Bus Powered USB HDD for MBA

[kieran]

As I wait for Time Capsule to ship, I currently have no backup of my MBA

(I still have the FW HDD that I used with my iMac with most of my stuff on it, but that's back at home now, and useless with the MBA)

I'm looking to get a small USB powered HDD to use to backup until I get Time Capsule and then use it for external storage and second backup for my MBA.

I've seen the Western Digital Passport ones and I think they would be perfect. I'm just wondering if anyone has any other recommendations for what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

[Capella]

My WD Passport works like a charm, so I'd say that's a solid option.

[turtle]

My WD Passport works like a charm, so I'd say that's a solid option.

This is what I'm using for my wife's MB until I can get my server working right. WD is fine for this and it's only one cable.

[Souflay123]

That is what I got for my mba, a little 250 gb one. It is very nice, and fast, plus only one cord, and it is tiny

[Dorian Gray]

My girlfriend has a white 160 GB Western Digital Passport. It's affordable, small, light, rugged and pretty. Superb device. Its only significant shortcoming is that the data transfer rate is sluggish (~18 MB/s read, ~13 MB/s write) compared to internal/FireWire/some USB drives, but that should be of little importance for backup. It also takes a long time to mount when you plug it in: about 15-20 seconds in my case. This may be because it's limited to the USB power spec, meaning spin-up may have been slowed to stay within the power envelope.

Alternatives would be the LaCie range (http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10036) of portable disks.

[Dorian Gray]

My girlfriend has a white 160 GB Western Digital Passport. It's affordable, small, light, rugged and pretty.
Silly thing jumped off my bed today and landed on the carpet floor. The fall was so short and the landing so soft that it didn't even occur to me to worry. Alas, it now fails to appear on the desktop when plugged in, even though it audibly spins up fine. I opened the case to have a look, but everything is inside a silver foil wrapper that, if broken, voids the warranty. Still, I'll try the disk in another enclosure when I get around to buying one. But this is a nuisance, and I'm amazed the drive failed after such a short, cushioned fall.

[turtle]

That sucks. I'll be sure not to ever drop mine then!

[torifile]

That sucks. I'll be sure not to ever drop mine then!
So you've dealt with your falling staplers problem, then? ;)

[turtle]

So you've dealt with your falling staplers problem, then? ;)

:(

Actually that HDD is still in my safe deposit box waiting for me to be able to pay for the data recovery on it. It doesn't hurt as much as it used to, but I have certainly learned from my mistake! :) I treat HDDs like eggs over beds of nails.

[Dorian Gray]

So you've dealt with your falling staplers problem, then? ;)
I treat HDDs like eggs over beds of nails.
:lol:

My own little problem is worse than I thought. Turns out my girlfriend had photos on the drive that she didn't have anywhere else. :o Damn. Going to be real fun if the disk doesn't work in a new enclosure. Anyone have any idea if the USB implementation electronics are more likely to have failed in the drop than the disk itself? I wouldn't have thought so, but it seems incredible that the disk would have died from a 12-inch drop onto thick carpet (though it did land on its corner).

Any hints for good brands to look at for the 2.5-inch disk enclosure (probably FireWire 400 if it's not much more expensive than USB) would also be appreciated.

[turtle]

I really wouldn't be shocked if it's not the enclosure but the drive itself. The heads could have collided with the platters and that's all it takes to kill it. Worse if the drive was spinning when it fell. Sorry, I hope the pics can be recovered.

[Dorian Gray]

Well thanks for the wishes. :)

The drive was disconnected when it fell, so the platters would have been stationary and the heads should have been parked. As I mentioned, it continues to spin up fine, and sounds normal. It just never appears on the Desktop. Might be wishful thinking, but perhaps that implies the disk is getting power but the USB electronics aren't interpreting the signals between computer and drive.

Such a nuisance. I've tried to impress upon my girlfriend the importance of backups, but of course it had to be me who dropped the thing, so now she'll think backing up simply means keeping disks out of reach of her clumsy boyfriend. :lol:

One good thing. Mere hours before the accident I had a discussion with my brother about the (un)reliability hard disks. He said he's never had one fail and believes the risk to be exaggerated. I seem to have given him a nice practical example. :D

[Dorian Gray]

Good news: the disk worked in a new enclosure! So if your Western Digital Passport appears to die, give that a shot. Looks like Western Digital are better at making hard disks than SATA-to-USB electronics.

I ended up buying the Enermax Jazz enclosure (http://www.enermax.com.tw/english/product_peripherals_detail.asp?PrID=83), basically because it was the most expensive in the shop (and therefore the best? :p). Still only 28 euros. It's made of solid aluminium and steel, so it's very heavy (about the same weight as the hard disk inside, whereas the WD Passport enclosure is basically weightless without the disk). The Jazz is apparently a recipient of the 2008 IF product design award too, though I didn't know that when I got it.

I went in looking for a FireWire enclosure, but they didn't have a single model in stock (for 2.5-inch disks).

http://www.enermax.com.tw/admin/pic/20079417534979297.jpg

Popped open the Passport (knife in seam, twist...), gently tore off the foil covering the WD Scorpio drive and electronics, put the drive in the new enclosure, and voilà! All good.

[turtle]

Great news. I'll be sure to use an external enclosure if I happen to have a tragedy with mine. I actually like the case you got too, it's much better than the MadDog case I got from my old MB SATA drive.

[Capella]

Glad to hear you saved it! I shall keep this advice in mind if anything happens to my poor Passport.

[Dorian Gray]

Yeah, you can imagine my relief, considering that my girlfriend's photos were on it (now backed up).

Before buying the new enclosure I tried the Passport on several other computers, both Mac and Windows, clinging to the hope that I'd get it to work on a USB port with slightly different power specs or something. No luck. And when it worked in the new enclosure, I tried the disk again in the Passport just to make double-sure it was definitely broken. It was.

I guess I was somewhat lucky that the disk was off (heads parked) when I dropped it.

[turtle]

I think "somewhat" is grossly understated here. :D