Lowest power 2.5" hard drive for USB OTG with phones

[serendip]

I've been trying to find the lowest power external hard disk drive that works with a phone using USB OTG. I need lots of portable space and a flash drive is too small.

My WD My Passport 1TB works with my Lenovo Windows tablet using an OTG cable but it doesn't work with a phone, there's not enough power to properly initialize the drive. WD specs show that the Passport needs 650 mA to run whereas most phones only give 500 mA through OTG. A card reader with a full sized SD card works fine.

I then thought about making my own portable drive. WD 2.5" Scorpio Blue drives use 1.5-1.9 W for seeking or max 380 mA. A cheap USB2-SATA casing should add 100 mA. Total current should be under the 500 mA limit on most phones. I wanted to find out if anyone else has done this successfully.

 

[coercitiv]

I then thought about making my own portable drive. WD 2.5" Scorpio Blue drives use 1.5-1.9 W for seeking or max 380 mA. A cheap USB2-SATA casing should add 100 mA. Total current should be under the 500 mA limit on most phones. I wanted to find out if anyone else has done this successfully.

All Mobile Blue drives are specced for 0.9-1A peak current. Peak power consumption is reached when drive motor spins up the disk, so I doubt you'll be able to initialize the disk with your phone even if it's lower than 0.9A.

However, blue drives do use significantly less power to initialize than black 7200rpm units: I've seen slightly underpowered USB 2.0 ports unable to start a WD Black drive while having no problem initializing a Blue drive using the same enclosure.

 

[coercitiv]

Your best option would be a 2.5" enclosure independently powered, either by on board battery or through a secondary 5V/DC port hooked to a Power Bank with at least 1A output.

I would take a look at enclosurers with on board battery and WiFi connection. Something like this maybe.

 

[corkyg]

Yes, there are battery powered external drives. Also, consider using the Cloud.

Since the card reader with full size SD cards works fine, why not carry several SD cards for portable capture, and then move the data to a regular external drive when you "return to base.?"

 

[serendip]

I'm trying to have an ultralight travel solution with a mirror of my desktop work files and an archive of music and movies, without relying on online connectivity. I travel by air and to rural sites a lot and every gram counts

The My Passport drive works with phone OTG when I connect it to a powered hub or to an unpowered hub with a power bank also attached. That's still unwieldy so I still want to make the single drive setup work. I've also read reports of older and smaller 500 and 250 GB drives working on phone OTG without extra power.

IIRC my old EE classes, power = voltage * current.

From WD spec sheets, WD Blue 2.5" 1TB uses on average read 1.4 W = 5 V * 280 mA. That current is still within the 500 mA given by most phone OTG implementations.

On the other hand, the same spec sheet lists peak current of 900 mA at 5 V. If that's the case, then this crazy idea is doomed to fail

I'm still surprised the My Passport works on my Lenovo Miix 2 8 tablet. It's similar to a Dell Venue 8 Pro, I would have thought max current was limited to 500 mA but it has no issues powering up and running the Passport.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I'm trying to have an ultralight travel solution with a mirror of my desktop work files and an archive of music and movies, without relying on online connectivity. I travel by air and to rural sites a lot and every gram counts

Just a thought, but have you considered something like the WD My Passport Wireless?

With one of those you don't even need to bring cables along. As an added bonus there is a card reader included.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330#Tab2

 

[corkyg]

and now you can get a 200GB SanDisk Ultra microSD that will fit into a smartphone's micro SD slot. Surely that is enough for your mobile storage need. I do assume you have a Smartphone? If so, it can access cloud storage via your phone connection. My phone has a hotspot feature, and with that, I can access a Wi-Drive, a battery powered wireless storage unit with a USB port.

Much of this relies on the capability of your phone and what your carrier allows.

And, I just realized my Toshiba CanVio II (1 TB) will connect to my smartphone. That should work if your phone allows it.

 

[coercitiv]

IIRC my old EE classes, power = voltage * current.

From WD spec sheets, WD Blue 2.5" 1TB uses on average read 1.4 W = 5 V * 280 mA. That current is still within the 500 mA given by most phone OTG implementations.

On the other hand, the same spec sheet lists peak current of 900 mA at 5 V. If that's the case, then this crazy idea is doomed to fail

The drive does use 1.4W on average read, but when you plug it in, the motor needs to spin up the platter and uses considerably more power.

PS: no, no, I refuse to make a car/plane analogy!

 

[serendip]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm a bit cheap, a 128 GB microSD costs more than a 1 TB portable drive and a 200 GB microSD would cost a fortune. Less space, more cost, no go. I haven't tried these WiFi drives but I would prefer an offline, cabled solution because I'm often in areas with poor reception.

To corkyg, what phone do you have and what OTG cable or hub did you use with the Canvio? I've got a Xiaomi Note and a Galaxy S5, I hope both will work with the Toshiba.

 

[Carson Dyle]

How is it that nobody has mentioned an external SSD instead of HDD?

What kind of battery life would you expect from a smartphone spinning an external hard drive?

 

[serendip]

No SSD, I need lots of cheap storage Apparently SSDs need lots of power for initializing also.

It's not meant to be constantly attached to the phone. I only need to hook it up to copy over movies for later viewing or to pull up work files.

It's hard to find tech specs on portable drives. Nobody reviews them to work with phones and the average/peak power aren't listed either.

 

[corkyg]

My phone is a Moto Droid Maxx. I only use it when I travel, and then only for phone calls and as a hotspot, I have that as part of my VZW subscription. I don't use my phone as a computer - it simply supports my tablet when on travel so I don't have to bother with public Wi-Fi - a great security tisk. Movies? Never have time for such things.

 

[Valantar]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm a bit cheap, a 128 GB microSD costs more than a 1 TB portable drive and a 200 GB microSD would cost a fortune. Less space, more cost, no go. I haven't tried these WiFi drives but I would prefer an offline, cabled solution because I'm often in areas with poor reception.

The WiFi drives mentioned are "offline." They set up their own WiFi network that you connect to, and transfer files through an accompanying app. Internet access/cell reception doensn't factor into this at all. They can also be used as ordinary USB drives in a pinch, although I doubt the internal battery would help spin up the drive when connected by OTG. I would definitely go for one of these if I were you.

 

[serendip]

I'll give these WiFi drives a try, thanks for the tip.

To corkyg again, how did you connect your Toshiba drive to the phone? Like this:
Droid Maxx -> USB OTG adapter -> USB cable -> Toshiba Canvio drive

If that works, I just might pick up a Canvio knowing it can be powered up solely by a phone.

 

[corkyg]

I can't try that because I don't have the proper cable. It would require a micro USB at each end. Another possibility exists - my Droid Maxx has Bluetooth tethering. If I had an external drive with battery powered BT, that should work. Definitely a technical curiosity.

On second thought, this might be a good solution:

http://www.toshiba.com/us/accessories/Storage/Canvio-AeroMobile-Wireless-SSD/128GB/HDTQ112XCWF1