2.5" hd enclosure

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Mack · #1 Post by **Mack** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:20 pm

Hi, I'm considering to buy an external 2.5" usb enclosure to put a hard drive in. I have checked a brand called Zynet which I think is good. But my main question is, will the current (500 mA) from a usb port on my laptop be enough to power the hard drive, or is an external power supply needed? It would be very convenient if 500 mA was enough.

Thanks for any input.

/Mack

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:41 pm

Mack, I'm in the same boat

bought a MaPower external enclosure and a PCM/CIA firewire card and do not seem to get any power to the device, I feel like raising hell with TigerDirect.com because I told them it was going in a laptop

I did look for power spec's but there was only a tiny data sheet with a bunch of translation errors

!Ohh the humanity!!

Sorry for no input other than a vent

christopher_wolf · #3 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:42 pm

There are external HDD enclousures that run off the power through the USB port; some people, however, have reported that these devices have led to fried Mobos...No definite link has been proven as of yet.

You should *always* check the specs on what you are getting. I have a PCMCIA enclosure (8GB IBm Travelstar) that pulls its power form the PCMCIA port. Not all models do this though; it is always recommended to read the spec sheets for the model of 2.5" HDD Enclosure you are thinking of getting.

DavidNZ · #4 Post by **DavidNZ** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:03 pm

From my experience with 2.5" enclosures, very few, even if they say they can do it, run well without AC power. Your better bet is to get a 1.8" drive and enclosure. From what I recall reading, the drives themselves usually require less power than a 2.5".

dsvochak · #5 Post by **dsvochak** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:03 pm

Most of the enclosures I've seen have a plug for a 5v DC power source. I was lucky. The power brick from a Belkin 4 port mini USB hub fit mine perfectly. The enclosure works fine when powered.

mpcook · #6 Post by **mpcook** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:32 pm

I have an EZGig enclosure by Apricorn and it has been running fine for several years off the USB port on my X31 with the power adapter that came with it. I have also tried it in several other usb ports on other machines (non IBM) which did not provide enough juice.

laz · #7 Post by **laz** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:29 am

I got one of these (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6817145329) when I upgraded the hdd in my T42. Usually power from 1 USB port is enough, but if it isn't, there's an extra USB plug that's just there for power. I've had it for a few months with no complaints (except that one of the screws came stripped).

#8 Post by **bill bolton** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:23 am

DavidNZ wrote:From my experience with 2.5" enclosures, very few, even if they say they can do it, run well without AC power.

My experience is exactly the opposite, with drives up to 80GB at least (same basic drive as in the 80GB T43s).

I have several external 2.5" drive enclosures from different sources and they all run fine of a single USB port of any T4x.

Cheers,

Bill

#9 Post by **schen** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:40 pm

I've used a variety of external storage devices and I'll have to say that the external HDD enclosures have been the most trouble free. The vast majority of them have a USB cable with a single headed end and a dual headed end. The idea is that the dual headed end goes to the laptop where you plug one in for USB 2.0 and both for USB 1.1 (I've used a USB to PS2 adapter on my T21&T22 which had only 1 USB port). I've had 6Gb, 20Gb, and 30Gb drives in 2 different enclosures and both have worked just fine.

Now here's the kicker that I can't explain (maybe someone else knows the answer). I bought an Adaptec PCMCIA USB2.0/Firewire card so I could get faster throughput to my T23. The card recognizes fine and some devices connect to it without incident, but neither my USB HDD enclosures or Canon LIDE scanner (which is also bus powered) will recognize on the card!

dsvochak · #10 Post by **dsvochak** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:57 pm

Canon LIDE scanner

I've got a Canon LIDE 20 with the same problem. The Canon instructions are specific that the scanner has to be plugged directly into a machine USB Port. I haven't been able to get it to work with when plugged into a powered USB hub on a desktop.

The rest of the post is pretty much a description of my experience except I haven't had as much success with a USB to PS2 adaptor. It's been hit and miss whether it works.

When using a PC USB 2 card I've always had to use a power source with the enclosure.

