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Passport external drives and MBP

L

Luis Ortega

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 10, 2007
1,210
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I was looking at the little passport external drives as a useful accessory to my laptop, but I was wondering if they can run well from the laptop power or if they require a separate power adapter?
Thanks for any advice.
 
I don't have Passport, but Seagate FreeAgent - and it comes with two USB "plugs". Sometimes there's enough power from one for the HDD to operate without a problem, and sometimes the one supplies too little power and I have to plug the second one in order for the HDD to work. So, i guess it depends on some heavenly forces or some other sort of science mischief which I don't understand.
 
I use the 320GB Passport on my 17" MBP and have no problems with it at all. I got it at Best Buy on sale for $125. If I were to do it again, however, I think I would build my own with an internal 2.5" drive (maybe 7200rpm) and put it into a portable OWC Firewire 800 case. Same portability as the Passport but a huge bump in speed.
 
I think the passport's can run off the laptop's power and doesn't require to be plugged in to the wall directly.
 
The Passport runs fine powered by the USB port. I had one (which I replaced my internal drive with).
 
bov said:
but is it required to be plugged into 2 usb ports?
Click to expand...

It runs off a single USB on any Mac laptop (but maybe not laptops from 12 years ago).

However, there are some Windows laptops that have USBs which can't provide enough power for a Passport to run off a single USB, and so they include a cable that lets you run the drive off 2 USB ports. That's why some people complain about this drive on the internet. However, these complaints don't matter for Mac users, because :apple: laptops are the shizzle. ;)
 
I notice there's a little problem with USB powered devices. I discovered, if you are using the MBP's expresscard slot for other interfaces, such as memory card readers, firewire & usb2 expansion ect.

Occasionally the USB device unmount, disconnect because the power supply isn't 100% stable. However I've not sure how much damage it'll cause the drive it it should unmount while it's reading or writing data.

Has anyone else encountered this?
 
Passport drives run fine from a MB or MBP's USB port(s).

However, you won't be able to connect them to a USB hub off those same ports due to the power requirements.
 
Do you run the Passport and use Time Machine? or Carbon Copy Cloner? I have an external with my iMac and use Time Machine. I am assuming the Passport can do the same thing for my Macbook Pro.
 
One partition of Passport is for Time Machine, the other partition is for photo backup.
 
secretpact said:
I don't think so. I've never heard of a WD passport requiring two USB ports.
Click to expand...

If you have an older laptop such as a Powerbook G4 you'll need to use two USB ports in order to provide enough power to run the hard drive. Without the extra power of the second port, the drive will just blink, beep, or simply not mount.
 
bern1812 said:
They have a blue 320 GB passport at Buy.com for 139.99 and free shipping and tax free
Click to expand...

Also if you sign-up for Google Checkout you get an additional $10 off.

I opted for the Passport Elite 250gb in the Titanium. I think it will go quite well with the Macbook Pro. $121.99 - the $10 for $111.99, couldn't pass it up at that price.
 
WD Passport drives 2.5" will NOT work on PowerBook or iBook with one port, but does work on MBP with 1 port.
 
Luis Ortega said:
I was looking at the little passport external drives as a useful accessory to my laptop, but I was wondering if they can run well from the laptop power or if they require a separate power adapter?
Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...

Heres what I'm using and I love it.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8744727&type=product&id=1202648989640

Small but not so small that you will loose it...lots of storage, fast, and easy to transport. USB plug in and thats all ya need, doesn't suck much battery life. Cant go wrong, plug and play easy.
 
I am currently using a WD 500 GB external and its great. It comes with some nice software AND it was only 129.99 at Cost-co. I HAD a 160 GB Passport but it died. I tried everything short of mouth to mouth but it was no use.
 
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