USB Ports on a PC

[Werewolf]

Are there differenct types of USB Ports?

I ask because I recently bought a Seagate 160Gb External Drive that connects to my PC via USB. The documentation says in big bold print only plug it into a USB port on the back of the PC and not to use one on the front as that could damage the drive.

I also wanted to use the drive to connect to my wife's laptop. No USB port on the back but it has 4 on the sides - 2 each.

Two of them are marked with symbols that look kind of like a trident with progressively shorter prongs (that same symbol is on all the USB cords I've gathered over time) and two of the ports are not marked with a symbol at all. The USB mouse works in all 4 ports but I am reluctant to plug the drive into the wrong type of USB port since I don't want to damage the drive or the port.

What's the difference?

Anyone?

Buehler....

Buehler...

[K Frame]

I know there are at least two speed protocols for USB ports...

The only thing I can think of is that the ports on the back of the machine are somehow wired into the motherboard differently.

[Sergeant Bob]

The only reason I can think of for the warning is, possibly because the power draw of the drive might be more than the front ports can handle (due to longer leads) and may cause a "brown out" type condition (which will damage a hard drive).

Or, the power output on the front USB ports is less than the rear, having the same effect.

I know that my computer will crash if I hook my video card to the same lead as my boot drive and I've known of people whose hard drives have failed after extended use on the same lead as a power hungry video card.

[Iain]

The only thing I can think of (assuming that they put USB 2.0 ports on the front of computers, and I'd reckon they do) is that using the front USB ports means that the drive is more likely to be unplugged whilst it is still operating, and that this may be a bad thing.

[Vodka7]

I'm with Bob on this one--probably has something to do with the power going to the front ports.  The front ports are usually just a USB hub--does it say not to use the drive with hubs, too?

[Werewolf]

No mention of hubs. The docs are really not much more than a fold'em up set of multilingual instructions about how to hook up the hardware. Pretty specific about not hooking up to front ports though.

I imagine you guys are right and it has something to do with power.

[Sergeant Bob]

If the drive is powered by the USB port (no external power source), then that's probably the case.
If it had it's own power source, I don't think it would matter.

[Werewolf]

It does have it's own power source but like I said the setup docs made a big deal out of not plugging it into a front of the PC USB port.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

If it's a later model motherboard it's likely at the USB 2.0 protocol. USB 2.0 is backwards-compatible with USB 1.1. It'll work, but if it's a USB 1.1 port it'll be slower than a 2.0 port.

Regards,
Rabbit.