Inspiron 1501 USB external hard drive problems

Question

Hi,   I just got me a nice 160GBb Samsung external USB 2.0 hdd. I needed this because my 60Gb internal hdd is too small and i keep having to delete stuff.   Plugged it in and the system sees it as an external USB storage device but would not initialise it. After faffing about for a while i tried it on a Samsung notebook. Bingo it came to life initialised itself and allowed me to partition and format it.   Put it back on the 1501 and it would not initialise it. (In computer management, under disk management). Tried it in a desktop, no problem, tried it on an Acer notbook, no problem.   Asked Dell for some help and they were pretty good at responding. Problem is that their 'Dell' USB ports cannot supply enough power to run the drive ?????? They sell it as having USB 2.0 compliant ports. Guess not. The Lead for the drive also has 2 plugs, one for data and power and the other for extra power. I had of course tried this without success. The other noebooks only needed one plug plugged in.   So unless someone can help me with this issue then i can't use the drive. They suggested using up to 60Gb external drives. I guess i could buy a selection and try them (if i was Bill gates).   I had a workaround of pluggng it into the office PC and mappng a drive to it. Very Slow but ok for backups. Not what i wanted.   Dumarest.

Dumarest · Answer

Anyone else have positive results from external drives? I would like to know.   Thanks   Dumarest.

pcgeek11 · Answer

Dumarest,   I also have an Inspiron 1501 and use an External USB Hard Disk for backups. I bought my own enclosure Adaptec ACS-120 for a 2.5 inch Hard Disk and then installed my own 120 GB Drive Western Digital. It works flawlessly even using only one of the plugs on the dual USB plug end of the cable. No external power needed. Using Acronis I can image my drive in Windows in about 7 minutes ( 16 GB Data ). This Drive Enclosure will accept drive up to 1 terrabyte in size.   I have had several drive enclosures that worked as you described also, Toss it or return it for another brand. The issue is probably the chipset used in the enclosure.   pcgeek11

Dumarest · Answer

Thanks pcgeak11,   I'll see what i can do. I'm a bit put off at the moment but will get back into it.   Dell even suggested that drives bigger than 60Gb could damage th mainboard by drawing too much power. Never mind the short circuit protection that should be standard.   Dumarest

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Inspiron 1501 USB external hard drive problems

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