Bus-powered storage

I'm hoping to take a PB G4 Logic system to South Africa to do some remote recording of music in a rural village. Wondering what options might exist for bus and/or battery-powered storage because there's no electricity in the village. Are any of you using a fast, reliable bus-powered external drive with good results? If I record one song per session (then recharge in town), is it an option to consider a USB 2 CompactFlash card for audio recording? Silly idea?
Thank you!

In another post you mentioned 4 tracks, if this is the case I'd just record to the internal and then xfer the files to another device while in town. You'll end up having to buy 14 PB batteries otherwise. If you have a PB other than 12" you should have a few minutes of internal power to swap batteries without outage

Similar Messages

Early 2011 17" MBP -- USB 3.0 portable, reliable, bus-powered option?

Hi everyone,
I have the above mentioned MacBook Pro, and have been scouring the Internet for quite a while trying to find a solid USB 3.0 solution.
Ideally what I'm looking for is accesibility for portable, bus powered USB 3.0, 7200 RPM hard drives.
I know there are limitations in what expresscard/34 can deliver in power, and have been really trying to figure out solutions, as my drive isn't getting sufficient power from my current card, especially if both usb 3.0 ports are occupied (even if the other is just a camera SD card, the HDD will just 'click').
I've looked at different adapters, and Sonnet seems to make a pretty decent one that has two ports, and can be powered by a wall adapter is purchased from a third-party like OWC. This, however, would still leave me in a situation where I would always be reliant upon electricity, detracting a lot from the portability factor. It is also limited to pretty much only storage devices, and doesn't support USB 3.0 hubs
CalDigit makes an adapter as well that seems to be well received, but it cannot be externally powered from what I can tell… so I assume it would not provide enough power to the drives?
One option I have thought of is to get a USB 3.0 y-adapter, and plug the extra "power" USB plug into the adjacent USB 2.0 port.
Would this work, and likely provide enough power? Or would the speed be throttled down to 2.0 speeds?
Another option seems to be the CalDigit Thunderbolt hub, which, while expensive… seems to provide a great deal of value. However, that would really limit my portability and effectively limit my USB 3.0 usage to home, or wherever I drag the box around with me to.
Do any of these seem like they might work, or are there any other options I am not thinking of?
It seems like the only way I will have true USB 3.0 functionality is either the CalDigit Thunderbolt hub, or parting with this particular mac (which I'd hate to do). The other thing I would possibly like to expand to is a Blackmagic Intensity module ... which come in USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt ... with the USB 3.0 a bit cheaper (and not requiring a cable...) -- I would never be able to use that with the Expresscard/34 adapters, it seems.
I apologize for this being long, but am hoping I am giving enough information for my question to receive some feedback.
Thank you!
John

As a (likely) final update to this thread, after talking to CalDigit one last time, this product is no longer being produced by them, and one of the only vendors left for it seems to be OWC.
The card does not come with the USB "ac adapter"-type cable to add the extra needed power for bus-powered storage devices, and is not available through them, either. The CalDigit tech support rep recommended a regular USB 3.0 y-cable.
When I inquired about driver updates, the gentleman said it will likely continue to be covered for approximately 2 more OS system updates (typically 1.5 years each, so 3 years, according to him). He said that, as I have read, that it is indeed possible that the driver is more unstable under Mavericks.
At this point it seems there is no sure-shot solution based on expresscard/34. This is a huge pitfall, as everything else with my older macbook pro is wonderful (and upgradeable).
Anyway, just wanted to give that final update, as it varies significantly from what I was hoping for in my last post. I suppose I could "try" it, but OWC has a 15% restocking fee, along with having to pay return shipping...both of which I confirmed I would have to pay with OWC. I am not willing to do that, as that comes out to almost $20 just to return the product if it doesn't work correctly. Shame, as I would like to give it a fair try, at least, but they don't seem to be willing to budge, and after getting burned on bad products from the past (from other sites with restocking fees), I am no longer willing to go along with those business practices.
Good luck, everyone.

Ext HD speed and Bus-Powered Firewire 800

After having gone through various External HD over the years, Firewire 800 (WD Studio with power adapter) is by far proving to be best in terms of connecting speed when handling my 350gb+ library.
However, lately, I was exploring the option of having a portable External HD drive with "bus-powered" port so that I don't have to rely on the power plug whenever I want to listen to iTunes library.
So, here are some questions...
1) Bus-powered Firewire 800 1TB - no experience with this before. all my firewire external drives had required power adapter, but during this search I just found out that such exists.
Can MBP Firewire 800 port provide enough power to spin 1TB external drive w/out a hiccup??
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
2) Obviously for a smaller size drive with bus-powered option, I must go with 2.5" drive, which meant, I have either 1TB @ 5400rpm OR 750gb @ 7200rpm for MAX Storage option. I do want 1TB... BUT would 5400rpm / 7200rpm matter when it comes to iTunes library??
I ened up getting my current Firewire 800 external drive after experiencing lagging iTunes speed via USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. But later I found out that slow connecting (constant beach ball when selecting music) is typically resulted from having many playlists/id tags/etc.
So, I want to be sure before I get a new drive, I choose the right speed drive.
Btw, here is my current set up: MBP 13" (mid-2009), iTunes (10.1.2), 500gb 7200rpm internal drive, 8gb memory
Anyone experience with above set-up that I am thinking about??

