[jbasil]

There are many differences in the spec for USB 2.0 that makes it less desirable for audio work than FW. But the unfortunate way that FW is not a part of the Windows OS the way it is in the Mac OSX has caused much confusion due to the lack of success vendors have in making it as stable, since it's a constant hit-or-miss upgrading of drivers. This is why some Windows users are so adamant that FW is overhyped.

Aside from the fact that the FW protocol requires that the data get there on time where USB protocol doesn't, USB relies on the host CPU for transfers, which is why there are buffer and interrupt alerts thrown at you during audio work. It's constantly requiring the computer to hand over processing power to the data flow. FW does not go to the CPU, using it's own chipset instead.

I own an 002 and I've hooked up multiple FW drives every which way from Tuesday and it has never not worked fine wherever anything has been in the chain (unlike the mBox 3 Pro which was incredibly picky and changed it's mind every day). Just make sure that the FW drives you get have two FW 400 ports. Many of the high quality enclosures (like OWC) have two 800 but only one 400, which complicates the chain since the interface is 400.