Quote: |
I would download movies on it (use it as a temp). Why would movies corrupt downloading on it if I can easily add movies with no problems. |
I/O issues, external drives simply aren't designed for constant access. External via usb/firewire is for storage, or more so portability... i still would prefer a hotswap bay over something over USB.
The usb chipset is slower and has a lower priority than IDE/SATA channels, and its worse off system wise putting data across that. if your computer crashes or there's a delayed write it will leave the data in a bad state. Delayed writes are likely with usb.
Contrast this with IDE or SATA and you have a higher write speed, less I/O problems (ie. the internal interfaces have a higher processing priority than external), and not to mention you've got faster writes/reads. I would suggest re-arranging your data or putting a HDD inside your machine for your temp files, and then maybe putting completes on your external. As far as external goes, your a lot safer with reads than writes.
Its a bad idea to use an external drive for a temp drive. A completes drive is fine though, since it copies the data across then removes your temp... but lag is going to be visible and if it can't get the i/o when it needs, its going to corrupt and dump the part its attempting to write.
There is a compromise, there's an interface called eSATA, which is better than USB/Firewire since its got a higher priority and higher bandwidth.
I would suggest re-arranging your data so that internal drives have all temp data. Of course you may not notice any problems continuing as you were, but its just not as good really. You'll probably be able to see less cpu utilisation and a bit more system stability too by not putting things through your USB interface.
Adding more files is a placebo really, its not going to increase your speed in getting a single file... infact if your limited connection wise its going to mean its actually worse off for one file, but if you have the space it means your downloading more across the board and therefore you'll see a higher total speed.
Sharing more upload wise helps the most for a single file increase. If you give more to the clients your downloading off, your queue position on those peers will be higher, which means you'll download from them more often.