Are USB powered 3.5 enclosures reliable?

ExoMale

ExoMale

ExoMale

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okay so I have a dynamode 2.5 enclosure for sata drive I use for backups on oc that works fine, I had an ide version at one stage and was fine, but I need more storage on my Xbox one and this mains powered 2.5 & 3.5 supported dock I recently purchased is only USB2 and is for my computer anyways and so was thinking of an enclosure for a spare 3.5 500gb drive I have.

I've seen a shop branded one for £20 that's usb3 and is USB powered, but given a desktop hdd uses more power than a laptop drive I have my doubts that even a proper branded USB powered enclosure will be reliable.




While I could double the money and get a proper 500gb external, an enclosure might be more useful when I don't need it for Xbox as my dock only takes one hdd at a time.
 
I may be wrong here but I think 3.5" drives not only require more power than USB can provide, but they use both 5v and 12v, rather than the 5v USB supplies and 2.5" drives use.
 
Ha well it must be a rare thing as I've even see the odd ones via online stores or in C world months ago that were of a decent brand and not shop brand like this one I've seen prior to this thread.

I don't have a spare plug for another powered device by my setup and don't want to fork out for a longer extension lead either, I only 2 laptop hard drive which is what I use for my backups and trialling for my Pi, so would be silly to swap my 3.5 for a 2.5 just for an enclosure and as my 2.5 dynamode doesn't seem to want to read usb3 anymore I couldn't even use this one.

If I could afford a 2tb external drive I could replace my 1tb seagate I use with my Xbox, but they cost too much.
 
ExoMale what the heck are you talking about? :D

I've read your post three times and it's just confusing, have another go at explaining please!
 
"Are USB powered 3.5 enclosures reliable"

I missed the thread title haha . . . . I didn't see a USB powered 3.5" HDD enclosure? I have used two mains powered external 3.5 enclosures in the past, the first stopped working after 4 months, it was a cheap unit and the hard drive got so hot I think it fried the controller inside the caddy. The second unit was at least branded (Icy Box) and that worked fine for years except my clients kids kept knocking out the power lead on the floor level as they crawled around under the desk so the external drive kept going offline.

Even though it may not be the path of least resistance I would probably flog the 3.5" hard drive and replace it with a 2.5" unit and slap that in a vanilla £5.00 external USB 3.0 caddy. This will give you a pocket able storage drive that requires just a single USB 3.0 cable for power and data. It's a more elegant solution but for you requires a little more effort.
 
icybox worked for me as a 3.5 enclosure v reliable. but yeah even one of those usb3 sata adapter cables and some duck tape makes a nice portable 2.5 solution sabrent iirc,
 
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