Smallest External Hard Drive Without Sacrificing Storage...

[crimsonnight]

OK, Im trying to get things ready for my pandora, think i've got my SD cards sorted - next is the external hard drive... Im finding it quite hard to find a HD with decent space (200GB and upwards) which isn't relitively big - I think I've found a pretty good, decently priced one here: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=517 (http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WDME...=dp_ob_title_ce (although i think this one's an older model?)) - can anyone find any better ones, or think I should grab one of these - verdict please guys?

 

[Gautama]

I have one of these. I like it a lot.

 

[shadow.8]

Depends on the quality that you are looking for, I found this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/320GB-POCKET-2-5-EXTER...id=p3286.c0.m14

but it doesn't seem like very good quality.... I think that Western Digital drive that you are looking at is probably the best quality drive that you will find.

 

[crimsonnight]

Isn't that drive western digital as well?.. well at least the seller claims it is lol

 

[b._.o._.b]

Do these work without external power? Are they powered by USB only?

 

[TaG]

These Lacie drives are nicely made, small and are my personal choice. They're consistently good value, normally one of the best price branded drives. Powered by one usb.

 

[b._.o._.b]

These Lacie drives are nicely made, small and are my personal choice. They're consistently good value, normally one of the best price branded drives. Powered by one usb.




Very interesting, I thought all USB HD needed external power. This makes buying a 32 GB card not necessary anymore.

 

[TaG]

These Lacie drives are nicely made, small and are my personal choice. They're consistently good value, normally one of the best price branded drives. Powered by one usb.
Very interesting, I thought all USB HD needed external power. This makes buying a 32 GB card not necessary anymore.I'm not certain that the Pandora will power it, bu I have used them with lots of different machines (and versions of OSs) and nothing as had trouble so far, including some very old hardware...

It's also has a marginally smaller footprint than the Pandora at 8.1 cm x 12.8 cm x 1.5 cm. It would fit nicely underneath. I'm not sur of the effect of battery life, so I still want a couple of decent sized SD cards, but I'll wait for a further price drop.

 

[Izomiac]

I'd count on battery life being roughly cut in half. The Pandora gets ~10 hours from a 4000 mAh battery and runs at 5 V (info from a quick googling). 4000 mAh / 10h = 400 mA ==> 5 V * 400 mA = 2 W. So the Pandora uses about 2 W of power by itself. Assuming a USB harddrive pulls close to the maximum power that USB can provide (500 mA at 5 V), that's 2.5 W. So power consumption will about double. More technically, battery life would range from 8 hours (Pandora drawing no power for itself) to 4.5 hours (Pandora going all-out).

 

[cosam]

Do these work without external power? Are they powered by USB only?

I've read that the larger WD Passport drives require more than the 500mA a USB port is required to provide. I've never measured it, but I've seen quotes of up to 1000mA peak. There's nowhere to plug in a power jack, but they do make a special Y cable that allows you to spread the load over two ports and therefore get you back within spec. I have the 320GB model and it works on my desktop machine with the a single cable. The drive however won't spin up when connected to a non-powered hub, although a powered hub works fine. Make of that what you will, but to me it would suggest that you can't power one of these things off the Pandora alone.

 

[huufarted]

Find your largest laptop hard drive. Buy an external enclosure for about $13. I prefer the ones by Mass Cool. Been using them for years. I have yet to see a modern hard drive require more than 1 USB connection to get its power. The older hard drives required external power, but not the new ones that I've ever seen.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.as...top-Hard-Drives

I've had the most luck with Seagate drives (and they're the ones that pioneered perpendicular recording technology)

The enclosure I will recommend (and own 3 of) is here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817145752

Oh, and if a drive DOES require more power than one USB port can supply, the cable that comes with this allows you to draw from 2 ports. Like I said, I've never had to use that prt.

 

[TaG]

Oh, and if a drive DOES require more power than one USB port can supply, the cable that comes with this allows you to draw from 2 ports. Like I said, I've never had to use that prt.

Where you gonna find the other port?

 

[huufarted]

Oh, and if a drive DOES require more power than one USB port can supply, the cable that comes with this allows you to draw from 2 ports. Like I said, I've never had to use that prt.

Where you gonna find the other port?

Like I said, I've never ran into a situation where I needed it.

Btw, I run 7200 RPM drives in them and they still don't require more than one port.

 

[CCmachined]

this 4GB SDHC is great for me. will probably get an 8gb later on, because i desparately need a new phone (soon).

 

[b._.o._.b]

To be on the safe side, I will wait until I've read reports of the Pandora being able to use HD XXXX without a power cord.

 

[undefined]

I have a 1.8 ZIF drive I plan on trying. Waiting for an enclosure now. I think since these drives are usually used in mp3 players with stock batteries of 700mah I am hoping it will not be too much of a burden on the Pandora's battery. Anyone have a useful opinion regarding external ZIF drive usage and battery drain on the Pandora?

EDIT: I should probably search more before asking, but if anyone doesn't mind providing a quick answer/opinion...thanks.

 

[FireHazard51]

Buying a Pandora just might of saved me from buying a laptop. It's been so long since I bought my external hard drive case that I didn't realize that they could be powered by one USB port. I'm so going to put my porn, anime, cartoons, and old tv shows on a huge external hard drive for my deployment. I'll be able to watch my shows, play video games, chat, e-mail, and take it with me to the bathroom for some personal viewing . I know there will be other soldiers buying Pandoras after they see what I can do with mine.

I'll be sure to let everyone know how my Pandora setup works. Hopefully I'll get lucky and my setup won't have any hiccups.

 

[crimsonnight]

hm... so im confused - are you guys saying the pandora definitely wont be able to power that WD drive at all? even if it like totally wipes out the battery, I could always attach the pandora to the mains, and still use the HD to watch movies and stuff... or will that not be possible?

 

[cosam]

hm... so im confused - are you guys saying the pandora definitely wont be able to power that WD drive at all?

I wouldn't personally say it definitely won't, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

even if it like totally wipes out the battery, I could always attach the pandora to the mains, and still use the HD to watch movies and stuff... or will that not be possible?

It's not a question of battery capacity, but of the USB port. All available information suggests the port will not provide more than 500mA, and a lot of drives seem to need more than that. Attaching to the mains therefore wouldn't help as the current would still be limited by the Pandora itself (unless, when it detects it's running on mains, it does allow higher currents).

However, all is not lost. If your drive can take an external power supply, you can use that to power the drive and everything will work fine. Even if the drive only takes power through USB, you can get it going by using a powered hub, and maybe the Y-cable depending on how much power the hub can supply per port.

 

[crimsonnight]

cheers for taking the time to reply ^^ but what this support representative has to say changes things a little doesn't it?...

I contacted the WD helpdesk the other day with all the information I could muster up (Pandora specs/this forum thread lol) and I have just recieved a repsonse:

Dear Grant,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.


The will probably power up but the page says that the drive needs to have it's drivers which it does not have, these are found in the windows or MAC OS so i'm not sure if it will work.
These devices have not been tested with our drives.


If you have any further questions do not hesitate too contact us.

Sincerely,
Danny
Western Digital Service and Support

Obviously I understand what he's saying, but what do you guys make of it?