I just bought a 40 GB external USB hard drive (it's a regular small TOSHIBA IDE hardisk with a shell casing with USB interface, not bigger than my palm). I got a USB2IDE driver too. Everything is just fine, except IT IS DAMN SLOW reading and writing! I've measured the speed to 900K/s!! Another program reported a speed of 6x which is slower than my CD drive! Any help? suggestions? Thanks in advance.

You have to check and see if the drive is USB 2.0, and see if your computer is USB 2.0. See, 1x is 150KBps, Multiply that by 6 (6x) and you get 900KBps. Change that to bits (900 X 8) and you get 7200, or 7.2Mbps. USB 1.1 can only do 11Mbps, so you’re right about the normal range. USB 2.0 is 480Mbps (60MBps), or 400x.

Thanks for your reply snareplr. How do I find out if I have USB 2.0, and that my computer is USB 2.0? Though, the driver which came with the drive is called "USB 2.0 to IDE.exe", and that's the one which runs. Thanks again.

Most likely the drive IS USB 2.0, and most likely your computer isn’t. Check your documentation, or the manufactures website to find out if the drive is USB 2.0 (also, go to the people that you bought it from and ask them, like best buy, or fry's) then while your there find yourself a USB 2.0 card to put in your computer. You can probably get one for about $30 (www.pricewatch.com). Before you do that though, find out who made your computer (Dell, Compaq) and call them to ask them first. If its one of those unknown computers, then get the USB 2.0 card