I also resemble that... ;) hence the Q.

A post long ago of mine on USB power was directly related to those slim black
box drives. A 250GB (WD) would have trouble on many of the ports around here.
Putting it inside a laptop seemed to work, except it would have errors on spin
up if not spinning. Either a speed or power issue I suppose. The solution was
to not let it shut off. Replaced with a Hitachi 500GB and all is well again.

Not the first USB-powered drive to suck too much power (or something)...

That onerous WD drive is now in the collection for the desktop hot-swap bare
base and works fine there. I'm also trying to retire a whole stack of odd LARGE
black boxes with dedicated wall warts...

The future problem is in keeping these things safe. So far, the bare drive
method is the most convenient - drop in a drive in the slot and 2TB is there.
Need another? Pop it out and another in - no wall wart swapping (which supply
goes to that one now???) or rows of simulated plastic 'books' on the desk - and
no swapping USB cables in and out and tracing to whichever drive it goes to.


On 3/29/2010 4:58 AM, Russell McMahon wrote:
> I resemble that. Quick look in office, Hmm, 18 bare drives. Some few
> dead and hoping for future resurrection, a few IDE PATA, most SATA.
> Pop in cage on desktop. Sizes range from 500 GB down. The few 1TB and
> 1.5TB are in PC or USB cases.
> 
> Where I want an external USB drive I've taken to buying "name brand"
> USB2 black bricks that come in the disk manufacturer's bade engineered
> case with their psu and their drive. Often no dearer than mix and
> match do-you-know-where-your-USB2-drive-controller-came-from
> alternatives. Segate is the most non-user-interactive device I've ever
> seen. No manual (there is a multilanguage sheet but it has NO useful
> information - and it's not needed. There is a connection diagram.  No
> fan. Hardly gets warm. No on/off switch. No install software. Plug it
> in 1st time and it doesn't even do the usual found this found that
> installing xxx - just spins up for a few secinds and then PC announces
> that dive has been installed. Painless and seamless so far (6
> months?). WD1.5 TB almost as transparent.
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