Mack · #11 Post by **Mack** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:10 pm

Thanks guys. I will do some more research and be careful to study what brand I get. Would be safest to get one who can utilize the current from two usb ports via Y-cable or something. I plan to connect this usb hd enclosure to my pcmcia card with 2 usb 2.0 ports on, hopefully there will be no troubles...

/Mack

#12 Post by **schen** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:28 am

I'd say that the "Y" cable types would be the safest since they pretty much cover USB 1.1 laptops. But like I said in my original post, I've not had good luck trying to connect one of these through a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. So, if I really need to move lots of files faster than USB 1.1 allows, I put the HDD in an Ultrabay HDD adapter and do it that way. Good luck with your project.

gsxr031k · #13 Post by **gsxr031k** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:39 pm

i also am loking around for 2.5" and 3.5" enclosures.. i had a couple of laptop and desktop drive just sitting around that i could use for different things... but i have been looking through my sites, companies, and ebay.. but i found a couple that are BUS powered and external power... this way if you have a problem suppling power through BUS you have the Plugin....

LtTPfan · #14 Post by **LtTPfan** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:24 am

Mack wrote:Thanks guys. I will do some more research and be careful to study what brand I get. Would be safest to get one who can utilize the current from two usb ports via Y-cable or something. I plan to connect this usb hd enclosure to my pcmcia card with 2 usb 2.0 ports on, hopefully there will be no troubles...

You may be fine with just a single connection to your PCMCIA card as they have more power available than a USB port. A perfect example of this is IBM's Portable Drive Bay 2000, where the PCMCIA interface requires no extra power but the USB interface does.

#15 Post by **Kyocera** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:06 am

LtPfan

You may be fine with just a single connection to your PCMCIA card as they have more power available than a USB port.

I'm curious if it is enough to power an enclosure. I bought a MaPower firewire enclosure and a firewire PCMCIA card and get nothing going on when its plugged in. I have been looking for a dc adapter for the enclosure to see if that will work. Or do I have to go the adapter route mentioned previous.

dsvochak · #16 Post by **dsvochak** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 11:12 am

Kyocera asked:

I'm curious if it is enough to power an enclosure

It seems whether you need an external power source or a USB to PS/2 adaptor may depend on what machine the enclosure is being plugged into. And I mean the particular machine, not the series.

I've got T21's and T23's. On the T23's (with 2 USB 1.1 ports built in) schen's method of plugging both connectors from the enclosure into the machine works. On the T21's (1 USB port) the suggestion of using a USB to PS/2 adaptor sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

On both types of machine, the enclosure always requires external power when using a PCMCIA 2 port USB card. This is true whether one or both of the enclosure's USB cables are plugged into the PC card ports.

bill bolton, on the other hand, says "I have several external 2.5" drive enclosures from different sources and they all run fine of a single USB port of any T4x." LtTPfan seems to agree.

Assuming kyocera has tried the enclosure in both machines in his sig, his experience is different.

I wouldn't bet the enclosure will work when using a PC USB card (unless you have an external power source). I'm not sure I'd bet that an enclosure will work when both of the enclosure's USB cables are plugged into the machine ports (unless you have an external power source).

Finally, these things are relatively cheap either mail order or on ebay but I wouldn't buy one except from a local dealer. The one I've got is the 3rd one from a local shop. The first two, both NIB, were defective (power or built in controller problems). It was a lot easier to take the defective enclosure into the shop for an exchange than it was to send it back to an ebay or mail order vendor.

#17 Post by **Kyocera** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:02 pm

dsvochak

Assuming kyocera has tried the enclosure in both machines in his sig, his experience is different.

Yes I have tried both and the 1394 adapter shows up fine but no power to the enclosure. I actually questioned them at tigerdirect.com if this thing would work without a power supply in a thinkpad, and they were like, Oh yeah, no freakin problems, yeah right. Next thing is to find a 5v adapter try it and see what happens.

dsvochak · #18 Post by **dsvochak** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:11 pm

Next thing is to find a 5v adapter try it and see what happens.

Radio Shack.

#19 Post by **Kyocera** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:38 pm

Yes, another interesting part of my adventure with all this, went to Radio Shack friday, all they carry is 4.5v. So my search will continue tomorrow.
Ohh the humanity.

