Newbie USB 1.1 or 2 Help

[razorman]

Fairly new to computers really.
Want to convert some videos to DVDs. Got all the software I need which is working fine, but decided I need an external hard drive to to download to from the VCR before uploading to DVD.
Now for the problem. I know this needs to be a USB 2 device for speed, but I don't know if the USB sockets on my PC are 2 or 1.1. I have no documentation for the PC.
Surely there must be a way of finding out other than plugging in an expensive USB 2 device to find it doesn't work.
Can anyone help.

[Plotloss]

USB2 will still work with USB1.1 just not at 2.0 speeds.

If you're PC is more than 18 months old its likely to be 1.1

[razorman]

Thanks, is there anyway of telling what they are though?

Also is it possible to upgrade at least one of them to USB 2 or is this difficult remembering I am a bit of a numpty with computers?

[ATG]

You can't upgrade them, but you can add new USB 2.0 ports for a few quid (expansion card that plugs into the back of your PC). I spent a bit of time looking through the control panel and config stuff on my laptop and couldn't find anything to indicate what kind of USB ports I had. USB 1 is much, much slower than USB2. If you plug an external hard disc into a USB 2 port, you should be able to copy data to it at a rate of several MB per second. With the discs I'm using on my laptop it works out at something like 5MB/s. If it is running much slower than that, you have USB 1 ports.

[bigdods]

Something like this PCI card for £14.90 inc vat would do it

www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=33522

Do you not have room for another hard drive inside the machine then ?

Dodsy

>> Edited by bigdods on Sunday 15th January 15:50

[razorman]

bigdods said:

Something like this PCI card for £14.90 inc vat would do it www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=33522 Do you not have room for another hard drive inside the machine then ? Dodsy >> Edited by bigdods on Sunday 15th January 15:50

May well have space for another hard drive, but I wouldn't have a clue as to how to find out and how to fit it if I did have space..........did say I was a bit of a numpty!!!!

[mcflurry]

If you plug in an active USB2 device windoze will normally flag if you have a USB1.1 port in use at the time of driver installation.

For some strange reason my front usbs are 1.1 and the rear 4 are usb2...

[leosayer]

I asked the same question a while back, useful info here:

www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=196387