2.5" SATA Enclosure

[LunarMist]

I'm looking for a 2.5" USB-SATA enclosure that is efficient enough to operate a notebook drive without an extra power input. I'd love to go with PATA, but the drives remain at the 160GB maximum capacity over a year later.

 

[LunarMist]

Nobody uses the SATA notebook enclosures? What can I do now?

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=314

 

[mangyDOG]

Vantec make an eSata / USB enclosure for 2.5" drives, I haven't tested one to see if it will work off USB power only, although my USB / Firewire one does just fine.

cheers,
mangyDOG

 

[mubs]

I'm not clear which internal interface you're looking for. If you look at Newegg, you'll find some (you may have to read the comments to be sure). Many will require a second USB wire just for power, though (not sure if you're referring to this issue).

Sata --> USB & eSata, bus powered (off USB port)

Sata --> USB & eSata, bus powered (off USB port)

etc.

 

[LunarMist]

I only have two USB ports, so it much be efficient enough to operate off of one.

 

[Sol]

It's more dependant on your USB ports than the drive in my experience. Some computers they work fine with just one other PCs you need to use a second one to get the same drive to spin up.

 

[MaxBurn]

It's more dependant on your USB ports than the drive in my experience. Some computers they work fine with just one other PCs you need to use a second one to get the same drive to spin up.

x2. Sometimes they won't work on a front USB port and they will work on a rear one too.

 

[mubs]

That's because some USB ports provide the max juice the USB spec allows, and some don't. Notebooks typically don't provide enough juice in USB ports for obvious reasons.

Lunar, I think the first link I provided works off of one port. Again the caveat is what Sol and Max said.

You can check the juice available in the different ports in Device Manager. Expand the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" tree; double click on "USB Root Hub"; select the "Power" tab; at the top, under the heading "Hub Information", total power available per port is listed.

See this Wikipedia article on USB for more info. Relevant extract:

The USB specification provides a 5 V (volts) supply on a single wire from which connected USB devices may draw power. The specification provides for no more than 5.25 V and no less than 4.35 V between the +ve and -ve bus power lines. Initially, a device is only allowed to draw 100 mA. It may request more current from the upstream device in units of 100 mA up to a maximum of 500 mA.

At least one hub on the laptop I'm typing this on provides 500ma per port.

If you check the specs - max and operating current draw - for the drive you will use, you should get a pretty good idea if it will work off of one port or not.

 

[udaman]

I'm looking for a 2.5" USB-SATA enclosure that is efficient enough to operate a notebook drive without an extra power input. I'd love to go with PATA, but the drives remain at the 160GB maximum capacity over a year later.

Bump, this thead wouldn't have any relationship to your new thread would it?

http://www.storageforum.net/forum/showthread.php?t=6748

Just curious, cause you can wait a few months more and get either a Toshiba or Samsung 320GB 5.4k rpm drive in the 2.5in SATA form/interfance. Alienware has a 320GB dual raid option for their 17in, and a 320GB HD, Samsung 64GB SSD option for both 15/17in models

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/09/20/alienware.320gb.notebooks/


https://www.wiebetech.com/webtech.php?sfid=121&pcode=FONB
^^^
I can't off-hand find the FAQ for more drives, but search around and they have similar long list of notes on what typically can or can't be done with bus powered devices (see the white paper for more details on voltages/amps, etc) either Mac or Windows laptop systems. I did not know Apple went with suckier lower power FW ports when switching to the Intel platform...well there you go, yet another reason... never mind .

The newer 7.2k 200GB Hitachi might use up too much power to run off of USB or FW400 ports if you're using 2 of them, and you did read up on the white paper by Wiebe in the PM I sent you about this, yes? Link below for list of WP's.

http://www.wiebetech.com/whitepapers.php

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/cardbus.php
dual independent channel SATA ports through your PC card bus, but you'll probably need to supply AC power to the drives, especially for a 3.5in drive. $50

 

[LunarMist]

This old thread was about an enclosure for a 2.5" notebook drive, not dual 3.5" desktop drives.