Extra Hard (Or other) Drives...

[Seven Force]

How would I hook them up to a laptop/PC? They use USB cables, right? Also, how many drives can I have max (assuming I don't run out of ports)?

[ziggytrix]

External hard drives are generally either USB or firewire. Firewire devices often have an inbound port as well as an outbound you can just keep piggybacking them on each other, and I think some USB drives can do this as well.

On a laptop you'd just need an available USB/Firewire port, or a USB or Firewire PC card and available ports. On a PC you'd need available ports or to install a PCI card like this (http://www.firewiredirect.com/firewire/products/adapters_pci800.shtml). (note: I'm not endorsing that product, it was just the first relevant example I saw when I googled for a firewire card)

I recommend Firewire devices if speed or latency is an issue, but if you just want the best capacity per dollar, the USB spec is older, more likely to exist as an available port on your computer without needing an interface device, and generally cheaper.

I'm not really sure why you are concerned with the max number though, as you can just swap them out if you run out of ports or whatever.

[MetalMilitia]

You can have a maximum of 127 USB devices or 63 Firewire. Dont know if windows can support that many though.

[pjalne]

Shouldn't that be 128/64? I mean, how can you count zero as a number when you've got actual physical items?

On the other hand, I usually have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to stuff like this.

[MetalMilitia]

Well If its assigned an index number of some sort by the computer i'd imagine that'd start at zero.

[pjalne]

Yeah, that's what I mean. So the actual number of devices would be 128, where the last would be assigned the number 127.

Not that it matters or anything.

[MetalMilitia]

I dont know. These numbers are according to my computer architecture lecturer, and he didn't really do into much detail so to why this was the maximum :/

[ziggytrix]

0 might be reserved for the bus.