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s_86s_86 Registered User regular
edited July 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
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s_86 on

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    sYnistersYnister Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    i have one of these hanging around the house. if im not mistaken, one USB connection is for the data transfer and the other is to draw power from the computer to spin the hard drive. if you take a look at other conventional external harddrives, they usually come with an AC adapter and this takes the place of it. i think.

    sYnister on
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    matt has a problemmatt has a problem Points to 'off' Points to 'on'Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Yep. You find external DVD drives like this also. It's a heavier drain on your laptop battery of course, but it means you can be truly portable without having to search for an AC outlet.

    matt has a problem on
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    pacbowlpacbowl Los AngelesRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    The second cable is in case using just the one cable doesn't supply enough power to the hard drive, as in some older computers. If it works with just one, then you don't need to plug in the second one.

    pacbowl on
    steammicro.php?id=pacbowl&pngimg=background&tborder=0
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    embrikembrik Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    pacbowl wrote: »
    The second cable is in case using just the one cable doesn't supply enough power to the hard drive, as in some older computers. If it works with just one, then you don't need to plug in the second one.

    Exactly right. Also, I'd recommend against plugging the drive into two separate computers at the same time. I don't know what would happen, but it's either not going to do anything, or it'll do something potentially harmful to the drive.

    embrik on
    "Damn you and your Daily Doubles, you brigand!"

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    contrabandcontraband Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    embrik wrote: »
    pacbowl wrote: »
    The second cable is in case using just the one cable doesn't supply enough power to the hard drive, as in some older computers. If it works with just one, then you don't need to plug in the second one.

    Exactly right. Also, I'd recommend against plugging the drive into two separate computers at the same time. I don't know what would happen, but it's either not going to do anything, or it'll do something potentially harmful to the drive.

    I didn't know these kinds of drives/computers existed, and I'm very curious as to what would happen... Don't do it though, OP.

    contraband on
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    pacbowlpacbowl Los AngelesRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I've had a couple of these USB powered drives and from what I can tell the extra cable is only used to draw additional juice for the drive. Anytime I plug in just the "power" cable, the drive lights up but the computer does not see it, until the regular "data" cable is plugged in. Based on this, I don't see a problem with plugging both into different computers, but would recommend not doing so unless you absolutely have to for some reason.

    pacbowl on
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