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Question about external portable harddrives


Tom Sawyer
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Okay so I had a WD 750GB and went to use it and the light came on but no connection was recognised, tried a couple of different computers, same thing. So I tried a laptop power cord (I don't know why I thought it was the power supply with the light on :eh: ) anyway that evidently fried the power input circuit. no more light. -- oh and I discover with another smaller ext drive that it was the USB connector that was bad, http://i60.tinypic.com/347h2ww.gif

 

Oh well. So I bought another one steering clear of anything with a separate power supply need.

 

So my question, what is the benefit of a externally powered external hardrive? And why would they make it a different voltage than a laptop given they use the exact style connector?

Edited by Tom Sawyer
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Good question. All the external HDs I use draw their power over USB. Was this an old one, maybe?

 

No, maybe 3-4 years old, I don't remeember exactly, time flies. Maybe that IS old.

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Powered hard drives tend to be much faster.

I have several bus-powered USB 3.0 external hard drives and whilst they are very convenient they are relatively slow.

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Yeah is did take a couple hours to back up over a couple hundred GB

 

You can get wifi external HDs for reasonable money now. I've seen one made by Buffalo that can be used with or without a connection to the mains as it has a rechargeable battery inside. About £90.

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500gb-buffalo-ministation-usb-30-portable-11n-wi-fi-hard-drive-with-battery-or-mains-power?ProductId=65939

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