LtTPfan · #20 Post by **LtTPfan** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 2:24 pm

dsvochak wrote:bill bolton, on the other hand, says "I have several external 2.5" drive enclosures from different sources and they all run fine of a single USB port of any T4x." LtTPfan seems to agree.

I do not agree with that per se, nor did I address that. I do know that there is considerably more power available at a PCMCIA port than there is at a standard USB port, and I know that IBM's Portable Drive Bay 2000 requires additional power when connected via USB and does not when connected via PCMCIA. In the case of the PCMCIA driven PDB2000, the PCMCIA port is supplying power for the enclosue and for the drive.

My comment was that since the OP will be using a PCMCIA to 2-port USB 2.0 adapter card, connection to one USB port on the adapter card "may" be sufficient to power the enclosure and drive.

If not then there will be an additional USB port available on the adapter plus one or two additional USB ports on the machine which can provide the additional power by using an adapter cable.

#21 Post by **Kyocera** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:53 pm

I should have posted back on this thread way back when, but when I got the 5V power adapter my enclosure was recognized and has been working great ever since.

robert213 · #22 Post by **robert213** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:26 pm

NewEgg.com lists 77 different brands/models of 2.5" HD enclosures...
NewEgg.com Link

I am purchasing Hitachi TravelStar 7K100 100GB ATA-6 HD.

I have no idea where to start. Any recommendations??? Which ones to avoid???

shadowlight · #23 Post by **shadowlight** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 1:50 pm

From my own experience with about 20 USB 2.0 enclosures with 2,5" Hard Disks included - I can say that a lot of them DON'T work properly without sufficent power - and an single USB connection is NOT enough power!
All of them seemed to work properly under Windows XP, but in fact they didn't! In event manager I found a lot of errors concerning hard drive access and a bit-by-bit-comparison of original data and the files copied to these drives showed about 5 percent corrupted files on the external drives.

As soon as I used these drives with an active USB Hub with its own power supply - no more problems at all!

As a result I won't never again trust an USB-powered hard disk without additional power.

(all this is valid only with an single USB cable as power supply)

robert213 · #24 Post by **robert213** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 10:06 am

I decided to pass on purchasing a USB 2.5" HD enclosure. I purchased a pair of these from Montana 4 Me and Techsmartz, instead.
IBM ThinkPad Ultrabay 2000 2nd Hard Drive Adptr 08K6067 $26.45 USD
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... IGR-4JW4XW

It appears that USB 2.5" HD enclosure(s) require 5V AC Adapter to work properly. It appears that it is possible that USB 2.5" HD enclosure(s) can damage HD when it is without sufficient power or when unplugged before the laptop is shutdown properly.

Mark_Venture · #25 Post by **Mark_Venture** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:40 pm

Just my $.02...

I have multiple USB 2.0 hard drive enclosures... both 2.5 and 3.5"... but for this post I'll only talk about the 2.5" ones...

Storix compact Drive USB 2.0 (came with 20gig Toshiba MK2018GAP +5V .7A HD in it.., I upgraded it to a 40 gig MHT2040AH)
Buslink Disk-On-The-GO Lite Mod DL-40-U2.. (came with 40gig IBM IC25N040ATCS04-0 +5V 1.0A HD in it, still has it..)

Both enclosures use the same Cypress/InSystem ISD300A chipset... Nice thing about this chipset... it allows for Hard disk password SIMILAR to the Thinkpad's Bios setting for HD password!! So, set the HD password with the drivers, take the drive out of the enclosure, or do not install the software... and you can NOT access the drive... But the password protected drive in either the primary hard drive bay, or ultra bay... the thinkpad knows it has a password on it, but it will not accept even typing the right one... So you must use the Cypress Windows 98/2000/XP drivers for the hard drive password function...

The storix NEVER needs "extra" power. The Buslink sometimes does (depends on the PC, or even which USB port on that PC I plug into)...

IO Magic I25HDDCASE uses Genesys Logic chipset.. At first I had a 40gig Hitachi HTS548040M9AT00 +5v 1.0A... it needed power nearly EVERY TIME... I put a Hitachi DK23EB-40B +5V .6A drive in there... and it rarely needs extra power.

