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Thread: External Hard Drives: Slim versions

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    External Hard Drives: Slim versions

    Hi dudes.

    Gotta buy a bloke from work a leaving gift, and I think a slim external drive, USB powered, would suit the cause.

    I've used one long ago that Jiff had (still has I believe) that was incredible really, needing no power brick and running from USB bus power.

    I'd like something from 80 gig to 120 gig, and he's a fairly cautious chap, who has very slim mobile phones and never ever drops them,( unlike myself who needs everything encased in bullet-proof runner,) so slim, stylish and must always run on USB.

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...=461&OrderBy=3

    What do I need? Anyone got any of these?

    And moreover anyone had one that they just hated...and why?

    oh....nearly forgot...will happily make one from external enclosure and lap top style drive if you guys think its worth it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    I bought an Akasa 2.5USB enclosure and lobbed a Travelstar laptop drive in it. Works like a dream.

    £20 for the enclosure from PC World, and about £60 for a 100GB disk. It has two cables, both USB, one being auxillary power if the machines USB doesn't have enough juice.

    Advantages are you can upgrade the disk easily without screwing any kind of warranty.

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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    they all do as you want really.

    As long as it is a fairly modern 2.5" drive, it is going to be well under the 500mA limit of USB.

    I've got a collection of 2.5" enclosures i've aquired over the years. Using a Thecus YesNANO right now, it can be a pain because it needs a USB-A to USB-A cable as opposed to the standard USB-A to mini USB. Also doesn't like unmounting in XP the first time, works the second though.

    The YesNANO has the advantage of being a USB host device though, so you can dump the contents of memory cards etc. onto it with the press of a button. It also comes with an external power pack so technically i can hook it to my Archos AV500 as an external drive

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Funkstar View Post
    The YesNANO has the advantage of being a USB host device though, so you can dump the contents of memory cards etc. onto it with the press of a button. It also comes with an external power pack so technically i can hook it to my Archos AV500 as an external drive

    you see...I'm glad I did this thread.

    I had never ever considered that you might need 2 USB plugs to power a drive...OR that a power brick allows it to act as a host.

    ok....thanks guys. Any more info greatly appreciated.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    normal 2.5" enclosures should all power the drive from the USB, although they often come with double headed cables that let you provide more power just in case.

    The YesNANO only needs the power pack when being used away from a PC.

    (as an asside, the power pack is quite useful, it has the same "standard" 5v conncetor as my Archos and some other devices so i can use it as a battery pack for them too. nice bonus)

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    should I make one or just buy one? It seems only worth making one if I prefer the case and want to choose my hard drive.

    Which brings me to my next question: What are in these drives? What make of HD are in LAcia dn Freecom? If it's MAxtor, I maybe better building my own with an Icybox enclosure and a WD drive.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    Does he need a reason? Funkstar's Avatar
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    Maxtor don't make 2.5" drives do they?

    laptop drives are all pretty good from what i can tell, so you should be alright.

    I seem to think that the warrantees on a lot or retail gear (WD perhaps?) is 1 year, but if you assemble it yourself you end up with a drive that has a 3 or 5 year.

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    I need a coffee jamena's Avatar
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    well...I bought the el cheapo (about a fiver) Sumvision branded 2.5" external case and stuck an old mac harddrive into it. Looks pretty nice though it did seem rather flimsy on the inside with more HDD movement than I'd like (bit of card soon fixed that) Powers off usb just fine.

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    it all sounds good enough that my power brick Icybox might have been a bad choice!

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    I need a coffee jamena's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zak33 View Post
    it all sounds good enough that my power brick Icybox might have been a bad choice!
    exactly what I thought when the sumvision thing arrived ... though 2.5" drives get expensive fast for the higher capacities and don't go nearly as high as their 3.5" counterparts!

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    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=433267

    I'm picking one of those up from the CityLink Depot in Aberdeen on Saturday, I shall report back on it after the weekend, but i've had a play about with my cousins one and it feels and looks excellent, not the quickest drive...but boy it looks good!
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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    ok, kidzer, that would be great to hear from you about it. COnvenience, length of cable, speed, compatibility etc.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

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    Bonnet mounted gunsight megah0's Avatar
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    LN8393
    100 Gb Fujitsu MHV2100AH Notebook, 2.5" IDE (PATA), 5400 rpm, 8MB Cache, 12 ms £33.21 £39.02
    LN18864
    Icy Box 220U-WH External White aluminium case 2.5" PATA HDD Case inc display, USB2.0, buspowered £7.99 £9.39

    £50 delivered for something that looks awesome and will perform very nicely indeed.
    Recycling consultant

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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    Got a WD Passport myself (just the old 40gb version), and I haven't any complaints at all - I even dropped it down some concrete steps, and it still came away with a few scratches, but nothing more.

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    Picked one of these up from amazon the other day and they were a mere £45 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digi...2543310&sr=8-1
    Very quiet indeed, seems well made and is surprisingly quick. Just need to overcome the WD prejudice!

    EDIT: Btw save you having to follow the link its a 120GB Western Digital Passport drive.

    Cheers,

    -----------------------------------------------------

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    well ive had one of the Thecus boxes for a year or so and it's a great package: very nice looking, proc#tective wallet, cables, battery pack included. I got it so that i could take it on holiday with me and use it to 'suck' the pictures from my digicams mem card via a usb cardreader. Rather that than take a laptop, or id walk around with my laptop all day trying to find an unsecure wifi signal

    I find that most modern systems power the drive fine via 1 usb, but some older systems you need to usethe second one. Oh, and since i upgraded the drive to a seagate last month... it never gets recognised by windows first power on... i always have to let it try too detect, fail, power off-power ono then it works. Which is a bit annoying. My 30gb western digitall drive worked fone in it though....


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