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Bus-Powered External Firewire Drives?
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Laurel, Maryland
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So I'm looking into buying an external firewire hard drive, and I'm having trouble finding one in my price range (~$100) that's big enough (at least 80GB) and will also draw its power from the firewire bus instead of needing an AC cable. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Since bus powered hard drives are typically 2.5" (laptop sized) instead of 3.5" (desktop size) due to power limitations, I doubt you'll find 80GB in an enclosure for $100. The drives alone start at $125 and the enclosure is at least another $25.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA
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I think you'll have to spend a bit more than you think. Those little 2.5" drives are more-expensive than the 3.5" counterparts. It is convenient not needing AC power, though.
BTW -- I find firewire to be better than USB with the bus-powered drives. I think firewire puts out more power to make the drive work. I recently bought a USB case and it wouldn't spin a 5400 rpm drive.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Originally Posted by tomrock
I think you'll have to spend a bit more than you think. Those little 2.5" drives are more-expensive than the 3.5" counterparts. It is convenient not needing AC power, though.
BTW -- I find firewire to be better than USB with the bus-powered drives. I think firewire puts out more power to make the drive work. I recently bought a USB case and it wouldn't spin a 5400 rpm drive.
I've seen bus-powered USB drives, and some now even have two plugs to get enough power for 5400/7200RPM drives.
USB provides 2.5W per port and the 5400/7200RPM drives need 2.4-2.8W to spinup (and about 2W during operation). While the Firewire bus supports up to 45W, most Macs can only provide 7-15W for FW devices.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: CO
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A lot of folks seem to diss the USB drives. I'm used to FW400. Can I expect at least that sort of performance from a USB2? I'm using a ALBook 15", and I believe that's got a USB2 port.
(System profiler talks about a "USB High Speed Bus" - that IS USB2, isn't it?)
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TOMBSTONE: "He's trashed his last preferences"
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA
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Mark -- That explains a lot. The USB case I have has two connectors and still won't spin the drive on my 20" iMac w/o camera.
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