External hard drive USB 1.0 needed

[cowboy117]

I have an HP Laptop in great shape-only problem is it has a USB 1.0.Anyone have an external hard drive with a cable for a 1.0?I tried a 2.0 conversion-it worked twice;i threw it away.Thanks.

 

[MO_mule]

cowboy117:

Does the laptop have a serial port and a parallel port? I had an external drive that hooked up to the parallel port and it worked pretty well. The serial port option may be quite slow. I'll my IT gurus at work on Monday about USB 1.0 options, too.

Chris

 

[cowboy117]

cowboy117:

Does the laptop have a serial port and a parallel port? I had an external drive that hooked up to the parallel port and it worked pretty well. The serial port option may be quite slow. I'll my IT gurus at work on Monday about USB 1.0 options, too.

Chris

It has a parallel port[LPT1],and a USB 1.0.

 

[MO_mule]

cowboy117,

I am not a computer whiz but I did some digging on Western Digital's site and found this:

... "If your USB port is an earlier version, USB 1.0 or 1.1, you can use a USB 2.0 hard drive, but transfer rates default to the slowest version. If you don’t know the version of your computer’s USB ports, refer to your computer documentation or contact the manufacturer." ...

So, why can't you plug a USB 2.0 external drive into your USB 1.0 port?

Thanks for the info about your laptop. I'll look around for parallel port options.

Chris

 

[venomballistics]

for the same reason video is best transferred over fire wire ... data rate sensitive devices must be provided all they can eat or they choke.
where most 2.0 devices are backwards compatible with a USB1.0 port some stuff just isnt going to fly

 

[OKFC05]

When I want to print something from an old HP laptop with USB 1.0 ports, I plug in the HP USB 2.0 printer. It gives me a "could go faster with a 2.0 port" message and then works perfectly to print whatever I want. If your 2.0 device won't work from a 1.0 port, I don't think you are going to help anything by putting a 1.0 hub into the hookup; you probably have a device compatibility problem.

 

[cowboy117]

When I want to print something from an old HP laptop with USB 1.0 ports, I plug in the HP USB 2.0 printer. It gives me a "could go faster with a 2.0 port" message and then works perfectly to print whatever I want. If your 2.0 device won't work from a 1.0 port, I don't think you are going to help anything by putting a 1.0 hub into the hookup; you probably have a device compatibility problem.

That's a printer.Mine says the same thing.I want to use an external hard drive.

 

[cowboy117]

So, why can't you plug a USB 2.0 external drive into your USB 1.0 port?



Chris

The guy from Staples said i need to go to a 1.0 external hard drive or go to a 2.0 USB to use a 2.0 E.H.D.

 

[mountaingun629]

cowboy117 -
A USB 2.0 drive should work on your port, and will be faster than the parallel port, even at the slower 1.0 speed. The only possible problem that I can see would be if it takes some kind, of software or "driver" that might not be compatible with an older version of Windows.

If you buy one from Staples or Best Buy, check to see if you can take it back if it doesn't work out.

"I tried a 2.0 conversion-it worked twice;i threw it away" - What is this conversion of which you speak? - some kind of gizmo that plugs into the port?

Myron

 

[cowboy117]

cowboy117 -
A USB 2.0 drive should work on your port, and will be faster than the parallel port, even at the slower 1.0 speed.
If you buy one from Staples or Best Buy, check to see if you can take it back if it doesn't work out.
"I tried a 2.0 conversion-it worked twice;i threw it away" - What is this conversion of which you speak? - some kind of gizmo that plugs into the port?

Myron

Goes into the PC card port-then you can plug a 2.0 into it.

 

[7tenz]

1.0? A laptop that old is probably getting ready to have a catastrophic hard drive failure. Start looking for a new one, they're cheap. Then transfer the old files over. The new laptop will have a much larger capacity drive.

Previous posters are right, 2.0 is backwards compatible, just runs at the 1.0 rate.

 

[mountaingun629]

cowboy117 -
I forgot about the card port (I'm not a laptop guy) - thought it was a converter for the USB port itself.
I edited my above post twice and still, didn't get it quite right, but my typing leaves something to be desired. I'm glad for the spell check or it would be worse yet.

Myron

 

[cowboy117]

for the same reason video is best transferred over fire wire ... data rate sensitive devices must be provided all they can eat or they choke.
where most 2.0 devices are backwards compatible with a USB1.0 port some stuff just isnt going to fly

I have Windows XP Home edition and a 4 circuit Firewire[IE1394].Any help?Computer is an HP ZE5000 laptop from 2003.There are several Firewire run external hard drives made.

 

[srgvaz]

USB 1.0 is compatible with 2.0 (and vice versa) but you need to download a driver to make any external hard drive or flash drive function correctly, if it worked a few times then stoped your driver must of corrupted, but try using something else that worked on that usb sometimes the usb ports on those old machines would burn out. Check eBay they sell adapters that convert the parallel port or the serial port to USB.

FYI: USB 3.0 is getting released it transfers ~5 gig a second so much for firewire. Good thing it will be compatible with USB 2.0