (if that's what you were wondering). Second, when you plug a 2.0 device into a 1.1 port, you'll just get a popup notice (in WinXP anyway) that "This device can perform faster. Plug it into a 2.0 port" or something similar -- just ignore it. The only thing that happens is that the data can only transfer at the slower rate, the 1.1 port is the bottleneck. But, it just takes longer.

But what I really wanted to post is this: many people don't think about using their portable mp3 players as a flash drive. In fact, it's very easy to pick up broken mp3 players cheaply on ebay (etc) to use just for this purpose (that is, if the broken feature is related to the playback or display aspect of the player, which you don't need for just transferring files). You can pick up a 2gig flash mp3 player for a couple bucks this way, and then have a handy transfer device. Seriously.

[grace0418]

5. It's about 20G.

I have a little flash drive that I use, but it's only 1G. They're great for bringing files back and forth to the office though.