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Steve Walker[_11_] October 17th 15 12:20 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
Hi -

Tenuously on-topic, but hopefully someone can help.

I use an external 5v/12v power supply to temporarily run hard drives
during repair and tinkering. The Chinese rubbish they sell on eBay (eg
141793905523) has the quality & durability of a Kinder Egg toy. I've
had about 5 of them now, they always fail.

I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?

Thanks
Steve

Nick Odell[_2_] October 17th 15 12:36 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 23:20:08 +0100, Steve Walker
wrote:

Hi -

Tenuously on-topic, but hopefully someone can help.

I use an external 5v/12v power supply to temporarily run hard drives
during repair and tinkering. The Chinese rubbish they sell on eBay (eg
141793905523) has the quality & durability of a Kinder Egg toy. I've
had about 5 of them now, they always fail.

I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?

I just use one of these (ebay no. 151798079800) or rather, the same
thing pulled out of an old PC before I threw it away.

Nick

Mark October 17th 15 12:59 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
Steve Walker wrote:

Hi -

Tenuously on-topic, but hopefully someone can help.

I use an external 5v/12v power supply to temporarily run hard drives
during repair and tinkering. The Chinese rubbish they sell on eBay (eg
141793905523) has the quality & durability of a Kinder Egg toy. I've
had about 5 of them now, they always fail.

I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?

Thanks
Steve



Convert ATX PSU to Bench Supply
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/...-psu-to-bench-
supply.html

Dave Plowman (News) October 17th 15 01:36 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
In article ,
Steve Walker wrote:
Hi -


Tenuously on-topic, but hopefully someone can help.


I use an external 5v/12v power supply to temporarily run hard drives
during repair and tinkering. The Chinese rubbish they sell on eBay (eg
141793905523) has the quality & durability of a Kinder Egg toy. I've
had about 5 of them now, they always fail.


I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?


An ATX power supply? Small one won't cost much more than 20 quid. Get one
from CPC - they sell decent quality.

--
*Bigamy is having one wife too many - monogamy is the same

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Rod Speed October 17th 15 02:10 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
Steve Walker wrote

Tenuously on-topic, but hopefully someone can help.


I use an external 5v/12v power supply to temporarily run hard drives
during repair and tinkering. The Chinese rubbish they sell on eBay (eg
141793905523) has the quality & durability of a Kinder Egg toy. I've had
about 5 of them now, they always fail.


I've had a couple fail, and a couple more that haven't in years.

I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?


Fraid not. Tho the better brands from the US etc are more likely to survive.


Clive George October 17th 15 02:20 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On 16/10/2015 23:20, Steve Walker wrote:

I use an external 5v/12v power supply to temporarily run hard drives
during repair and tinkering. The Chinese rubbish they sell on eBay (eg
141793905523) has the quality & durability of a Kinder Egg toy. I've
had about 5 of them now, they always fail.

I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?


Possibly unhelpful answer, but I use a PSU from an old computer for
this. Obviously one has to be comfortable with wires around the place.


Steve Walker[_11_] October 17th 15 02:28 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On 16/10/2015 23:20, Steve Walker wrote:

I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?


Heh, so everyone's suggesting hotwiring an old PSU. Funnily enough I
had one of those, but I binned it because it was too
big/noisy/tangle-of-cabley for easy portable use. Should've kept it and
modified it, perhaps. De-soldered the un-needed connectors, done the 7v
trick on the fan, could've been okay.

That'll learn me... :-)


Dave Plowman (News) October 17th 15 11:42 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
In article ,
Clive George wrote:
Possibly unhelpful answer, but I use a PSU from an old computer for
this. Obviously one has to be comfortable with wires around the place.


Open it up and clip off the ones you don't need.

You will need to add a link to power it up, though.

--
*Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

polygonum October 17th 15 12:30 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On 17/10/2015 01:28, Steve Walker wrote:
On 16/10/2015 23:20, Steve Walker wrote:

I would happily pay £20 for a good quality version from a reliable
manufacturer. Does anyone happen to know where something like this is
available?


Heh, so everyone's suggesting hotwiring an old PSU. Funnily enough I
had one of those, but I binned it because it was too
big/noisy/tangle-of-cabley for easy portable use. Should've kept it and
modified it, perhaps. De-soldered the un-needed connectors, done the 7v
trick on the fan, could've been okay.

That'll learn me... :-)

Depending on what you are doing and what other PCs you use, how heavily
loaded, etc., you could take a lead from an existing, working PC just
for power.

--
Rod

Rod Speed October 17th 15 06:29 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Clive George wrote:
Possibly unhelpful answer, but I use a PSU from an old computer for
this. Obviously one has to be comfortable with wires around the place.


Open it up and clip off the ones you don't need.

You will need to add a link to power it up, though.


Not with an AT supply rather than ATX.


Scott M October 17th 15 07:06 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
Rod Speed wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Clive George wrote:
Possibly unhelpful answer, but I use a PSU from an old computer for
this. Obviously one has to be comfortable with wires around the place.


Open it up and clip off the ones you don't need.

You will need to add a link to power it up, though.


Not with an AT supply rather than ATX.


