External HDD enclosures

[rstander]

I've got an Vantec NexStar 3 USB HDD enclosure with 750GB HDD that I use for backups, Virtual machines, etc. On my new T61p with Vista 32bit, after I disconnect the drive (with safe remove & just remove power) it does not come back when I power it up. I need to reboot my notebook before it would pick it up. Don't know if this is a Vista issue or T61. Any advice.

I've got another NexStar 3, but for notebook HDD, with a 80GB Seagate HDD. The enclosure uses 2 USB ports to power up. When I plug them into my notebook the drive does not power up. When I do the same on a normal computer it works fine. Once when I was busy rebooting with the drive connected, it displayed a message about over current. Now I'm thinking that the drive requires a higher current than the T61 usb ports support. It worked fine on my Toshiba. Advice?

[snife]

Not sure about the first one - are you actually disconnecting the USB port.

The second is basically that different systems/ports will allow draw of more power but you can only really rely on 5V/500mA per port as this is the spec, if your hard drive is drawing more than this then it could cause problems on some systems.

I've had many a hard drive enclosure off ebay, some requiring one port and some requiring two for power and i've had problems with some of them depending on the drive used. I now use a Lenovo 120GB USB drive which seems to work from one USB port on the ThinkPads which i think is quite impressive.

[rstander]

Yes I do physically remove it from the USB port. I've even tried other USB ports, but still it does not show up. When I switch it back on, I can see the icon momentarily show busy, but nothing show up in the drive list. It does not even show up in Disk Management in Computer Management.

[Volker]

The "use 2 usb ports" trick is a nasty hack thats not guaranteed to work. On my desktop it works for some, but not all, combinations of usb ports?!? Works once in a blue moon, but not reliably, on my thinkpad. I made the mistake of buying such a enclosure, but I'd advise anybody to stay away from them. A external hdd is only guaranteed to work with an external power source. Get a USB flash drive if you want to reliably exchange data but not carry a extra power brick.

[steveg47]

The "use 2 usb ports" trick is a nasty hack thats not guaranteed to work. On my desktop it works for some, but not all, combinations of usb ports?!? Works once in a blue moon, but not reliably, on my thinkpad. I made the mistake of buying such a enclosure, but I'd advise anybody to stay away from them. A external hdd is only guaranteed to work with an external power source. Get a USB flash drive if you want to reliably exchange data but not carry a extra power brick.

There are usb enclosures available which have their own built in rechargeable battery thus eliminating the need to carry a power brick. I have not personally used one but here is one that looks interesting: http://www.meritline.com/self-powered-s ... osure.html

OOPS...my error...this one is for a slim burner; but still very interesting.

Here is another solution: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/20 ... _batt.html

And yet another: http://www.bixnet.com/us2hddenwidi.html