|
External Hard Drive
Connection Options |
|
USB 2.0 |
FireWire 400 |
FireWire 800 |
eSATA |
Gigabit Ethernet |
|
Hot-swappable (attach a
device without rebooting the system) |
Hot-swappable (attach a
device without rebooting the system) |
Hot-swappable (attach a
device without rebooting the system) |
Hot-swappable (attach a
device without rebooting the system) |
Can attach a device to a
system’s network adapter, router, switch, or hub port |
|
480 Mb/s maximum burst
transfer rate |
400 Mb/s maximum sustained
transter rate |
800 Mb/s maximum sustained
transfer rate; twice as fast as FireWire 400 |
Up to 3000 Mb/s maximum
sustained transfer rate |
1000 Mb/s maximum sustained
transfer rate; ten times as fast as Fast Ethernet |
|
Best for connecting to
different systems quickly and easily |
Best for transferring
large amounts of data frequently or for audio/video
programs |
Best for multiple-stream
digital video and high-resolution digital audio |
Best for transferring
large amounts of data frequently or for audio/ video
programs |
Best for sharing large amounts
of data and/or large audio/video files across a network |
| More popular for PCs |
More popular for Macintosh®
computers |
More popular for Macintosh
computers |
More popular for PCs |
More popular for PCs |
