Seagate Launches First USB-Powered Desktop Hard Drive

[Iconoclysm]

No way 30 Amps.

You're right, my math was way off and I'm no electrician. It's more like 8 Amps.

 

[kimtrang]

Great option if you only have a Macbook retina, because that is the only Mac it will work with. Nice case too, but it needs a power inlet to use with a standard USB type a plug.

I could have really used a power adapter free desktop drive 5 years ago. Surely it would be technically feasible with a battery in the HD enclosure.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Off-topic: I'm really frustrated to how Thunderbolt 1/2 have been ditched in such a short period of time. I have two of these ports on my laptop and won't be using them in the foreseeable future...

I still use mine any time I dock it. I have a 2011 iMac and MBP and an Elgato thunderbolt dock. My iMac runs off of external SSDs ( using seagate docks). These docks have two thunderbolt ports ( for daisy chaining) that feed the Elgato and the Elgato has a couple usb3 ports and a couple thunderbolt ports., so I can essentially connect my MBP to the dock and have access to the SSDs, USB 3 drives, and also target mode if I want to use the iMac for the display. The dock also has HDMI out so I can also use my other monitor if I want.

I don't use thunderbolt for portability because my MBP has a 750gb spinning drive and a 256SSD in the optical drive slot. However, I am very happy to have thunderbolt on my older Macs. Running the iMac off of the thunderbolt SSDs is a much better experience than the slow spinning drive that came with it.

As for this drive, I think it has a limited audience, but it is pretty cool that 8 terabytes are so much cheaper these days.