buy a usb hub?

[mrgreeneyes]

hi, i am trying to look for a usb hub.

i have 5 external drives, and its a pain to disconnect and reconnect all the drives when i need them, is there a usb hub and i can connect all the drives in to then connect the hub to my macbook and be able to use which ever drive i need?

thanks

 

[nanofrog]

Yes.
Just don't try to use more than one drive at a time, or you may grow old waiting for it to finish anything.

 

[txhockey9404]

Just make sure you get a powered hub. If not, most hard drives will not function. However, powered hubs require an external power source, so you will have to be near a plug.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

If those drives aren't 2.5" notebook hard drives, you could create a big pool from all 5 drives and daisy chain them together. So maybe you could create 5 folders, one for each hard drive, with the contents of each drive in their own folder? A powered usb hub and the power source makes things cluttered but does the job.

 

[MacBass]

If those drives aren't 2.5" notebook hard drives, you could create a big pool from all 5 drives and daisy chain them together. So maybe you could create 5 folders, one for each hard drive, with the contents of each drive in their own folder? A powered usb hub and the power source makes things cluttered but does the job.

Daisy-chaining usually only works for FireWire equipped drives. I haven't seen any USB-based hard drives with multiple USB connectors on the back panel. 2.5" drives sometimes have multiple USB connectors, such as a Y-cable, but this is to provide data transfer through one connector and supply power through the other.

There are some 7-port hubs out on the market, however, I've heard some not-so-good comments about most of them. You could always just plug 2 4-port hubs together, and make sure they both come with power adapters. You'll just have to make sure that each of the 5 hard drives is clearly labeled and don't lose your place! I highly recommend the Azio 4-port hub from Newegg. Small, cheap, and durable.