Yes, because everyone has rescued the old AT power supplies from their
386s and kept them for 20 years.

Is it time for your medication?

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

Rod Speed October 17th 15 07:56 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 


"Scott M" wrote in message
...
Rod Speed wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Clive George wrote:
Possibly unhelpful answer, but I use a PSU from an old computer for
this. Obviously one has to be comfortable with wires around the place.

Open it up and clip off the ones you don't need.

You will need to add a link to power it up, though.


Not with an AT supply rather than ATX.


Yes, because everyone has rescued the old AT power supplies from their
386s and kept them for 20 years.


Don’t need to, plenty on freecycle etc.



Andrew Gabriel October 17th 15 10:25 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
In article ,
Scott M writes:
Rod Speed wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Clive George wrote:
Possibly unhelpful answer, but I use a PSU from an old computer for
this. Obviously one has to be comfortable with wires around the place.

Open it up and clip off the ones you don't need.

You will need to add a link to power it up, though.


Not with an AT supply rather than ATX.


Yes, because everyone has rescued the old AT power supplies from their
386s and kept them for 20 years.


The design of most AT PSU's resulted in lack of regulation of the
12V supply unless there was a reasonable power draw on the 5V rail
too, much more than disks will draw. This was sometimes bad enough
to cause problems with the disks. The usual way around this was to
leave the old motherboard connected to the supply too, when reusing
an old AT system as a disk enclosure. Not efficient, but then AT
PSU's weren't as efficient as any modern PC PSUs anyway.

Much better would be to buy an external disk enclosure. Single ones
will usually have a 12V (or higher) wall wart, and a tiny switched
mode PSU in the enclosure to generate 12V and 5V for the disk.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

newshound October 17th 15 10:41 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On 17/10/2015 21:25, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Scott M writes:
Rod Speed wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Clive George wrote:
Possibly unhelpful answer, but I use a PSU from an old computer for
this. Obviously one has to be comfortable with wires around the place.

Open it up and clip off the ones you don't need.

You will need to add a link to power it up, though.

Not with an AT supply rather than ATX.


Yes, because everyone has rescued the old AT power supplies from their
386s and kept them for 20 years.


The design of most AT PSU's resulted in lack of regulation of the
12V supply unless there was a reasonable power draw on the 5V rail
too, much more than disks will draw. This was sometimes bad enough
to cause problems with the disks. The usual way around this was to
leave the old motherboard connected to the supply too, when reusing
an old AT system as a disk enclosure. Not efficient, but then AT
PSU's weren't as efficient as any modern PC PSUs anyway.

Much better would be to buy an external disk enclosure. Single ones
will usually have a 12V (or higher) wall wart, and a tiny switched
mode PSU in the enclosure to generate 12V and 5V for the disk.


+1.

That said my cheap Chinese USB to IDE/SATA has never given me problems
either.


Clive George October 18th 15 12:21 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On 17/10/2015 18:06, Scott M wrote:

Yes, because everyone has rescued the old AT power supplies from their
386s and kept them for 20 years.


I think my loose PSU is AT :-)


[email protected] October 18th 15 01:55 AM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On Saturday, 17 October 2015 21:27:28 UTC+1, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Scott M writes:


Yes, because everyone has rescued the old AT power supplies from their
386s and kept them for 20 years.


The design of most AT PSU's resulted in lack of regulation of the
12V supply unless there was a reasonable power draw on the 5V rail
too, much more than disks will draw. This was sometimes bad enough
to cause problems with the disks. The usual way around this was to
leave the old motherboard connected to the supply too, when reusing
an old AT system as a disk enclosure. Not efficient, but then AT
PSU's weren't as efficient as any modern PC PSUs anyway.

Much better would be to buy an external disk enclosure. Single ones
will usually have a 12V (or higher) wall wart, and a tiny switched
mode PSU in the enclosure to generate 12V and 5V for the disk.


which brings us back full circle to the problem the OP is trying to get away from.

It's the same old isn't it, wanting a good reliable psu but wanting to pay chinese prices. Maybe look at chucked out wallwarts to find good brand 12v & 5v ones.


NT

Steve Walker[_11_] October 18th 15 06:12 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
On 18/10/2015 00:55, wrote:

which brings us back full circle to the problem the OP is trying to get away from.

It's the same old isn't it, wanting a good reliable psu but wanting to pay chinese prices. Maybe look at chucked out wallwarts to find good brand 12v & 5v ones.


No, really - I want to pay EU/US prices for a decent bit of kit.
Something as solid as a laptop psu, instead of a flimsy unbranded horror
off eBay.

Hacking two wallwarts together or converting another PSU will do the job
for reliability, but it's not exactly tidy or portable.


Scott M October 18th 15 10:48 PM

External Hard Drive Power Supply
 
Clive George wrote:
On 17/10/2015 18:06, Scott M wrote:

Yes, because everyone has rescued the old AT power supplies from their
386s and kept them for 20 years.


I think my loose PSU is AT :-)


Ha! I kept a couple for years and years and eventually binned it as it
was taking up space and I'd never used it for anything.

I don't think mine even powered up the fan if there wasn't a decent load
either.

--
Scott

Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?


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