IOGear Ion drive enclosure

[pontifex]

My mom got a IOGear Ion drive enclosure and drive for her laptop. It's a 2.5" laptop drive.
It only has a USB port and thats how it gets its power. However, it comes up and says USB power surge or something but the drive still shows up. Works fine on my desktop.

is this going to hurt the laptop, drive or both?

is there a way to get around it?

the laptop is a Dell Inpsiron 8600 with USB1 ports.
the drive enclosure uses USB2.

 

[Modelworks]

A usb port will reset or the fuse will blow on the port if the power limit is exceeded, depends on how they implemented it. Some chipsets simply disable the port till the load is below limits, others just have a fuse soldered onto the board, that after blowing, kills the port for devices that need power.

You can get an external hub that plugs in the wall and powers all devices from that wall plug. They don't cost much.
I use one for a graphics tablet I have that uses a bit too much current for the spec.
That way if something does use too much the worst that could happen is it blows the hub, not the notebooks port.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817394052
Thats the one I got, had it for years.

 

[Old Hippie]

USB Y cable lets you draw power from two ports.