[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

I would like to relocate 3 Maxtor Basics external hard drives that use USB Mini B plug type USB cables.

Unfortunately, the USB cables that come with the drives aren't quite long enough and really need to be circa 3 metres in length. And so started my quest for 3 x 3m USB Mini B leads. Or so I thought!

I've discovered that Mini B would appear to be available in both 4pin and 5pin flavours. What are the differences between the two (apart from 1 pin ). Are they interchangeable and do I need to worry? Obviously, I don't want to get ones that will affect the read/write performance to my hard drives

Many thanks as always,

Matthew

[CharlesS]

The official mini-B USB connector has five pins, and looks like this:



Unfortunately, there are almost as many unofficial mini-USB connectors as sands in the sea, and the unofficial ones are, for some reason, widely used. This page lists some of the more common ones (but not all). Basically, you need to get a cable that fits the connector on your drive.

And to think that people bitched about FireWire having a 6-pin and a 9-pin cable.