Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 0 down vote favorite

I am using an external USB drive for video. Is it possible to increase the speed of the drive to make rendering/copying/, etc., faster? When I have a couple of applications writing to the drive, and I open up the hard drive in the Finder, it takes awhile to load the files/folders.

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

There's not much you can do to "optimize" your transfer rate. OS X should be maxing out your USB connection as it is.

If that's not fast enough you might want to look at a USB 3 drive (if you're not already using one) or a Firewire drive which will give you better throughput. FireWire enclosures are a bit more expensive but they're worth it if you need higher throughput (for say, video rendering, etc).

share|improve this answer
Yeah...I am using a USB 2.0 drive. Though reading about the Firewire drive reminds me that I think I have an extra one. Thanks so much! – daviesgeek Jul 28 '11 at 16:11
1  
Consider taking the drive out of its USB enclosure and buying a firewire enclosure for it. – Richard Feb 26 '12 at 11:34

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.