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I wonder if there might be a problem with the firewire bridge in the WD? The most reliable Firewire chipset that I know of is the Oxford 924+, but not everybody uses these. You might be able to find out what is actually used on the WD web site.
Since the USB connection works, the WD drive itself is probably fine.
Does your FireWire 800 work properly with other devices? If not, or if you don't know, you could try a SMC reset, which may help if the problem is with the FireWire port on the MBP:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US
Otherwise, you could try the drive in a different enclosure, like the Mercury on the Go from OWC, which has the Oxford 934 chipset. I have WD drives in 3 of these enclosures, and have never had a problem with any of them.
Good luck!

How many bus-powered usb external drives per hub?

I'd like to have two bus-powered USB hard drives (to be used as backups with Time Machine) connected to one powered USB hub. Would that work, or would a powered hub be likely to support only one bus-powered external hard disk? (In that case I could get a self-powered hard drive for my second backup drive.)
Thank you.

Works for me, I just connected both my WD Passport and Seagate GoFlex to my Belkin Hub.
Hub: Belkin
Product ID: 0x2507
Vendor ID: 0x0424 (SMSC)
Version: 0.00
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Location ID: 0x26200000 / 2
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 2
FreeAgent GoFlex:
Product ID: 0x5021
Vendor ID: 0x0bc2 (Seagate LLC)
Version: 1.48
Serial Number: NA03N18Y
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Seagate
Location ID: 0x26270000 / 4
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 100
Capacity: 320.07 GB (320,072,932,864 bytes)
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk2
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Passport WD:
Product ID: 0x0704
Vendor ID: 0x1058 (Western Digital Technologies, Inc.)
Version: 1.05
Serial Number: 5758453830384E4A30333634
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Location ID: 0x26250000 / 3
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 2
Capacity: 160.04 GB (160,041,885,696 bytes)
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Partition Map Type: MBR (Master Boot Record)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Likewise it your needing another External Hard Drive, I would recommend spending a little more for a more rugged Desktop drive to use for storage or backup.
Go with an OWC Mercury Elite Pro or a LaCie Little Big Disk and stay away from those cheap-o WD MyBooks.

Bus Powered External Hard Drive?

Can anyone recommend a good bus-powered External Hard Drive that I can use with my iMac? I really like Western Digital's MyBooks, but they require mains power and come with a big power brick, which is pretty messy. I want a hard drive that gets it's power through either USB 2.0 or Firewire. And I'd like something that has at least 250GB of storage. Any suggestions?

I bought a bus powered OWC laptop drive (100GB 720RPM) for around 170 dollars. But, that was for my laptop, as it's much easier to have a bus powered laptop drive then needing to plug it in to use it. This way I can sit somewhere, not near a power outlet, and be able to use the drive.
As mentioned in an earlier post, 3.5 Hard Drives require to much power in order to be bus powered.
You could buy a 200GB hard drive, bus powered, 4200RPM, and is a laptop drive for your iMac, but that's not the best way to go. First, the drive is going to be very expensive. You could get a 320GB 3.5 In HD for way cheaper. Second, it's going to be noticibly slower.
When I get externals, I buy the drive, and pitch in 50 bucks or so for an external enclosure. It's the CompUSA brand and they work quite well. They are not bus powered, but the Power Brick is limited in size and is relitively small. It's cheaper this way. This can be a challenge to someone who isn't really 'computer-talented.'
I'd go FireWire....It's much faster and won't slow you down while you're trying to access your files and do your work.
OWC if you really want that bus powered laptop drive.
NewEgg if you want to shop for drives, and get them cheaper. Not to mention their fast shipping.
Give it some thought.
-benny

Which audio cards can be bus powered using the Thunderbolt to firewire adapter ?

