External USB hard drive with T40/T23

[toothandnail]

I've recently aquired a T40. I need some way of backing it up and moving data. With my older T23, I have a docking station with second hard drive in an ultrabay carrier. Can't justify the cost of a docking station for the T40, so I've been looking at using an external adaptor for the spare drive.

What concerns me is how the T40 or the T23 will handle the power drain necessary to run the drive, since almost all of the USB enclosures I've seen are USB powered. Don't want to risk frying anything on the mainboard by drawing too much power from the USB ports.

Can anyone comment on how much of a problem this might be?

Thanks.

Paul.

[jhkaska]

My Bytecc HD1-U2FW adaptor has it's own external power supply. I'm sure that there are others, as well. This one will only handle a 9mm thick drive in the enclosure. But 12mm will work if you leave it out of the enclosure.

[Kyocera]

I use a firewire USB 2.5" HD enclosure and it requires an external power supply.

[carbon_unit]

I am using an "A power" generic USB drive enclosure that is USB powered. So far it has not been a problem. You might want to check out the spin up power draw for your HD, .5 amp seems to be the limit for self powered. I am using a 80 gig 5400 rpm Hitachi. It is right at the limit.
After a lot of research into this I found that the Macally PHR-250 is supposed to be one of the best out there. It has the best chipset and a separate power cable. I bought one for $25.00 delivered on ebay and the "A power" for $11.00 delivered.
In my comparison they were equal so I am selling the Macally.

[toothandnail]

My Bytecc HD1-U2FW adaptor has it's own external power supply. I'm sure that there are others, as well. This one will only handle a 9mm thick drive in the enclosure. But 12mm will work if you leave it out of the enclosure.

Thanks. I've found a few that do allow external power when needed, but not very many of those are 2.5" drives - most of the ones I've seen with extrnal power options are 3.5". Since I also want to be able to clone laptop drives when necessary, getting something that will handle 2.5s is important. I'll keep an eye out for a Bytecc.

paul

[toothandnail]

I use a firewire USB 2.5" HD enclosure and it requires an external power supply.

I need to steer clear of fiewire, at least at present. Once I work out the safest way of doing so, I intend to shrink the WinXP partition and install eCS (OS/2) plus Zenwalk Linux on the T40. Don't have any experience with firewire under Linux, but I know there are no firewire drivers for OS/2, unfortunately. So it looks as though I'm stuck with USB.

paul

[toothandnail]

I am using an "A power" generic USB drive enclosure that is USB powered. So far it has not been a problem. You might want to check out the spin up power draw for your HD, .5 amp seems to be the limit for self powered. I am using a 80 gig 5400 rpm Hitachi. It is right at the limit.

Once of the problems I had (and the reason for the original question) was that I've not seen much in the way of figures for how much current this type of device draws. Nor, for that matter, anything indicating the maximum power that the T23 or T40 can deliver to its USB ports. By the sound of that, a 40GB drive should be usable, and that would provide me with enough storage for backup purposes, though not enough if I want to clone the 80 GB in the T40 to something faster.

After a lot of research into this I found that the Macally PHR-250 is supposed to be one of the best out there. It has the best chipset and a separate power cable. I bought one for $25.00 delivered on ebay and the "A power" for $11.00 delivered.
In my comparison they were equal so I am selling the Macally.

I've just managed to pick up a FireLite 40 GB USB enclosure which can accept either a PS/2 or an optional plugpack adaptor should it need more power. Only tried it briefly, but it seems ok so far. Only problem I can see is that its not really designed to allow chaning drives, and has a big sticker on the bottom with a 'warranty void if removed' message on it. Still, looks like it will do for backups for a while at least.

Thanks for the information.

paul.