I need more hard drive space. I have a friend that will sell me an external hard drive for $60, half of the retail price. The problem is the hard drive is USB only. My computer has a firewire hook up and usb 1.

Is there some sort of adapter that has usb connector on one end and a firewire connector on the other so I can use it with my current set up?

Is upgrading to usb 2.0 as easy as buying a usb 2.0 card and putting it in place of my usb 1.0 card?

Typically, yes. Perhaps a little more difficult if you are running win 98.

I am running XP Pro.

My computer has 4 usb ports, 2 in the front, and 2 in the back.

More then likely all 4 usb ports go to the same card Correct?

so I will need a 2.0 card that excepts 4 usb inputs and the card must have that extention thing so I can run two of the usb ports to the front.

For another $80 140 total, I can just get the 250 GB WD External hard drive with the firewire inputs and use what I got.

The original firewire is about the same as USB 2.0 right?

I don't know what you have inside the case. I don't know how old it is. If it's a "PC" it think it's unusual to have firewire and USB 1. USB 2 has been around for a while and from my limited experience most PCs don't have firewire.

Well anyway, most computers have USB on the motherboard. They would have a couple of ports on the motherboard's I/O panel that is accessible from the back. They would have a couple of headers on the board to connect cables from the case's front USB ports.

If that's the case, then your PCI to USB card would be in addition to the existing ports. You might be able to use the front ports as USB 2 by removing the cables from the motherboard and plugging them in to your new card.