Laptop HD enclosure questions.

[TriggerHappy101]

Hey, I just bought a HD enclosure from one of our fellow Anandtech people.
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/produc...ology%2fUSB%2fUSB+Hard+Drive+Enclosure
Got if for 15 bucks. I put a 20gig HD that i pulled from an older omnibook.

My questions:

Question 1: How do you suggest I unplug the drive? Should I do a right click > saftely remove device > when wait untill it tells me to unplug it? Will the read/write heads return to the landing zone if I ubrutly unplug the usb? (Of course when its not in use.)

Question 2: I noticed after a few minutes of it being on the case was slightly warm to the touch. Is there an application out there that will give me a reading on the temp of my HD and warn me if it gets to hot? (Do they even have temp meters inside the HD?)

Question 3: According to their site, the external connector says "1 external USB 2.0 connector" But the cable has two connections. Why is there two? One is only required? The other to help with power? Which leads me to the next question...

Question 4: The enclosure has an external power connection also. Says DC 5V on it. It did not come with a external power source. I heard that USB ports have been known to fry because of drawing to much power. Is that true? Do you think I have to worry about using an external power source? Will I see a performance boost if I use an external source? What is the voltage rating on a usb 1.1 port? What about 2.0?

Thanks for your help!

 

[jm0ris0n]

1: yes use windows safely remove drive. I don't know what would happen if you just removed it, I wouldn't want to find out ! If you remove while spinning the drive can/will DIE!

2: Only if your hardrive has an internal temperature sensor built in. I wouldn't worry about that HD overheating. Just keep the enclosure free from clutter and you should be fine. It will get warm, and maybe even hot, but there is not much you can do for it.

3: You have 2 plugs because in some instances a hardrive will draw more power then just one usb line could handle. Thus you have two. All but the most demanding laptop hardrives can run with one USB cable attached.

4on't worry about the external power brick. You would see ZERO performance increase if you had one. I don't know the voltage rating of USB 1.1 Vs 2 exactly, but I would assume they are fairly similar.

 

[pkme2]

My students and I use the pocket USB hdds for transferring large digital files. With the smaller hdds we can use the 1.1 with just 1 connector, but as we start using larger and faster versions, we have to connect to 2 USB ports to get the max power.

My digital video files download great to my 5400prm 80gb, though I have to connect the double USBs to the 2.0s. The 1.1s don't seem to do the job efficiently.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

Okay. Good info.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: jm0ris0n
"1: yes use windows safely remove drive. I don't know what would happen if you just removed it, I wouldn't want to find out ! If you remove while spinning the drive can/will DIE! "


Wrong. Hard drives are made to self park after power loss. Pulling the plug will have NO adverse affect on the drive. However, doing so while writing data would be bad for data,(not the drive) and depending on the version of windows you are running, as well some settings, pulling the cable after a data transfer to the drive can still leave you with corrupt data. If you have Windows XP, the risk is minimal.


"3: You have 2 plugs because in some instances a hardrive will draw more power then just one usb line could handle. Thus you have two. All but the most demanding laptop hardrives can run with one USB cable attached."

You may have two plugs to help the drive function on older systems with USB 1.1 only. USB 2.0 provides more power(current, not voltage), so only one cable is needed on systems with USB 2.0. Of course, we don't know what type of drive you actually have to tell you any different.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

I wonder how it returns to the LZ when it doesn?t have any power. The capacitors can last that long to move the needle to the landing zone?

The HD is a IBM travelmaster, I don?t know the model, don?t feel like opening it again.

I have another question.

How can I install games/programs on it and still have it be readable by any computer? I haven?t had any luck because the program often stuffs a file in the my documents folder or somewhere in the windows directory that is needed to run the program. (Saved files, profile information, etc.)

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: TriggerHappy101
I wonder how it returns to the LZ when it doesn?t have any power. The capacitors can last that long to move the needle to the landing zone?

The HD is a IBM travelmaster, I don?t know the model, don?t feel like opening it again.

I have another question.

How can I install games/programs on it and still have it be readable by any computer? I haven?t had any luck because the program often stuffs a file in the my documents folder or somewhere in the windows directory that is needed to run the program. (Saved files, profile information, etc.)

The drive does not require power to return the head to the landing zone. THe heads are only powered for seeks and read/writes using a powerful magnet and voice coil, the arm is either using the magnet or spring of sort for it's return to the LZ.

As far as installng games on it.... for use on other machines -good luck. There are some older games that you caoul dmake portable like that, but most newer games require too much additional content written to the boot drive and registy.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

I could always install windows XP on it I guess and boot from it. But I dont think my school wants me playing around in the bios, telling it to boot from USB.

Arent there any programs that will help me with this problem?

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: TriggerHappy101
I could always install windows XP on it I guess and boot from it. But I dont think my school wants me playing around in the bios, telling it to boot from USB.

Arent there any programs that will help me with this problem?

That's a tricky question to ask here at AT... Defeating security measures, and admin set policies/profiles is frowned upon even as a conversation here in the forums.

If you are just looking to be able to surf anonymously, and check pop mail, etc... Look into getting a U3 enabled memory key.

Otherwise, no one is going to help you get around your schools policies here. If you have a legitimate need, then talk to your school's administrators about opening up a profile for you on a select system.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

I just want my HD to play some games.

Its not really a problem of my school I guess. I just dont feel like fiddleing with the bios every time i sit down at a PC.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

Anyone have any suggestions?