Portable Hard Drive for car required.

SoliD · 2 Jul 2008 at 18:52

Hi guys, in my car I have a usb input for my headunit, the unit i'm using is a Pioneer P700BT, I am looking to buy a portable hd to put all my mp3s on for this and was wondering what sort of ones I should be looking at that could power ok off of the usb connection?

Thanks in advance.

SoliD.

rpstewart · 2 Jul 2008 at 20:05

Most USB powered externals are borderline on whether they can run with the power from a single port - my WD Passport is fine with a single port in my main machine but needs a double headed cable with my HTPC.

The safe bet is a USB key but obviously you end up with capacity limitations.

SoliD · 2 Jul 2008 at 20:26

rpstewart said:
Most USB powered externals are borderline on whether they can run with the power from a single port - my WD Passport is fine with a single port in my main machine but needs a double headed cable with my HTPC.

The safe bet is a USB key but obviously you end up with capacity limitations.

Aye this is what I thought, I would have thought it would have a fair bit of power outputting from it as it would be designed for portable hd's I want something with about 60gb capacity possibly more. Will have to do a bit of digging and see what sort of stuff I can find any reviews or whatnot.

AbsenceJam · 2 Jul 2008 at 22:18

I'd have thought a headunit would be designed for USB sticks rather than portable drives myself.
USB hub or power adaptor off the lighter perhaps?

Slackworth · 2 Jul 2008 at 23:59

Most 2.5" drives fail unless you get one of those USB "Y" Cables and then use a secondary power from a Cig Lighter USB charger. We sell 1.8" & 1.3" drives from LaCie which work absolutely fine due to slower spin speeds and these go up to 60GB. I have a Pioneer headunit with USB interface and it works great.

Beware the bigger the drive the longer they take to scan when you turn it on.

SoliD · 3 Jul 2008 at 11:05

Slackworth said:
Most 2.5" drives fail unless you get one of those USB "Y" Cables and then use a secondary power from a Cig Lighter USB charger. We sell 1.8" & 1.3" drives from LaCie which work absolutely fine due to slower spin speeds and these go up to 60GB. I have a Pioneer headunit with USB interface and it works great.

Beware the bigger the drive the longer they take to scan when you turn it on.

Brilliant, do you use the Lacie drive too? Also which headunit you got Slackworth? Presume one of the newer generation P series?

TaLLyJ · 3 Jul 2008 at 13:27

I would use a Y 'cable' the 1.8/1.3" drives will cost twice as much as 2.5inch

Slackworth · 3 Jul 2008 at 13:29

SoliD said:
Brilliant, do you use the Lacie drive too? Also which headunit you got Slackworth? Presume one of the newer generation P series?

Yup. I've got the DEH-P65BT with the CD-UB100 interface but provides exactly the same amount of power to the drive as the built-in USB headunits do (500mA).

TaLLyJ said:
I would use a Y 'cable' the 1.8/1.3" drives will cost twice as much as 2.5inch

True but it isn't really a neat solution compared to using the one drive with one small cable.

SoliD · 3 Jul 2008 at 18:53

Slackworth said:
Yup. I've got the DEH-P65BT with the CD-UB100 interface but provides exactly the same amount of power to the drive as the built-in USB headunits do (500mA).

True but it isn't really a neat solution compared to using the one drive with one small cable.

Sounds like what I need and ye I dont want the mess of cigarette lighter cable too, aswell as a 3 in 1 splitter for when I need my satnav.

Slackworth · 3 Jul 2008 at 21:26

Stock is fairly limited at the moment as Lacie are quite short but have more arriving soon on the smaller sizes.

SoliD · 4 Jul 2008 at 20:12

Slackworth said:
Stock is fairly limited at the moment as Lacie are quite short but have more arriving soon on the smaller sizes.

Aye found it for a wee bit cheaper elsewhere so ordered one earlier, not in desperate need for it so can wait for them to turn up.