Hi
I was surprised to hear that the new TB to FW adapter let pass only 7W maximum, when the official Firewire specifies 7W _minimum_. On paper this means that my RME FireFace400, for example, can't be bus powered any more since it needs 13 w.
I think a list of TB > FW adapter compatible audio cards would be useful for all potential MB Air and MBP Retina users who are not ready to carry external batteries all the time

Using the Ultralite with FW-TB adapter here without issue... with or withou external power.. though admittedly i use with with an external power supply 90% of the time.
So, check the adaptor itself.. Some of them have been reported as having loose connections.. when plugged into the Mac... so shut down your MBP (Important to do this.. don't just restart it or put it to sleep) take the adaptor itself out of the back of the Mac... and reinsert. Wait at least 2 minutes (Also important..) and then start Mac up and it should reset and be back to normal operation.
If that doesn't work.. try doing a full PRAM reset too...
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
No idea about Win 8 because i don't use it... but it does work fine with Win 7 and the correct drivers... Just make sure you install/update to the latest Boot Camp (Don't even think about trying to use Audio stuff via any of the Windows emulators/virual rigs....such as VMware Fusion for example.. You are asking for lots of trouble trying that...) and it's drivers.. for the FW to TB adapter to be properly recognised by Win 7...
http://support.apple.com/downloads/#bootcamp

Bus powered external hard drives and the Powerbook G4 17 inch

Does anyone have a suggestion for a bus powered external hard drive that will work with the Powerbook 17 inch? I had purchased a Simpletech Simpledrive portable USB 100GB bus powered drive and it will not work with my 17 inch. It works with my 15 inch titanium and a G5 but not the 17 inch. Simpletech told me that it isn't getting enough power from the USB ports (I even tried using the adapter to plug it into both ports at the same time).
I am going to return the drive and probably buy a Firewire one instead since you can boot from Firewire but I am wondering if I will have the same problem with Firewire on the 17 inch and HAVE to use an AC adapter.
PowerBook G4 17 inch Mac OS X (10.4.1)

This also happens on the PB 15". It is perceived as a problem. If you check via the System Profiler you will likely see that the USB port output is 500mA. Most drives - in a USB or FW case - need 1A to boot. There are some drives that will boot with 500mA. If a 500mA drive is installed in the USB case it should boot off the bus power. If using a ext HD you can only boot the computer from the FW port and not the USB or PCMCIA slot.
The FW port will power the ext HD. I do not recommend daisy chaining unless you use a powered FW hub. I blew 4 FW ports and had to replace the logic board 4 times but Apple Care paid for all the work. The newer FW ports are more robust but it is still a chance if you try to draw too much power.
MJ

Bus-powered external enclosure, too many choices.

Hi, I'm shopping for an external enclosure for my Macbook's Sata drive as I just ordered a 7200 Hitachi drive as a replacement, I would like the enclosure to be bus-powered, firewire is a good option but not necessary.
I noticed there are a few on eBay with those characteristics, are they any good. Checked the ones on Newegg (even though they don't ship to Canada), and they are a little more expensive. There is also one that seems nice on OWC but it's pretty expensive at 80$.
Not sure if I can trust the ones on eBay, what are you guys using/usggesting ?
Francis.

Hi
I did exactly the same thing a couple of months ago so that I could save money with the white macbook versus the black. I bought a 120GB drive for my iBook and switched it with the shipped one when the machine arrived from the Apple Store. Result = I get a better specified machine than was available on line (and in white) and a removable 60GB drive with bus power, firewire 800/400 and USB 2.0.
To get to the point buy one of these:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=736770&tstart=30
works a dream, is neat and compact, comes with useful short wires, can be powered if necessary, and looks cool.
I searched for a long time and the OWC enclosure was easily the best for me, even to import to the UK (i.e need to add on a few pounds sterling for customs - still way cheaper and better than alternatives).
David
macbook, PM G4s & G5s, PBG4, iMac G4 & G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
PM G4 & G5s, PBG4, iMac G4 & G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
PM G4 & G5s, PBG4, iMac G4 & G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Can I copy one bus powered USB2 1T HD to another (also via bus power)?

Hello
OK to copy one bus powered USB 2.0, 1T HD to another, also via bus power, or might there be some power issues to be concerned about?
Using late 2011 MBP, both Lacie 1T drives are usb 3 but step down to usb 2 on my MBP (or one can go in the thunderbolt port)
Thanks

now i cant use my username either? *groan* wrote:
to back up both 1T drives to 2 other 1T drives on site and 2 more off site means buying 4 1T back up drives for $500+,
Why spend so much?
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-7200RPM-Mobile/dp/B0097LG9U8/ref= sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395519777&sr=8-1&keywords=1+tb+hgst+hard+drive
Ciao.

Bus Powered External Firewire (800) Drives and iPod?

I bought a WD Passport drive, and was pretty upset when i found out that the usb ports on my powerbook cannot power the drive. crap. can the firewire 800 port on my powerbook power these drives:
http://www.kanotechnologies.com/products/SF800-40.cfm
http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE-mini.cfm#Buy
I really want a bus powered drive. does anyone know if these will work with my 15" powerbook? one better than the other? oh, and i'm getting it to keep my itunes library on...so will my powerbook have any problem with reading the fw800 drive and the ipod in the fw400 port at the same time?

