[iBook] USB powered external drives

[Tom R. no spam]

Get one with firewire, sometimes available at the same
price as USB ones.  Firewire is straightforwardly
bootable in X or 9, and *much* faster, and is fine
as bus-powered from an iceBook.  AcomData has a
nice empty external housing for 3.5" HD which has
both firewire and USB, which lists at approx $50 (?)
at CompUSA but occasionally is on sale.  AcomData
also has USB-only, firewire-only, and fw/USB external
HD in various sizes which are often on sale at quite
reasonable prices.  One I had in frequent use in a
too-warm place started making a slight HD whine after
a couple of years (not complaining, my fault for the
heat, which I corrected), and when I took it apart
I found the HD was a standard good quality Hitachi
(and found also that the fan bearings were failing
which hadn't helped the heat issue).  I don't hold the
fan against the company, and have bought or specified
several more AcomDatas.  The empty externals are
fanless, too.

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006, Steve R wrote:

> Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll go with an enclosure that
> includes the "optional" AC connectors -- just in case.  I'm wondering
> if the underpoweredness is a USB 1.1 thing?
 . . .