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    Teddykhil's Avatar
    Teddykhil Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
    New Member
    		  
    #1

    Mar 28, 2008, 07:36 PM
    USB External 2.5" HDD
    G'day there. I have a USB 2.5" Laptop external case with my back up stuff I use at TAFE College. Been working fine, no probs. I have loaded Mojo onto it as I can load Office 2007 and use it on the pc's at class time instead of Office 2003. One day I plugged it in and nothing, wouldn't show up but green light was on. Worked out that the enclosure was stuffed and purchased another new one. Plugged it into a friends PC and found it no probs. I got home to my own PC and Laptop, 'Nothing', it starts up saying there is a HDD connected but will not show up anything. It blinks 1 red, pauses, then blinks 6 times, continues to do this on both PC and laptop. The green light is always on.
    I'm using Vista Premium on PC tower and Lappy is Win XP Pro SP2, both have found the drive before with no probs.

    Hope you can help, cheers and thanks in advance.
    TTFN, Kev
    HVAC888's Avatar
    HVAC888 Posts: 674, Reputation: 75
    Senior Member
    		  
    #2

    Apr 8, 2008, 10:45 AM
    The usb port may not be supplying enough current. USB specs allow 500mA of current, but most implementations are around 250mA, depending on motherboard, hence it works on your friends PC and not yours.

    2.5" drives need at least 500mA to startup.

    You can try connecting to the rear usb ports of a desktop PC instead of the front usb.

    Use an external ac adapter. One should have been included with the external case.
    retsoksirhc's Avatar
    retsoksirhc Posts: 912, Reputation: 71
    Senior Member
    		  
    #3

    Apr 8, 2008, 10:50 AM
    Side note about USB drive enclosures and power consumption...

    I bought a reeeeeal cheap one a few years ago on eBay, it's pretty cool.. it's a 2.5" enclosure, but it doesn't have the option of an external power supply... it actually came with a sort of... dual USB cable. There's 2 of the rectangular plugs that connect to the computer, but one is for data and power, and the other is just for power. I always thought it was kind of cool... though it puts more stress on the USB root hub, as it has to supply more power that way, for a single device.
    HVAC888's Avatar
    HVAC888 Posts: 674, Reputation: 75
    Senior Member
    		  
    #4

    Apr 8, 2008, 10:58 AM
    I have one of those too, it was my first and only foray into 2.5" external enclosures. The enclosure was cheap enough, but back then those laptop drives were quite expensive.
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