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Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer DUB Edition

Posts: 1586
Reg: 04-2006

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 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 06:44 am, by:  Adam Peterson (President) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
OK, I have just received a new 250gb external HDD for my birthday so i can upload all my photos onto it from my laptop.

Its one of those new USB2 versions and i am using a 3 year old PowerBook G4 17" with all the fruit. Problem is the external HD is not getting enough current to power up from my USB port.

I purchased a FW cable and that had no impact. I purchased a IOGEAR USB booster cable and it too had no impact (despite packaging promises)

The HDD just ticks over with a pulsating glow on the LED.
Rumour has it that my laptop does not send out enough current from the USB ports hence why the booster cable is needed, or so i was led to believe.

How can i get this puppy to work ?

help

Wally Lawson
Tinkerer
Queensland
GT4.0 V8

Posts: 31
Reg: 10-2007

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 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 07:21 am, by:  Wally Lawson (Rocket904) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
LaCie 250GB Little Disk Drive, Design by Sam Hecht



Aweful. Stay away from this one.
Written by SM

6 April 2008
Bought one a couple of days ago to backup and transfer data to a Macbook Air from a Macbook Pro. Copied all the data and half way through, the transfer slowed to a crawl and I got a "Disk not repairable" message.

I've reformatted it, tried firewire and the transfers are still slow as molasses. It's going back tomorrow.
(13 of 27 people found this review useful)
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LaCie 250GB Little Disk Drive, Design by Sam Hecht



Disappointing on USB
Written by FG

2 April 2008
With my powerbook or my USB hub both on mains, it still needs a second USB port to get powered up. But no problem on firewire.

The Silver Keeper utility is great : it does incremental backups which is simple and very quick.
(10 of 17 people found this review useful)
Wally Lawson
Tinkerer
Queensland
GT4.0 V8

Posts: 32
Reg: 10-2007

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 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 07:23 am, by:  Wally Lawson (Rocket904) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
Those were a couple of comment I pick up from the Apple store yesterday when I was looking at storage systems

Cheers
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual

Posts: 3844
Reg: 07-2005

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 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 07:35 am, by:  David Vaughan (Davidv) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
Most drives which are marginal on power demands from the USB port have an input jack for a direct power supply. Does that LaCie not?
Vinh Bui
Goo Roo
NSW
94 UZZ31 (V8) / 96 JZZ30 (TT) / 97 JZA80 (TT)

Posts: 2524
Reg: 07-2005

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 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 12:16 pm, by:  Vinh Bui (Hyudsjk) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
Adam, try purchasing a decent USB hub which has an AC Adapter to power it.

Otherwise, just return/refund the damn thing. I've never liked any of LaCie's products.
Ryan Rankovic
Goo Roo
Victoria
Soarer TT GT-TL

Posts: 1062
Reg: 07-2005

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 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 12:27 pm, by:  Ryan Rankovic (Ryan1j) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
happy birthday
Lawrence Ostle
DieHard
NSW
tt

Posts: 647
Reg: 12-2005

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 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 04:40 pm, by:  Lawrence Ostle (Lawrence) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
Adam Peterson wrote on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 06:44 am:

How can i get this puppy to work ?

if you have two USB ports on your laptop and a 'twin tail' USB cable, plug both ends in. I have found the same problem on my IBM T43, one plug = no go, two plugs = OK.
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer DUB Edition

Posts: 1587
Reg: 04-2006

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 Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 11:33 pm, by:  Adam Peterson (President) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
It was a WD 250 gb model. Its not a LaCie.
I was just able to get it to work. Cheers Lawence, you are spot on correct.

I got a Y USB cable which means i use 2 of my USB ports to power the external HDD. Somehow it now magically works.

woot !
Vinh Bui
Goo Roo
NSW
94 UZZ31 (V8) / 96 JZZ30 (TT) / 97 JZA80 (TT)

Posts: 2526
Reg: 07-2005

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 Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 11:39 pm, by:  Vinh Bui (Hyudsjk) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
Ah well that explains it. I have one of those hard drives as well and it came with that Y cable?
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Soarer DUB Edition

Posts: 1589
Reg: 04-2006

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 Friday, June 13, 2008 - 07:21 am, by:  Adam Peterson (President) Quote hilighted text Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
I always wondered why someone invented such a weird cable. Now it makes sense !

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