usb 2.0 speeds...?

i just bought a 4 port usb card 2.0 for my comp since my mobo isn't usb 2.0

however, my brand new 7200 rpm external usb 2.0 hard drive isn't receiving files as quickly as i had hoped. for example: a 500 mb file takes 10 minutes to transfer. shouldn't it be faster? perhaps on the magnitude of 1 minute?

please tell me, is my card not working right? perhaps it'll only be fast from the external drive TO the internal, and not vice versa? thanks.

 

Perhaps someone will explain the nuances of data transfer overhead;I don't have that information at the moment. I can tell you that although USB 2.0 is supposed to be hundreds of times faster than 1.1, the real-world performance is on the order of three time as fast to transfer a given number of files. At least, that is my own personal experience and others have given similar reports.

Frankly, I don't know what those hundreds-of-times-faster figures are good for.