USB Powered Hard Drives

[jml2665]

Looking to pickup a 160gb WesternDigital personal HD for photo backup and I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with there use on a MacBook Pro CoreDuo2. I have heard there might be power issues but the box said it's compatible with MAC OSx

Thanks

 

[jimoblak]

I cannot speak to that particular hardware set up but I can tell you I am no fan of USB powered drives. I've had a few drives flake out on me (requiring disk tools) since read/writes sometime fail if there is not enough USB power. The USB mechanical drives I now use have an extra DC power cord that plugs in the wall outlet.

 

[jml2665]

Thanks jimoblak,
that's what I have heard too, power issues. Might be why WesternDigital now sells an optional dual USB powered connector, where it plugs into two USB ports for power (one will be used for actual data transfer)

 

[jmgalvin]

My experience is that, anything with moving parts has problems when powered through the usb. I'm with Jim on having a standard 120v plug. If you're going to keep the drive at the home or office the power is no problem.

If you need temp backup while traviling etc, you might want to consider a usb flash drive. You can get a 4 gig one for about 40 dollars nowadays. They're small and use virtually no power.


Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[jml2665]

well I think I am convinced, these USB powered HDs seem not to be ready for this sort of critical usage yet.

Since I will need to transport 60 to 100gb worth of photos (approx 2 weeks worth of shooting), I will probably go to the more expensive battery operated storage systems with appropriate card slots that I use. Then use the DVD burner on the MacBook Pro for full daily backups

Thanks All

 

[drlex]

I'm a fan of external firewire drives - the 2.5" ones can be powered from the firewire port, thus obviating the need for yet another adaptor. With an old 1.0 USB Mac, I can't switch to USB 2.0 devices, so haven't suffered the 'flake-iness' issue. Unfortunately, cost-cutting and the ubiquity of USB2.0 means there's less choice these days. After all, even Apple dropped FW from their ipods a while back, which makes me cherish my 4th Gen. one more as an emergency boot drive.

soi la, soi carré

 

[Welshbird]

I agree with drlex. I have a firewire drive, but I do have one with an external power supply, thus removing all issues. Works well too! It's a LaCie one.

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]