Gaming Firewire VS USB2.0

[Raiser]

Hey guys,

So, I have an external HDD enclosure with 2 firewire ports and 1 USB2.0 port. I have the USB cable connected from the USB2.0 port to my Wii.
I also have a firewire cable (1394) connected to the back of my PC.

The firewire connection is only active if the USB2.0 connection isn't (Wii is turned off).

However, when I transfer files from the HDD to my computer or vice-versa, it's slower than if I connected the USB cable to my PC instead. In some cases, the file transfer progress pretty much freezes.
According to this:
http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm

Firewire is supposed to be superior.

Any ideas?

I have a Vantec NexStar 3 3.5" HDD enclosure (1x USB2.0, 2x 1394 firewire)

Thanks!

 

[JonthanD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire

I would read that... lol maybe update all your drivers

(my generic answer for things that work but are slow for some reason or another)

 

[Originality]

Just incase you didn't know, the second Firewire port is for "daisy-chaining". You can connect a second (or more) enclosure in a daisy-chain and connect it through the original Firewire port (I forget if the USB port works for this feature too).

In any case, there are different standards of Firewire which reflect the different possible speeds. Firewire 400 is slower than USB2 (which is theoretically 480Mbps), but Firewire 800 is faster. Just check which standard your enclosure and your computer uses. As for transfers freezing up, that does sound like either a driver problem or a cache problem. If it had something to do with controllers (either in the enclosure or the computer), that'd be a bit harder to fix (it'd require replacing bit of hardware like the motherboard). Otherwise, it could be the cable - always use high quality cables to ensure clean data transfer.

 

[fgghjjkll]

With USB3 coming out, (Uhh.. It came out already..didn't it?) Firewire will be inferior... But then there will be a new firewire and firewire will win again.

 

[Originality]

Yes, USB3 is out (along with SATA6). It does claim to be 10x faster than USB2, although that's yet to be seen. We're probably a full year until we see motherboards and flash drives that can really go at full speed.