Are USB powered external hard drives reliable?

grfisgd

I always used AC powered external hard drives without much any fails. I want to purchase a portable version 2.5" drive but its powered USB only. Its 2TB and the content will be fairly important to me. Are they reliable /good investment? I'm looking at a My Passport 2TB portable USB for about $120. Any advice?

Answer
I have never had a problem with an external USB-powered drive. The largest I have had was 750gb so far so I can't speak about TB+ drives. I don't know that I would be comfortable with something greater than 1TB as the data is so densely packed which means that all the teeny tiny magnetic specks on the disk are that much smaller. You might google your dirve and see what the alleged MTBF (mean time between failures) is.

What are things you need to know about a Portable Hard Drive?

Kayla ~

Does it just plug & go like a normal USB Thumb Drive? Do I have to back up everything on my computer or can I pick what I want to put on the drive? I just want to put some pictures & music on there so it's not on all my laptop desktop. It's not for business use or anything.

Answer
It works almost like a thumb drive but consider that is much more fragile than a solid state media.

On a portable HD you actually carry a laptop hard drive on a case. Depending on the speed and capacity it will have energy needs. USB 2.0 has a certain capacity as far as power goes, so some USB hard drives will require two USB ports to work properly, one for data and the other for extra juice.

Consider this when buying one. They are mostly pretty sturdy, I have dropped mine and has survived fine, but don't consider it as a main media back up since due to its size and the fact that is mobile, it will be more fragile than a regular external back up HD.

I keep a complete back up of important files in an external iOmega HD (powered, 2TB) and carry around a 500 GB Maxtor, but I had to buy a powered hub because it kept on shorting my USB ports when I connected all my other peripherals (mouse, Keyboard, etc. etc.)

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Recommendations for a replacement upgrade laptop?

portable hard drive 2tb powered usb image

tiddled

Currently I own a Gateway laptop wth 2gb and 120 memory. Want to spend under $700. with more memory and a faster speed.

Answer
You have a lot of options.

Hard Drive space is not that important any more with all the external HD that you can get. From the time Western Digitals Passport which just use a USB port and are totally portable, to a 1-2TB USB HD that you plug into the power strip at yoru desk and keep it there, and it also connects by USb or Fireware, but needs a powersource to run and are a lot bigger.

As far as laptops, you will need to know what your CPU speed is on your current system, so you can make sure you are getting one faster. Also check the cache. If you are on a celercon type CPU that is why its slower, as it has less cache memory in the chip. This is the memory that the CPU has to maximize operations that are done often. 1mb is min, 2mb is better and faster. 6=8mb are great, but will be out of yoru budget. (a T6400 is a good CPU, that will not break the bank!)

2gb of ramm for what you are doing should be fine. If you want 3-4gb then get it,because if you do any gaming or working with photos or watching video or anything else like that it will help keep it faster.

A dedicated Video Card with Ramm, will speed your system up a lot also.

Right now Dell has a sale on the Studio 15 and its pretty well done, even has 4gb ramm for $699. Its a well set up 15inch system, with a good CPU and 320gb hd. For $100 more you an get a 17inch one instead. You can also customize them how you want them, so you get what you want and need. The Insperon 15 can also be customized to fit your needs, and will be less than the studio. ( I just did an insperon 15 with a t6400 CPU, 64 bit Vista, 250Gb HD, 256 dedicated video, 4gb ramm, 6 cell battery and its total is 719! That is a great deal.

Other option would be to check out the Dell Outlet center and get a refrub unit. I have had a few of them and they work just fine. I got the extended warrenty on one and after 2 yrs got a new one when I accidentally dropped it... That is one thing that Dell does so well, great CS!

Also if you can get one with Windows 64 Bit operating system it will be faster and also worth more later and easier to upgrade. Because it can access more of the ramm, and also some programs will run a lot faster as well. Well worth the $30 upgrade charge!!!

External Hard Drive with Power cord vs without?

Kasp

I just bought a 2tb external hard drive, usb 3.0 portable with no power supply.

im curious as to how much faster one with a power cord would be?

I just upgraded from my 1tb usb 2.0, so im definitly going faster. but how much would just a simple power cord and 3.5inch drive be? would the difference even be noticable?

Answer
The benefit of not having an extra thing to plug in is the only difference you will have. It will use more (only a little) power from your power supply. The data rate is a combination of the USB and the data transfer rate of the hard drive. Speed is not affected by input power. By going up to a USB 3.0 is the biggest speed change without going into hard drive specs.

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Do you have to keep External Hard drives plugged into a powerpoint at all times?

portable hard drive 2tb powered usb image

Krystel Za

I just bought my first Portable HDD (Seagate Expansion 2TB) and I was wondering if I had to keep in plugged into a wall all the time. If I wanted to use it on another computer would I need to plug it in or can I use it sort of like a flash drive? Or if I wanted to plug it into a portable mini TV or something like that.
How do you know if its a 3.5 inch or a 2.5 inch?

Answer
Only small, 2.5 inch external hard drives draw power directly from the USB port. No external power is necessary for those.

All big, 3.5 inch external hard drives would require a power adapter.

Should I purchase an external hard drive or a portable hard drive?

me

Which one is going to be the best cost wise and usage wise. I have a lap top and want to mirror image my drive. I want to get a 2TB for memory as I am scanning pictures and stuff on to my drive and currently don't have enough memory to complete everything I want to scan.

Answer
In my personal experience, portables have been more reliable. This doesn't mean that they actually are, it's just my opinion. But your biggest factor of the difference between the 2 is usually cost. Externals tend to be cheaper. If I were in your shoes, I would purchase the portable. They are lighter, and power just fine via USB. But you could also consider going external because you use a laptop. I would assume there would be more power drain on the laptop with a portable. And at the same rate if you got an external, you would have to be near an outlet anyway. So just weigh your choices and decide from there.

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Should I purchase an external hard drive or a portable hard drive?

portable hard drive 2tb powered usb image

me

Which one is going to be the best cost wise and usage wise. I have a lap top and want to mirror image my drive. I want to get a 2TB for memory as I am scanning pictures and stuff on to my drive and currently don't have enough memory to complete everything I want to scan.

Answer
In my personal experience, portables have been more reliable. This doesn't mean that they actually are, it's just my opinion. But your biggest factor of the difference between the 2 is usually cost. Externals tend to be cheaper. If I were in your shoes, I would purchase the portable. They are lighter, and power just fine via USB. But you could also consider going external because you use a laptop. I would assume there would be more power drain on the laptop with a portable. And at the same rate if you got an external, you would have to be near an outlet anyway. So just weigh your choices and decide from there.

When will 2 TB portable external hard drives that do not require an outlet be released?

Forrest

Answer
Drives that do not require an external power connection are 2.5" laptop hard drives. They can pull up to 500mA from a 5 Volt USB port, for a total of 2.5 Watts of max power consumption. Desktop drives on the other hand have no restrictions, and commonly use over 10 Watts -- four times the power -- and are also physically larger, making it easier to manufacture larger capacities compared to 2.5" drives.

The largest laptop drives available at the moment are 1TB, but seem to be a mixed bag when it comes to reliability.

It will be a long time (as in at least two years, going by the way drives have progressed in the past) before we see 2TB laptop drives. Once we do, you will start seeing 2TB USB-powered external drives as well.

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