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Hard Drive with both USB2.0/FW 400

i4k20c

i4k20c

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 10, 2005
881
131
Hello,

I am looking for a SELF-Powered USB2.0/FW 400 external hard drive, does such a beautiful piece of hardware exist?
 
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As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
i4k20c said:
although these are great links.. the problem i am having is finding one with both interfaces that are self-powered. :)
Click to expand...

Self Powered for me means having an external AC adapter, so I thought you meant that.

You mean, that the drive is bus-powered obviously, as the drive gets its power via USB or Firewire.

Also, you should have been more specific what size you want and what form factor (2.5" or 3.5").
 
I don't think there are any 3.5" bus-powered externals. They require too much energy to spin. Well I shouldn't say they don't exist, but they are very expensive.
 
brop52 said:
Enjoy
Click to expand...

thank you!

spinnerlys said:
Self Powered for me means having an external AC adapter, so I thought you meant that.

You mean, that the drive is bus-powered obviously, as the drive becomes its power via USB or Firewire.

Also, you should have been more specific what size you want and what form factor (2.5" or 3.5").
Click to expand...

My mistake. :( But if it helps, i am using your above links as well as the link brop52 created to make a list of the 5 most popular bus-powered usb2.0/fw400 ext. hdd with their pro's and con's and would love for you guys to help me decide when i post it here!

:apple:
 
Here is what i come up with so far:
b3d64dfcace8e20ef9ed39e592ccc427.png


Links:
WD My Passport Studio
http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/categoryID.15326100/parid.13092300/catid.15146100

OWC Mercury OnTheGo:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U7500GB16/

Seagate FreeAgent Go:
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-Portable-Drive-Silver-ST905003FJA105-RK/dp/B001KA9QJK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1244324291&sr=1-2

Lacie Little Disk:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10978

A couple of questions:

1. The lacie little disk has two FW 400 ports so can i "daisy chain them" if in the future i ever want to get another?

2. I have a 12inch 1.5ghz Powerbook, and i know when I use another 2.5inch portable hdd that I need to plug it into BOTH my usb 2.0 ports... does that mean that will ALSO be the case with these hdds if i choose to use usb or is a brand by brand thing?

thank you. :eek:
 
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i4k20c said:
Here is what i come up with so far:

A couple of questions:

1. The lacie little disk has two FW 400 ports so can i "daisy chain them" if in the future i ever want to get another?

2. I have a 12inch 1.5ghz Powerbook, and i know when I use another 2.5inch portable hdd that I need to plug it into BOTH my usb 2.0 ports... does that mean that will ALSO be the case with these hdds if i choose to use usb or is a brand by brand thing?

thank you. :eek:
Click to expand...

Links would be nice, so that we can have a better look at them, as the OWC HDD seems quite expensive compared to the others.

I personally would go with either the WD My Passport Studio or the LaCie Little Disk, as both are quite reasonably priced and have two firewire ports, which means you can daisy chain them.

I don't know about the USB powering. But I seem to recall that one USB port had more power than the other, so you could always try, to power it via only one USB cable. I for once only need one USB port right now top power a 465GB 2.5" HDD.
 
spinnerlys said:
Links would be nice, so that we can have a better look at them, as the OWC HDD seems quite expensive compared to the others.

I personally would go with either the WD My Passport Studio or the LaCie Little Disk, as both are quite reasonably priced and have two firewire ports, which means you can daisy chain them.

I don't know about the USB powering. But I seem to recall that one USB port had more power than the other, so you could always try, to power it via only one USB cable. I for once only need one USB port right now top power a 465GB 2.5" HDD.
Click to expand...

thank you very much! okay, so if it has two ports that does mean that it can daisy chain them! I do not think the WD has two FW ports, but i could be mistaken. :eek: Also the WD has a FW800 port & USB 2.0 while my computer only has a fw 400 port (but provided is a fw800->400 port) is there any downside to this?

After making that chart i felt like my best luck is the seagate freeagent go or lacie little disk, but i'm still not positive and definitely don't know which to go with between the two.
 
I purchased the Seagate, but not the Mac version (there was a large price difference when I bought it and I really didn't need the firewire at the time).

It's been a great drive, but honestly, I don't care for the way it lights up. The WD looks a lot better, but I've always had great results with Seagate, so that, along with the warranty, is why I chose to go with them.

As for the FW800 -> FW400, I don't think there's any negative to that, you'll just have the FW800 if you ever end up having a computer with that port.
 
davidg4781 said:
I purchased the Seagate, but not the Mac version (there was a large price difference when I bought it and I really didn't need the firewire at the time).

It's been a great drive, but honestly, I don't care for the way it lights up. The WD looks a lot better, but I've always had great results with Seagate, so that, along with the warranty, is why I chose to go with them.

As for the FW800 -> FW400, I don't think there's any negative to that, you'll just have the FW800 if you ever end up having a computer with that port.
Click to expand...

thank you. after doing some research i found out that the seagate dock has a FW800 cord directly attached to it, so it'd be no good for my computer anyway, which makes me :( So it might have to be between WD & Little disk, the 5 year warranty is definitely something that is VERY attractive since HDD are definitely known to break down once in awhile.
 
Do you absolutely need firewire? I know I wanted it when I bought mine, but since the new MacBooks don't have it, I decided it wasn't really necessary. If I can get a new job soon, I do plan on getting a uMB, but really doubt I'd get an iMac or MBP.

As for the warranty, I've heard, and my experience has been, that if a hard drive's going to fail, it will fail within the first 6 months to a year. I don't remember how old the hard drive is in my PC, but I know it's getting close to 5 years and I haven't had any problems with it, although it did replace one about 4 months into it's life.
 
The OWC 500GB you linked to is $219 not $249. Remember, you can switch the HDD out of the OWC enclosure any time you want. The others don't have that luxury. Not to mention the one that was linked to is a 7200 RPM drive while the others don't have that.

You also linked to the prices and models of 5400 RPM and USB only drives. How can you get a proper comparison? You also posted the wrong price of the OWC drive.

OWC 500GB 5400 RPM USB only $119.99

OWC 500GB 5400 RPM USB/F400 $139.99

OWC 500GB 7200 RPM USB only $189.99

OWC 500GB 7200 RPM USB/F400 $219.99

WD MyPassport Studio 500GB 5400 RPM F800/F400/USB $145.97

Seagate FreeAgent Go 500GB 5400 RPM F800/400/USB $159.99

Lacie Little Disk 500GB 5400 RPM USB/F400 $136.99

My opinion is that the OWC drives tend to be the best because of their firewire chipsets and known quality firmware for Macs. The OWC drive at 7200 RPM is faster than the others but unless you use F800 you wouldn't probably see a difference anyway. So 5400 RPM is probably fine.

FYI, buying from Macmall, Newegg, or a lot of other stores can get you cash back.
 
i4k20c said:
thank you. after doing some research i found out that the seagate dock has a FW800 cord directly attached to it, so it'd be no good for my computer anyway, which makes me :( So it might have to be between WD & Little disk, the 5 year warranty is definitely something that is VERY attractive since HDD are definitely known to break down once in awhile.
Click to expand...

HI - the 500GB WD Passport Studio is available from authorized retailers on ebay for about 130-135 shipped. Just search ebay for them. WD still honors the warranty, etc. so don't worry about that. The WD passport studio is a really nice drive and so far, the only con I could find was that it doesn't offer eSATA. I posted benchmarks for the drive on another thread.

Good Luck with your purchase!
 
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