Looking for a good backup drive

[taichi]

I'm looking for a backup drive for my T60P, and was considering the HGST Touro S 1TB 7200RPM Portable Drive, which is a USB powered drive. HGST is the former Hitachi drive company, now owned by Western Digital.

When I called the company to find out if I would have a problem with a USB powered drive, the gentleman with whom I spoke said that any laptops built in the last 3 to 4 years should have no problem powering the drive. Obviously the T60P is from 2006. I'm wondering if any of you out there own this drive, or a comparable 7200 RPM 1 TB drive, and have been able to power it reliably with your T60.

Thanks!

[theterminator93]

Not sure of the RPM, but I've been using a WD Passport 1TB disk on my T60/T61p units for a while now for backups with no issues.

[ZaZ]

It's a USB 3.0 drive, so I can't imagine what kind of problem you'd encounter, unless you're running XP with SP1, which doesn't support drives larger than 137GB.

[taichi]

The Touro is USB 3.0, backwards compatible with 2.0, and I know that my OS, Vista, will recognize one terabyte. The question has to do with whether there is enough power to drive the unit solely through my USB 2.0 port.

I had never thought that this would be an issue, but the representative at HGST appeared to say that the drive would work with laptops 3 to 4 years old. Given that we discussed the backwards compatibility with 2.0, it appeared that what he was saying was that there may not be enough power to operate the drive. Then we started discussing AC powered deskt desktop, which I'd prefer to avoid.

Nevertheless, the poster previously to you is successfully using a somewhat similar drive... the WD My Passport... with the T60.

[taichi]

Regarding the original question, does anybody know how much power the T60 USB 2.0 port puts out? It may put out 5V at ,5 Amps, but I'm not sure. Some later USB 2.0 ports achieved higher amperes. Apparently USB 3.0 puts out more...5V at up to 5 Amps.

I reconnected with the manufacturer' s tech-support, and apparently the HGST Touro might be a bit more power demanding than the WD My Passport. Apparently it needs at least .8 Amps (800 milliamps) to work. Does anyone know if the T60 points out that much power!

Thanks in advance!

[Johan]

@ taichi:

I honestly don't understand why you bring up this subject again, in a new, separate thread? It is not more than a few months ago that you asked about practically the same (in the thread Best choice of external 2.5" HDD USB-drive for backup?), where you received substantial feedback.

It seems... to put it nicely (!)... like you don't remember what you've asked about, shortly ago - and as you've also forgot the replies that people put (quite!) an effort into prodiving you with, very recently.

Kindly continue your additional questions in the thread you have already started (linked to above). Locking this thread.

Johan

[BillMorrow]

hello taichi..

i unlocked this thread so as to post a comment..

apologies to johan..

uhmm, i have a T60p that i have not used for some years so my experiences might be prone to memory errors.. mine, not the T60p's memory..

i found that sometimes the cable being used would have a negative effect.. drive would not power up.. with SOME cables..

another thing you might look at is the HMM for the T60p which SHOULD have the USB specs.. and the power output supposedly available..

we have it available on thinkpads.com..

[taichi]

Thanks for the response Bill.

I downloaded the document, but it doesn't specify the power output as far as I can tell.

By the way, thanks for running one of the most invaluable forums anywhere.