[iBook] USB powered external drives

[Steve R]

Quick question about USB powered external drives. I'm seeing some 
external cases being sold without an AC power option. Instead, there 
seems to be what looks like a Y-cable that's USB at all three 
connections. Reading reviews of the products, some folks are 
mentioning they didn't need to use the Y-cable as a regular USB cable 
worked fine.

On the iBook 500 Dual USB, does anyone have any experience with these 
USB powered external drives, and if so, are you having to use the 
Y-cable which I'm assuming would be pulling power from both USB 
jacks. (And isn't the 500 Dual USB one of the iBooks that has already 
split the power between the two jacks?)

Also, can the iBook 500 Dual USB boot from an external USB 1.1 drive 
or would the drive need to be a Firewire drive?

Thanks
Steve R
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