Firewire is technically just plain better than USB2.0, both in design and in implementation. The communication protocol is more sophisticated, more intelligence in the Firewire controllers themselves, whereas USB is controlled mainly by the CPU.

Which might account for the delayed write problems. It's not the USB connector at the external drive that checks whether everything is OK, it's the CPU at the other end that does the checks. That's different from FireWire.

As for heat, there's a good chance AntoniaTiger is right. A couple of years I had an external case for drive units, with its own PSU and fan, it could house a 5.25" unit or a 3.5" unit (with brackets). Since it had its own fan and PSU, the drive ran cool and never had any problem.

Another thing: power supply. FireWire can deliver far more power over the cable than USB2.0. So reliability of the external drives could very well be related to power consumption. Another reason to prefer FireWire over USB when using external drives.

The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter

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