External Hard Drive

Hey everyone. I wanted to see if anyone knows of a large (>150 gb) external hard drive that doesn't require external power, so that it could run from the USB of a laptop. I have a 160 gb drive now which I use for all of my videos and pictures, but it would be really nice to be able to use it without plugging it in. Thanks.

I have only seen 2,5" hd enclosures that could be powered via the USB cable. And I think the max capacity of 2,5" harddisks are either 100 or 120 GB.

Anything above 120gb at the moment as far as i am aware needs external power!!
This isnt to say that with the technology advancing the way it is at the moment that this will b the case for long!!! only problem i have with a usb powered hard drive is that it sux the batteries dry!!! they seem to be VERY SORE on batteries and if u need to use this for prolonged periods they suck the life outta ur laptop!!!

saying that.. you might be safer with the likes of a battery backup unit to power the laptop!!!

Neil

As said and IMO there is no external 3.5 inch harddrive that can be supplyed with the power from a USB port.
And AFAIK that will not be for soon because the power a USB port can deliver is limited for low currents.

I kinda expected that. Has anyone used the 2.5" inch drives at all?

I purchased a small unit off ebay that lets you put a small laptop hard drive in it and you can attach compact flash cards to it and press a button and it will dump all the pictures to the hard drive ready for more.. I am yet to buy a hard drive for it but I believe it supports up to 80 gig.. Maybe more. I believe you can get a 120GB 2.5" laptop hard drive. The unit has a built-in lithium battery which is rechargable.

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I know a lot of people that use them with great success. I used one to "ghost" a new hardrive for my laptop just a couple of days ago.

I've walked around with a plain-jane USB 2.0 2.5" HD enclosure with an 80gig laptop drive for years now.. no external power needed, I've plugged it in to desktops and laptops alike with no problems.
I don't know how long a laptop battery will last trying to power this thing since I'm very quick to get what files I need and then pack the drive away if I'm out on the road.
The only drawback is it's a "dumb" hard drive.. it can't read files or upload/download anything on its own; it requires a computer to funciton. But it's great for portable file storage!