I'm not positive about the answer but I use a USB card reader for my camera card. Each time I start it up it asks if I want it to search for a USB 2.0 port on my computer so it can run faster. I don't have a USB 2.0 port, just 1.0 so I close the window and it just moves along using the 1.0 port. 2.0 will make it run much faster and for a hard drive that may be important for you. But as I understand it, either your computer has it or you have to live with 1.0. I think it's a motherboard feature, so it's not something you can just add.

If you have an empty pci slot it's easy to plug in a USB 2.0 card which can be bought for $20 or less.

Really? I thought it was motherboard related. Will it work even in an older comp with no USB 2 support?

As long as they have a driver for your particular version of windows, usb 2.0 should work even if the older computer doesnt have usb at all. Provided of course it has ample whatchamacallits... those IRQ's. USB 2. uses two of em.

Thanks for your responses. I did look up how to install a card in a pci slot, I would need more skill and knowledge than I have to do that. And when I thought about it, I do download pictures from our digital camera without a problem. I have been doing more research and talking to some friends who know more about computers than I do(not hard). From what I can gather, I can use an external hard drive having a 2.0 USB connection with a 1.0 USB port. It will affect(slower)the speed of the download. I am off to purchase the WD My Book Essential 320GB which is on sale at Best Buy. More capacity than I need at this point but good for the future and newer systems.

But anyhow, forgot to write what I intended... they make External Network Harddrives, and seem to be a much better solution than addding a usb drive.

Mikie, you have piqued my interest. I was looking at external network hard drives and see that they are no more costly than USB 2 drives. Would one plug it into one of the ethernet ports on a router to use? I saw one made by Iomega that is a 7200rpm SATA drive, and if I read correctly, it can also be used via USB. It was around $150 for a 320GB capacity, which I thought reasonable.

I think what you'll find is most NAS, the network hard drives, will have a usb port on them... but its generally not for connecting it as a portable storage device. Its more for adding a 'network' camera or plugging in other portable usb storage devices to transfer the data to the the network drive. You pretty much have to download and read the manual to figure em out.

But yes, you plug it into a router or switch... its usually some type of unix opperating system .. a real (tiny) computer built on a chip.

Thanks for the info. I think this might be what I'll get, as I might also want to save stuff from the laptop as well as the main desktop.

I have the older type USB ports - I just bought an external HD that plugs into the USB and it works fine.

Well, it worked and very well. The WD My Book Essential does not come with a back up program but drag and drop works fine for me. I do not want to back up my entire system, just specific files.

You may want to search Microsoft Downloads for SyncToy. It will more or less duplicate a folder and keep its contents updated. Should work with a usb drive.