Will external USB2 DVD burner and USB2 hard drive work fine together??

[FortunateOne77]

Hiya...

I need more hard disk space (who doesn't, lol), and want to get a DVD burner (my first), and am thinking that both would be real handy to have in an external (and therefore portable) form. The thing is, I'm wondering if having both a hard drive AND a burner, both operating off USB2, actually works okay, or if USB2 can't handle that much data traffic, or if it can handle it, but only with greatly degraded performance.

Also, any input as to whether it works okay to daisy-chain the two off one USB connection, or if that is a no-no, and connecting them off separate USB connections is better (or it doesn't matter).

Any input is appreciated here, and if more than one of you feels to put your two cents in, I always feel better about having feedback from as many sources as possible, and would appreciate hearing from anyone on this.

Thanks for your input here...

Now I just need to go back and see if there's a reasonably priced (under $200 or so) burner that is multi-format, dual-layer, and bit-setting, that people seem to be real happy with. I did my research on that out here about 3 months ago, but I'm sure there's new info to digest out here since then -- a curse and a blessing. A curse when you're short on free time and lazy to boot....

[redwudz]

On paper, USB 2.0 should handle both a DVD drive and a USB HD. Whether that works depends on your computer, your computer hardware and sometimes your software.

Is there a reason you can't add a internal DVD burner/additional hard drive? That would certainly be the fastest and most problem free setup.

Daisy chaining USB.... Maybe. Still depends on your configurations. Personally, if I had to use more than one external drive, I might look into FireWire for one of the drives, especially the HD.

With USB or sometimes even FireWire, I doubt anyone can guarantee that it will work perfectly. There are many other factors with both interfaces that can cause problems. Some people have no problems, some have nothing but problems.

Internal is still the best and most stable and the fastest. A external SATA hard drive is the best external HD setup, IMO . It runs at the same speed as the other SATA internal drives.

As you may have already realized, not so simple a question.

And welcome to our forums.

If you need more precise information, you would need to tell us the brand of motherboard you are using, and it's chipset, along with the brand of interface you are looking at in an external box and it's chipset. Someone hare may have tried a similar setup.

[bobkart]

I wouldn't want to burn a disc on an external burner with data from an external hard drive, but burning from an internal hard drive to the external burner ought to work okay, I've used a handful of external burners over the years with very few problems. But never while also actively using an external hard drive, that might start to get close to the maximum data transmission capacity of USB2.0 and risk a bad burn due to buffer underrun.

[fltk]

On my system it works OK with an external burner and an external HDD.

[FortunateOne77]

Thanks for the input so far, guys. As I think about it a bit more, I'm realizing there's really no reason that I would need to have the burner be portable -- I'm not gonna be running all over the place plugging it into everyone else's system -- just initially seemed like it would be neat to be able to do that. Nahhh.... I can install the burner internally. I'd prolly end up knocking it off my desk anyhow, which would kinda defeat the whole purpose .

As far as having the hd be external, I was thinking of that both because it might be handy to be able to just take it with me and easily have access to my video files available at other people's computers, and I was also thinking it would be a major hassle to have to back up everything off the one that is currently my secondary hard drive in order to make room for a new one, BUT, obviously, if I get the burner first, and *particularly* if I get a dual-layer burner, then I could pretty easily back up to DVD what I have currently on that hard drive, so I could then install the new, humongous hd internally. If I still feel the compulsion to run all over the place with my nifty portable hard drive full of files, I could just go ahead and get another external hd, or just get the external case, and stick my old hd in that. Besides, after I knocked the new external burner off the desk, I'd probably spill beer on the external hd, or wreak havoc on it in some other way. May as well keep them both safe and sound inside the tower.

Your feedback helpd me think through that whole thing a bit more clearly. Thanks for the input, guys, I appreciate it...

[Edit, two hours later....].....

Okay, end of discussion. I just ordered the Samsung SH-S182D for $29.99 with free shipping, at NewEgg.com. Overwhelming number of the reviews at NewEgg are super-positive about this unit. Special price ends 11/7, so jump on it if you are looking to buy a great unit (OEM). Link is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151133 . Yippie!!!