USB2.0 2.5" laptop enclosures -- which one? which hard drive?

[dowxp]

as i've looked through the inet, it seems to me that one usb cable cannot supply enough power to a 2.5" drive, while others say if you buy a hard drive that is under .5A, you can do so. in any case, which enclosure do you recommend? i'd rather use two usb cables, rather than a ps2 port as most of the dells at school use both ps2 ports with 2 usb ports at the front of the "door".

i do not need more than 5 gb of space, but i am not sure which hard drive to get. does it really matter? they are accustomed to being "thrown" around in a backpack right?

thanks.

 

[Czar]

usb has enough power to power the slower rpm drives, I think 4200rpm

 

[MangoTBG]

Wow. Sounds like there will be a lot of problems trying to implement this. I've never heard of it being done. Do you not have access to an outlet? Surely you do, if there are computers around. Before you try doing something out of the ordinary, like this, why don't you see if there are any outlets that you could use.

Let's say you don't have outlets, is it feasible to unplug the computer next to yours and use that outlet? Just tell whomever wants to use it that they need to find another computer? That's only if there aren't assigned seats and there are enough computers. Even so, all my high school's computer labs had extra power outlets.

Anyways, if that's the case just use any old harddrive and any old USB 2.0 external enclosure.

 

[Jeff7]

This one uses 2 USB ports - one for data, one for additional power; total of 1Amp, at least to stay under spec.

 

[kd7fhd]

i'm running a ibm 9 gig laptop drive in a usb 1.1 case and drawing power from the bus with no problems. i know you're looking at usb 2 but i'm sure there can't be too much difference other than transfer speed.

 

[Mday]

Originally posted by: kd7fhd
i'm running a ibm 9 gig laptop drive in a usb 1.1 case and drawing power from the bus with no problems. i know you're looking at usb 2 but i'm sure there can't be too much difference other than transfer speed.

transfer speeds is the difference. how long does it take for you to fill your 9 GB HDD D:

those ps2 or extra usb ports only supply the HDD iwth 5vdc (regulated), so if you can get a good 5vdc poewr adapter ,you're gtg.