Well the second linked drive says it is bus powered and does not require a external power brick. Usually most of external 2.5 inch notebook drives (in a 2.5 enclosure) can be bus powered. The 3.5 inch ones are generally not bus powered.

Bus powered Firewire devices crashes

I have a Macbook Pro (June 2009) and a Western Digital Passport hard disk with a Firewire 800 connection, bus powered. It has an optional USB 2.0 connection
It keeps crashing the system with firewire, not with USB.
Especially when I move large files or Time Machine backups or migrations with Migration Assistant, the process stops at some point, eventually forcing me to shut the computer down.
My bet is that it's something related with the power, because this problem does'nt occur with the USB connection.
I also have an USB keyboard connected. Could this be the problem? Is the USB keyboard sucking so much power out of the mac?
Please help.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I wonder if there might be a problem with the firewire bridge in the WD? The most reliable Firewire chipset that I know of is the Oxford 924+, but not everybody uses these. You might be able to find out what is actually used on the WD web site.
Since the USB connection works, the WD drive itself is probably fine.
Does your FireWire 800 work properly with other devices? If not, or if you don't know, you could try a SMC reset, which may help if the problem is with the FireWire port on the MBP:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US
Otherwise, you could try the drive in a different enclosure, like the Mercury on the Go from OWC, which has the Oxford 934 chipset. I have WD drives in 3 of these enclosures, and have never had a problem with any of them.
Good luck!

2.5" external enclosure (bus powered) any thoughts, experience, suggestions

I'm about to purchase a bigger hard drive for my macbook, I thought I could put the old one in an external enclosure that's bus powered, any experience with that ? I'm thinking about the Bytecc BT-280SATA but couldn't find it here in Quebec, Canada. Also saw the OWC Mercury on the go, but I find the pricetag a tad high at 90 bucks for an enclosure, couldn't find another SATA notebook drive enclosure that's bus powered though, I'd like to hear suggestion.
Would also appreciate a suggestion of where to purchase one of these enclosures in Canada.
Thanks, Francis.

You are rightm the price is a little high, but there are not a ton of choices when it comes to a SATA/FW enclosure.
TransINTL.com has one, but it is even more at $99.

Does using two bus powered external devices MacBook Pro 13" put too much strain on the power supply?

Will daisy chaining two bus powered external devices put too much strain on my 2011 MacBook Pro 13" power supply? Specifically I would like use ProTools with a LaCie bus powered hard disc and a Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro which is also bus powered with firewire.

Hi rrlavigne,
The biggest difference between the two machines in maximum RAM capacity. The white MacBook is limited to 4GB, whereas the MacBook Pro will support 8GB of RAM. While the cost of RAM is prohibitory right now (to go to 8GB), to have that flexibility in the future will very much be worth it... especially considering you intend to install Logic.
Other than that, I think in terms of "raw performance" the machines are very equally matched. You're paying for the unibody design, backlight keyboard, SD card and new battery technology for that $200 premium (in addition to the slight CPU bump).

Bus powered external DVD burners risky?

I am thinking of putting a second HD in my 1.83 MBP with the Maxupgrades kit , and getting an external DVD writer.
Years ago I had a firewire bus powered Formac DVD writer, which took too much current out of my Ti powerbook and burnt the internal firewire bus.
Are the modern generation of portable bus powered (USB2 and FW) such safe in this respect?
I see that offering includes an internal battery. Why would they do that if the no-battery ones are OK?
Thanks for any input.

so the battery is not there to prevent overload of the USB port,
I doubt it, though having a functioning battery may do so
but so that the device can be used independently (from computer)
Perhaps the drive could power headphones so you could listen to music, but the battery is there to provide additional life when you aren't plugged in. If your MBP normally gets 4 hours of life from a full charge, add that bus powered burner and it will drop - bigtime I'd expect. The extra battery in the device gives you a bit longer life.

Bus powered external Firewire drives

Most portable external drives are now bus powered, many don't even have a power input.
I wonder how many bus powered Firewire driives I can daisy-chain. Where should I place them, at the beginnig, in the middle, or the end of the daisy chain.
I have several powered Firewire drives including my Time Machine Drive.

tommmy wrote:
Most portable external drives are now bus powered, many don't even have a power input.
I wonder how many bus powered Firewire driives I can daisy-chain.
Use a powered Firewire/USB hub so there is enough power to power the port powered devices.
What happened is port powered devices are cheaper and many people opt for the lower price than the ones with their own power supplies, so it creates a problem and computer makers had to turn off ports drawing too much power from the comptuer, so people have to run out and get powered hubs.

Bus-powered storage

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for