Power Solution for External Hard Drive on the Go?

[Veniogenesis]

Hi everyone!

I have an external hard drive. It uses an AC Adapter as a powersource. I want to take it along on a trip though to use with my laptop. How can I power it? External battery pack? Someway to use the USB port on the laptop?

The hard drive is actually a Seagate 160GB UltraATA/100 inside a Vantec NexStar NST-350U2.
http://www.vantecusa.com/product-storage.html


Thanks so much everyone!

 

[V00D00]

You can draw power from the USB, but it won't be enought power a hard drive.

One time I used a really crappy laptop hard drive enclosure and it sucked the power from the USB. It didn't work very well though because it couldn't draw enough power. The drive would power on and it would appear as normal, but then it would freeze. It worked just fine on a normal hard drive enclosure that was using an AC adapter.

I don't really think there are any mobile solutions. That's why they made laptop hard drives. Normal hard drives draw a LOT of power to run off of batteries. One of mine draws something like 1amp at 500mw.

I'm sure you could rig something up with a car battery if you felt so inclined.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I have a 2.5" external drive that draws all power from the USB ports. It's got a Y connector to plug into 2 USB ports if necessary too.

 

[shoRunner]

yeah, this is what 2.5 in external enclosures are made for. a 3.5in drive will not run off usb.