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Are independently powered external hd's better than USB-powered ones?

E

enwar3

Golden Member
Whenever I plug in and take out my USB powered hard drive I heard the drive spin up and turn off immediately, and I can't help but think that's bad for the hard drive. Also, it's recently started to fail and I'm thinking about buying one you plug into the wall as a replacement. Are those more reliable in general?
 
In my experience, yes - they are more reliable because USB power can sometimes be erratic or insufficient. Even some 2.5-in externals require 2 USB connections. Many laptops only have 3, so that can become a problem.
 
same thing, usb is slow slow tho. eSATA external SATA is same speed as your internal sata drive.. its fast,,, 6 times faster.
 
AFAIK, the ones that run only on USB power are the portable 2.5" ones. I have one for my laptop and it works perfectly, as long as I plug in both the USB plugs. It's rather nice for the portability.

Ext HDDs with the external power adapter are usually the larger 3.5" external drives with higher capacity. I definitely wouldn't want to carry one of those around with my laptop. However, they certainly are more "reliable," in the sense you don't have to deal with power issues, since you have to use a separate power adapter.

So I guess which one you'll pick will depend on what you need this ext HDD for.
 
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