USB Powered External Hard Drives

[stogiedude]

I have an external HD, but it needs to be plugged into AC power. Anyone have a recommendation for a USB powered external HD?

 

[JHZR2]

I have a maxtor that works off of two USB ports (one for power and data, the other for power only).

IMO, youre better off with a huge solid state drive, if you can et away with it.

JMH

 

[Quattro Pete]

I have one of these Western Digital portable drives. No complaints, although they're not as fast as the larger external drives that use their own power supplies. There's always a trade off.

 

[ConfederateTyrant]

Get you a 2.5" laptop hard drive along with a 2.5" hard drive enclosure from newegg. Most of those do not need external power and are relatively cheap when you purchase them separately.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

I just bought a few of each of these for work to store large amounts of data:

USB SATA enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817173042

750GB WD drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136131

I'm impressed as the enclosure has a fan to keep the drive cool. Cooler than any external USB drive I've used. Also, it comes with an eSATA adapter to connect to the motherboard as well as the eSATA cable to connect it as well as the standard USB 2.0 connection. I like the eSATA route as it's not bound by the limitations of the USB bus.

Tom's Hardware recently reviewed this drive as the new 'speed king'. It's quiet, too. Great value.

So far, I give this combo a 10. Great price and flexible options.

 

[GMGuy]

One thing to consider when using a usb hard drive is that your typical hard drive sucks back a lot of power, older usb ports at least have limited current capacity and you could be dipping your supply voltages low by running off a usb port. Check your mobo manual to see what it can supply. One way around this is to get a powered usb hub, then you take the load off of the computer. Just make sure the usb hub can handle the load as well.

Alex.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: GMGuy
One thing to consider when using a usb hard drive is that your typical hard drive sucks back a lot of power, older usb ports at least have limited current capacity and you could be dipping your supply voltages low by running off a usb port. Check your mobo manual to see what it can supply. One way around this is to get a powered usb hub, then you take the load off of the computer. Just make sure the usb hub can handle the load as well.

Alex.


USB has always been spec'ed at 500mA per port. That includes USB 1.1 and 2.0, it has always been the same. If it can't supply 500mA then it is not USB compliant.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
I just bought a few of each of these for work to store large amounts of data:

USB SATA enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817173042

750GB WD drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136131

I'm impressed as the enclosure has a fan to keep the drive cool. Cooler than any external USB drive I've used. Also, it comes with an eSATA adapter to connect to the motherboard as well as the eSATA cable to connect it as well as the standard USB 2.0 connection. I like the eSATA route as it's not bound by the limitations of the USB bus.

Tom's Hardware recently reviewed this drive as the new 'speed king'. It's quiet, too. Great value.

So far, I give this combo a 10. Great price and flexible options.

I'm sure that these work great, but he is asking for USB powered drives. You need to use a laptop drive (2.5 inch) to have a USB powered drive.

 

[stogiedude]

That's correct. This is an example of what I'm looking for and what I was looking for recommendations for:
ebay item

I don't want to have to plug into an external AC outlet, too many cords already.