David,
I've only had a few problems with usb only power ... and it's always been
due to the usb power source rather than the drive itself (some USB ports
don't provide full power it appears).
I agree having a small form factor drive using 2.5" laptop disks is really
convenient (unless you need higher capacity). One of my drives has two USB
plugs -- the second is optional and collects additional power on systems
which don't supply enough power to the main USB connector. I've not had a
scenario yet where adding the second plug did not allow the drive to
operate. It also accepts external power, but I've never had to use it.
I find I will seldom bother to take any of my other external drives
anywhere. It is just so easy to grab the one which is both small and does
not need a power source, yet has higher capacity then my thumb drives and
memory cards.
In terms of brands of disk drives, I've mostly been buying Seagate just
because they now have five year warranties, whereas most other consumer
drives are three year. Speaking of which, ZipZoomFly currently has 1TB
drives for $140 including shipping. Oops, went to find the link and the
price has gone up to $150, but that still isn't too bad for 1TB internal
SATA II (
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005936 ).
I have several of those drives that I use for media storage and backup. For
backup, I use them in trays in a SATA backplane so I can hot swap them
quickly from the front of my tower. Super high capacity, full SATA II
speeds, and stores in less room then regular external enclosures (only
marginally bigger than the bare drive itself). I use it in lieu of tape or
dvd backups, but the backplane lets me treat them almost like tape
cartridges. The one I use fits 5 drives in the height of 3 tower bays (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817332011 ) but there
are many smaller options too.
Doug
midrange.com
