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I forgot to bring the USB cable of my WD Passport with me. I suppose this is an 'opportunity' to buy a slightly longer cable than the one that comes bundled with the drive. But I am a little confused with all the various kind of USB cable. Is this the right type for the drive? Cheers.
Most portable hard drives that I have seen use mini usb, so that will work if yours uses mini usb. There may be a couple of problems though... that cable might not provide enough power or it might be slower than your other cable...
Yeah, random cheap camera cables won't work a lot of the time, just because they're too thin and weak to carry the power. You want as short a cable as you can get away with. That PCWorld one will be thin cable with little insulation to give it flexibility I'd imagine, so no use.
If you're connecting the device to a powered USB source (a powered hub for instance) then you'll have more chances of having a cheaper cable work. If it's the USB ports in a case there's less chance, as the signal has already had to travel all the way from the motherboard to the port before you even connect a device.
My 2.5" IcyBox enclosure (using the same power system as my old PassPort drive) can use USB ports if the single one doesn't provide enough power, though it's never been an issue. Can't say I've even seen such a cable for sale separately though. Perhaps Ebay for an old reconditioned/broken drive PassPort? Failing that, buy something like a 2.5" IcyBox USB enclosure.
Pretty much the cheapest way to get a double ended cable to ensure enough power to your drive is to buy one of these enclosures which come with one of them. It's a bit frustrating that practically no one sells the cables on their own.
Every single of my mini-USB cable worked with my 250G WD passport, nothing you need to worry about really.
If you've seen how thin are those USB cables which came with Seagate FreeAgent drives, those works.
However if you're planning to go over 1.5 metres you may have problem.
Thanks. I do not need anything particularly long, though it would be nice if I do not have to let it sit on top of a bottle to connect to the USB port on my monitor. 75cm would be more than enough. The cable it came with is way too short for anything other than hooking on a laptop though. Does it matter if the cable is rated USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 ? I am thinking of grabbing a retractable/short cable on Ebay, but I see that some are still 1.1 floating about, and others that does not specifically state USB 2.0.