About 7 Compusa 2.5" aluminum enclosure SKU 306130.. Some uses a Cypres CY7C68300A chipset (this one does NOT do the hard drive passwording). and Some use a MysonCentury CS8813 chipset. Hard Drives used in them include...

40 Gig Fujitsu MHT2040AH +5v .6A
30 gig ibm IC25N030ATCS04-0 +5v 1.0A
40 gig Hitachi HTS548040M9AT00 +5v 1.0A
40 gig Hitachi IC25N040ATCS05-0 +5v 1.0A
40 gig Hitachi DK23EB-40B +5V .6A

The MysonCentury version of the Compusa enclosure requires power more often no matter what drive is in there. The Cypress version doesn't require power for the .6A drives, and on rare occasion requires extra power for the 1.0A drives...

Moral of the story... Cypress/Insystem design chipsets and .7A or less drives = Rarely, if ever, needing "extra" power.

Btw, I use these enclosures with Thinkpad T21, T23, T30, T40, T41... Asus P4P800DLX, P4C800E-DLX, and P4PE mother boards...

spaznrq · #26 Post by **spaznrq** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:10 pm

Does anyone know if this is an authentic IBM 2.5" enclosure?

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/prod ... u.780.html

This seems authentic from the website, but I haven't been able to find the same product elsewhere on the Internet.

#27 Post by **tomh009** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 6:57 pm

spaznrq wrote:Does anyone know if this is an authentic IBM 2.5" enclosure?

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/prod ... u.780.html

This seems authentic from the website, but I haven't been able to find the same product elsewhere on the Internet.

That's very nice! I wasn't able to locate it anywhere else, either, but the labels do look authentic.

christopher_wolf · #28 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 7:01 pm

I am not so sure it is authentic. I haven't really seen an IBM HDD enclosure that was rubberized except for a slice of the back portion; I haven't even seen an IBM HDD enclosure like that which was rubberized to begin with.

Also, the fitting of the power adapter plug in the back along with various other ports doesn't really seem as tight as they should be.

Additionally, why do they keep saying that it is an "authentic" IBM product often?

spaznrq · #29 Post by **spaznrq** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:02 pm

The store sells a lot of fake iPod accessories that look and imitate the real products' packaging quite well. However, because they specifically mentioned that the IBM enclosure is authentic, while they didn't for the fake products, and the fact that they would include the IBM Rapid Restore software makes it seem legit. Of course, they could always burn their own copy of it somehow.

I was going to give it a try for the mere $17 or so plus shipping, but there was only one option for shipping and it was nearly $10, so I gave up. Anyone with extra spending cash want to give this a try and let us know your experiences?

#30 Post by **gator** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:44 pm

I had just made a post yesterday seeking advice regarding the following questions:

1. Is the Thinkplus drive really good and worth the price?
2. Am I better off investing in a ultrabay adapter + a SATA drive and getting an USB enclosure that I can use whenver I need to transfer data?

Only today did I see this thread, and seeing spaznrq's post, I went ahead and posted a question at: http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/prod ... u.780.html

This was the reply I got:

We resell these products purchased from hard disk case suppliers available here in China.

I'm not sure whether IBM lists these on their website or not as it could be the case that these items are produced for sale in countries other than the US.

In the meantime, this item does appear as an authentic IBM product with legit packaging, manuals, warranty info, etc. It is real as far as we can tell.

My suggestion to you is that, as with many other China-made products, only purchase if you feel comfortable doing so.

From the images on the site, I captured the following screenshot, and looked up the part # that is seen on the image:

image link: http://plaza.ufl.edu/psrivats/enclosure.jpg

The part # circled is 09N4256. I searched on it lenovo's site and it is pointing to the 40 GB thinkplus portable HDD drive.

The product listed in the Fifthunit site seems very, very similar to the 40 GB drive listed in Lenovo's website, and it just might be that these people are indeed selling the enclosure alone from chinese manufacturers.

I am tempted to get this enclosure now, but I'll wait and see what you guys say about this.

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2.5" hd enclosure

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