Making an external hard drive with a 2.5" laptop drive

xanthamn · 10-23-2006, 08:32 PM

Hi. I'm having some problems getting laptop hard drives to work in external enclosures that are just USB bus powered. I know you can do it bur I'm not sure how. I only want to use one USB port to power my external hard drive.

I've tried Hitachi Travelstar HTS541080 and Seagate ST94019A.

Are there different enclosures I can buy that will allow me to run a hard drive off of only 1 USB port? Companies like WD sell thei Passport which only runs off on USB port. I've bought a couple cheap, $10 2.5" enclosures that my hard drives have read errors or won't even spin up when using one USB port for power and data transfer instead of an AC adapter. Any suggestions would help. Thanks.

diduknowthat · 10-23-2006, 09:48 PM

The enclosure I have (cheapo 5 bucks one i got in China) runs off 1 or 2 USB ports. Usually it runs off of 1 usb, haven't had to use 2 yet.

Anyways, when you plug in your harddrive to your computer, make sure you don't plug it into a non powered hub, as that would not provide enough power.

10-23-2006, 08:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
xanthamn New Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 3	Making an external hard drive with a 2.5" laptop drive Hi. I'm having some problems getting laptop hard drives to work in external enclosures that are just USB bus powered. I know you can do it bur I'm not sure how. I only want to use one USB port to power my external hard drive. I've tried Hitachi Travelstar HTS541080 and Seagate ST94019A. Are there different enclosures I can buy that will allow me to run a hard drive off of only 1 USB port? Companies like WD sell thei Passport which only runs off on USB port. I've bought a couple cheap, $10 2.5" enclosures that my hard drives have read errors or won't even spin up when using one USB port for power and data transfer instead of an AC adapter. Any suggestions would help. Thanks.

10-23-2006, 09:48 PM	#2 (permalink)
diduknowthat formerly liuliuboy Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Massachusetts Age: 17 Posts: 6,331	The enclosure I have (cheapo 5 bucks one i got in China) runs off 1 or 2 USB ports. Usually it runs off of 1 usb, haven't had to use 2 yet. Anyways, when you plug in your harddrive to your computer, make sure you don't plug it into a non powered hub, as that would not provide enough power. __________________ Silent Tuned \| 3D Marks 06: 11566 Q6600 2.4ghz CPU \| Gigabyte GA-P35 LGA 775 MB EVGA 8800gt 512mb Video Card G.Skill 4GB Ram \| Western Digital 400GB HD X-Fi Xtrememusic Sound Card Antec P180B Case \| Scythe Ninja HSF CM Real Power Pro 650watt PSU

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