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    external Lenovo secure hard drive question

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by xwray, Jan 21, 2009.

  1. xwray

    xwray Notebook Enthusiast

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    This hard drive ships with an attached usb cable and a USB "power cable" that connects between the hard drive and a spare USB jack. My question is, is it required to use the power cord in all cases or will the attached USB cable provide sufficient power for the drive to work properly.

    thanks for any feedback
     
    xwray, Jan 21, 2009
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  2. jaredy

    jaredy Notebook Virtuoso

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    If it is came with a USB power cable as well then you likely need both. But the easy way to figure it out is just to plug in the drive sans power cable and see if it works...
     
    jaredy, Jan 21, 2009
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  3. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    Nah, many drives include both (including my Seagate Freeagent Go 2.5" drive) in case you want to plug it into a USB 1.1 port - a single USB 1 does not provide enough power to run the hard drive, so you need to plug in both the power USB cable and the other USB cable. In USB 2.0 ports, it will work sans the power cable.
     
    MidnightSun, Jan 21, 2009
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  4. jaredy

    jaredy Notebook Virtuoso

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    Oh, USB 1.1...

    Anyways OP read the product manual or just try it...
     
    jaredy, Jan 21, 2009
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  5. erik

    erik modifier

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    the product manual says that the cable is only needed with low-power USB ports (namely USB 1.1) and/or long distances.

    i have the 320GB secure HDD since it was released and have never had a problem running it on USB 2.0 systems without the power cable.

    if you plug it into a USB 1.1 port without the power cable then the drive simply won't spin up.   been there, done that.
     
    erik, Jan 21, 2009
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  6. xwray

    xwray Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks to all of you for your replies
     
    xwray, Jan 21, 2009
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  7. MaX PL

    MaX PL Notebook Deity

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    i have one of the Seagate FreeAgent drives mentioned above. it comes with both cables and i only use the USB one.
    its annoying having the other cable sort of hang there, but at the same time, friends of mine with WD drives from same era(last year haha), their drives will not function sometimes due to a lack of power; and they dont have that extra power cable.
     
    MaX PL, Jan 21, 2009
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