X41 and Portable Hard drive

[LearningThinking]

Hi,
I have a long question. Basically, I want to add an external hd to my x41.
My requirements are:
(1) The external hd use only usb power.
(2) The external hd can be used on non-thinkpad, e.g., my hp lappy or a desktop.
My options are:
(1) ThinkPlus Portable 80GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Rescue and Recovery, 40Y8726
(2) Western Digital Passport Drive 80G, details can be found at , for example, http://www.westerndigital.com/en/librar ... 001126.pdf, or staples.com
My questions are:
(1) For the Thinkplus one, can I use it on non-thinkpads, since it requires two usb ports. On my x41, there is a specially designed powered usb port
(2) For the WD Passport, can I use it on X41 WITHOUT power adapter?
I noticed the requirements for the optional AC adapter is "5V, 1A", while the standard USB only provides 500mA. In other words, the question is whether the usb port on X41 is powerful enough to for the WD Passport.

Thanks a lot for any response, or suggestions on other portable drive. (My minimum requirement on capacity is 60G)

L.T.

[beq]

LT, I had also looked into portable hard drives awhile back:

http://forums.storagereview.net/index.p ... opic=20422

I realize it's a long thread, but the very last post there on the bottom quoted a section of a Seagate whitepaper on USB hard drive power draw that pertains to your question, and which I found very interesting...

Basically, many modern systems in the real world supposedly can (for a short time) supply the 1A (5V) required for peak power draw during a 2.5-inch hard drive's spin-up, but if it doesn't work then you would need to plug in to two USB ports.

If you want a guarantee to always be able to run from just one normal USB port within the 500mA (5V) limit of the USB specs, then I would suggest using a 1.8-inch hard drive. My 60GB Hitachi 1.8-inch hard drive only requires 420mA (5V) for spin-up peak power draw. And the drive is physically smaller/lighter too. My drive in a USB enclosure is only 3.2" x 2.8" x 0.4" at 4oz.

[LearningThinking]

Nice place.
Thanks a lot!

[LearningThinking]

After some research, I just ordered an WD 80G Passport.
Will post my experience.

[redskin]

It's easy. All you have to do is buy any internal 2.5" hard drive fom factor and stick it into an external hard drive portable housing and you are done. For hard drive it's easy because it doesn't consume a lot of power, so therefore it can just use the usb port as its power without using the external ac adapter. I did it that way, although my external housing does come with an ac adapter, but I never use the ac adapter. I just used the usb port as its own power and it works just fine.

[BillMorrow]

seagate 2.5 inch, 100gig, 5v, .46 A..
runs just fine with an el cheapo USB 2.0 external HDD case..



now running, also, a 60gig 7200RPM travelstar..
so, the tablet has an SD card and two USB HDD's as well as the 1.8inch 60gig standard HDD..