USB Hub

[RSDonovan]

I am migrating from a desktop PC to a laptop.

I have 4 external USB drives. Currently, I run them all from the rear USB ports on my desktop, but the laptop only has 1 available USB port so I will have to run the through a USB 4-way hub.

My question is; will there be enough "oomph" in a hub to (say) be able to copy files from one drive to another? The external drives are not constant in use, and when they are in use it is normally one-at-a-time, but I like them to be always available and not have to keep switching USB leads.

Can anyone tell me how much loss of speed (if any) I will experience when using the hub, and also are there better (i.e. faster) hubs than others?

Thanks in advance

[ChuckFickens]

Only 1 USB port??? that's unusual!

anyhow, get a powered USB2.0 hub (or a USB3 hub if the drives and the USB port are USB3, otherwise it's a waste of money)

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

And it will be slower if copying from one drive to another, shouldn't make any difference copying from one drive to the computer (assuming none of the other drives are in use while copying)

[RSDonovan]

Thanks for your interest,

There are actually 3 USB ports on the laptop but the other two are in constant use.

I don't have any USB 3 devices; they are all USB 2.

I shall shop around for a powered hub - do you have any recommendations based on use or should I just go with Amazon's number one?

When you say "the drive-to-drive speed will be slower" I can see exactly what you mean but have you any idea about how much slower it will actually be?

Thanks in advance

[rojash]

In simplistic terms:
The hub has a fixed bandwidth available. If you are copying from an external drive to the computer (or vice versa) all the bandwidth is available. If you are copying drive to drive, half the bandwidth is available for each drive, so effectively it's gonna be half the speed.