1) what is the best external hard drive 2) does this have 3.0 USB capability or still 2.0
1985504
It has three USB 3.0 ports. I like Western Digital hard drives. Haven't had one fail yet!
997527
They claim it is a USB3, I even questioned them about it, but it does not seem to work any faster than a USB2. It does use a USB cable. It is a good drive and is probably limited by its read-write specs.
1304554
no you will need to buy that separate or buy a hard drive enclosure, i personally purchased one that is 3.0 usb for faster transfer speed.
523596
Agree with everyone else, a total of 3, including the 1TB it comes with. In addition, I purchased from Amazon a 4TB External, mainly for storage but connected to one of the PC's USB 3.0 ports, it's equally as fast as the Internal. My work involves 3D design assemblies plus I take high-resolution digital photos with an extensive music collection and haven't scratched the surface of 5TB.
884282
"can i use this cable so i can connect a external hard drive 3.0 to a 2.0 "Yes, you can.
688137
Yes, you can use a 3.0 flash drive in a 2.0 usb slot. I would be faster if you have a 3.0 slot. You can tell if the slot is 3.0 by looking at the slot, if it is 3.0, it will have SS next to the slot.
1027744
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=BUFFALO+DriveStation+2+TB+USB+3.0+Desktop+Hard+Drive+(HD-LC2.0U3)%2C+warranty#seen
2016603
Short answer: yes. Longer answer: While the external drive is USB 3.0, the USB 3.0 specification is backward compatible. This means while the drive will work with any system with a USB 2.0 port it will not have the same transfer speeds as USB 3.0 (noticeably slower). If you are transferring things like music or images back and forth, USB 2.0 speeds are not significantly longer than USB 3.0. For larger media such as home video backups or if you work with very large uncompressed data (raw images, audio, video) then the transfer times will become grueling by comparison. An important thing to note with this drive is that the cable you use plays just as much as factor in your transfer speeds as the port it's connecting to. It's best to use the cable that ships with the drive (USB 3.0), but if you happen to lose it you can always use a micro USB to USB 2.0 cable - the same kind of cable most smart phones (newer iPhones aside) use for charging and data transfer. Thank goodness USB is a standard that ensures legacy compatibility.
1944312
first question is no second question is 4 third question is no but i have an external hard drive that i use which is 80gb
1137408
Plug and play on all my Windows XP Pro and 7 computers, so my guess is NTFS. Love it for size and the new 128GB is now about the same price for USB 3.0.
718437
It really doesn't matter, because no CD/DVD drive is going to send or receive data faster than USB 2.0 can comfortably handle. Having a USB 3.0 connection would not speed up the drive's performance. (As pointed out elsewhere, USB 3.0 ports are backward-compatible with USB 2.0 peripherals, so the drive will work whether the port you connect it to is USB 2.0 or 3.0.)
1534644
Yes, this drive is completely backward compatible with USB 2.0. I use it on my older, HP Pavilion desktop PC which "only" has USB 2.0 and it works flawlessly. Purchase with confidence.
267971
This drive is fully compatible with USB 2.0, and if your computer hardware supports it, the drive will run at USB 3.0
141733
The drive works well. USB 3.0 is faster only if the computer being used is too. The drive is slightly smaller than WD, Toshiba, etc. But it is not significantly smaller or faster than a like WD. I think WD comes in 2TB for about the same price.
1677385
Seems to be limited to USB2.0. Also as someone already noticed it doesn't seem to support large external drives. I wasn't able to get either of my 3TB drives to work. All usb thumbdrives worked though.
735302
USB 2.0 needs a 2.0 cable, 3.0 needs a 3.0 cable. A 2.0 cable is USB on either end. The 3.0 has one USB and one MiniUSB connecting to the hard drive. They are not compatible. Please note about this hard drive, that it does not come with a US power cord/adapter. While in the manual it does show one, in the actual package I was bummed to find I didn't get one.(I bought one at the local radio shack)
1651631
Hi Susan, the HD WD Elements 2TB is a low end HD, it is used to store/back up data and it comes back to sleeping mode. If you need a heavy duty (continuously running), you should look for WD PURPLE Series. I know this one is internal drive 3.5 inches. I do not know WD has USB or not. Good luck...