External hard drive and USB set-up

[klmorrow1]

This question has to be out there, but I couldn't find it. Sorry if duplicate...

I just bought the Ipod 20G, but have an an older computer that still has USB 1.1. I also don't have a lot of memory for music files. I guess I need to do two things: buy an external hard drive and buy a firewire/USB 2 card.

A few questions, since I lack any technical savvyness...

1.) How do I confirm that I have USB 1.1?

2.) If I buy an external hard drive, will I have to re-run my system initiation disk or anything like that, or are they plug-in and go?

3.) Same question as above but for the firewire card?

4.) Any recommendations for brand/ model of cards? And with drives - same question, plus what's a good size to get - I would only put music files and photos on there.


Thanks for any help you can provide!

[smirf83]

1) Assuming you have a Windows PC, press the windows/start button on the keyboard (towards the bottom left) and then the pause/break button on the keyboard (top row, on the right side). Then in Windows XP you click on the hardware tab, then device manager. I'm not sure if it's exactly the same in older versions of windows, but after pressing the windows/start and pause/break buttons, you should be able to find the device manager. Once you've opened device manager, go to the bottom of the list and expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers, and if you have USB2 there should be an entry called Enhanced Host Controller in that expanded list.

2) Most external hard drives should be plug and play.

3) No idea I don't have firewire I bought a USB2 PCI card.

4) I would reccomend getting a USB2 and Firewire combo PCI card so you have both options, eg this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000160OHW/qid=1105223269/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/026-3161099-7314811

I just bought an external hard drive last week. I got this Maxtor one http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DEYY0/qid=1105223337/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_3_2/026-3161099-7314811
It's quite expensive but when you consider the features, it's really good value for money (250GB, worked out at about 60p per GB, 8Mb cache, 7200rpm, Firewire or USB2 connection, small size (bit bigger than a standard hardback book), looks very cool.) However you may want a smaller model, it's up to you. I have used it to back up all my files as well, so i've used up about 90-100GB so far with backups, music etc.

Hope that helped :)

[klmorrow1]

Awesome! Thanks a million...