External Hard disk enclosure

ok so i just brought a new HDD drive for my laptop to put win7 on and i am going to use the remaining storage of the old HDD as a backup drive(im leaving the vista and recovery partitions in place for safe keeping etc).

so i picked up this 2.5" enclosure to put the old hard drive in. it is a usb/eSATA one. it has three ports(dc, esata, mini usb) it also came with three cables... 1 dc to USB (for the power), 1 eSATA to eSATA and one mini usb to USB(x2)

now my question is why is there two usbs on the cord? does the other act as power instead of the dc to usb one? or is it to make data transfer quicker???

can anyone help me on this? and if i forget to plug one in or plug to many in will i stuff up something?

 

I believe and it's been a while since I looked at this, the second plug is for cases when the first plug does not supply enough power. You can use the second to draw additional power. I'd say it's pretty unlikely that a notebook bought recently would need more than one plug. It's probably for older machines. My own WD external came with a single cord.

 

no i dont think i explained it properly...

cord # 1 (know what this does)

esata ---------cord-----------esata

cord # 2 (know what this does)

dc----------------------------USB

cord # 3 (why is there two???)

USB---------------------mini USB
<
. \
. >-----USB

^^ does this make sense?

 

yep I get it.

Did it come with a manual?

Could you download the pdf version of the manual online?

It's probably just there to offer you more options.

 

You should not need the USB--->DC cord if you are connecting through USB. Instead, you just use the mini-USB. One of the USB heads is power only, the other is power/data. You may only need one.

 

ok i think i got it...

two configs...

if im using eSATA

i use the esata cable for data and the dc cable for power...

if im using USB

i use the double headed USB with both pluged in...

the only thing is the double cable is a little short so would it work if i used another single USB cable that is longer for the data and then the dc cord for the power?

also seing as there are two methods of connecting it and two power options is it possible to connect it to two computers at once???

cheers
mtarm1

 

You might be able to connect it physically to 2 computers at once, but without some kind of access controller on the external HDD, only one will be able to access it at any one time, which means you'd have to be forever removing it from the device manager on one to be able to use it on the other.

 

if using e-sata use the dc adaptor as e-sata does not supply power

the twin usb cable is for machines that dont have enough power output in a single USB port to run the drive, so a second end is added as a power tap to supply sufficient power to the HDD

 

yer i thought that but why couldnt i use the dc that is used with the esata as the second power thing???

seems pretty stupid to me

 

Exactly, most of the time the second USB connector is not required.

You should be able to use a different (longer) USB to mini USB cable without any dc power cord. i.e. only the single USB cord only. I have several from cameras that work just fine. Most external USB enclosures do not provide a dual USB to mini USB cord, only single to single.

 

thanks... i havnt actually tried it on my laptop cos i was preping it for win7 but i tried it on my desktop but through the case USB which dont have extra power so that makes sense...

would my acer aspire 5920G have enough power???

thanks

 

Most USB ports have enough power so I would assume so. Just give it a try. Of course the design (power requirements) of your external USB enclosure is included in the determining factor.

For example, no three ended USB cable is included with WD My Passport or any other external enclosures I own. I have two WD My Passport external enclosures with drives as purchased (320GB, 500GB), one Apricorn external 2.5" enclosure, and one Rocketfish external 2.5" USB/eSata enclosure. All the enclosures only require one single USB to mini-USB with no additional power cable required when running a USB transfer.

 

5920 should be good most of my issues happened with the older MBP's, some of the HP DV' series such as the 1000, and a pile of the sony's, they seemed to have limited USB power to 350mw/port and not the specified 500mw.... but I also had a few desktops that had low power ports as well. I do know that thr 5920 and the 5735 both had no issues with any of my externals when on AC power, and I cant remember any on battery needing the second either

 

well good news i have found one of my spare mini USB to USB cables (that is longer thank god...) and i plugged that into the drive and my 5920G's USB port and it works fine... i think it had more to do with my desktop(more specifically yhe front panel USB ports which arnt powered...

ill have to either wait till i get my thermaltake v9 (with eSATA) or go buy a USB expansion card as all my USB ports are full...

thanks very much for all your help guys.

p.s. the enclosure was just a y ritmo one that cost $15... i only got it cos i needed asap...

 

Glad your up and going

 

not exactly... i just had to reboot and the drive wouldnt start... i plugged the dc cord in and it started... i could then take this out and it would keep working, but its just a pain thats all.

it worked the first time with the one cable... oh well

does anyone know if someone makes a cable like this?

USB (male)--------\
------------------->------- USB (female)
USB (male)--------/

cos then i could use my long cable and have the two powering it... but id still loose a USB port...

 

if your handy with a soldering iron you can make one easily, im not aware of a commercial one, but never really looked either you DO NOT want to tap the data lines for the second port though