Early 2011 17" MBP -- USB 3.0 portable, reliable, bus-powered option?

BobRz, I have indeed given it some thought ... and it is indeed a good idea. I've mostly tried to go for a USB 3.0 becuase I would be using it on more machines than just my macbook ... and I sadly have no other thunderbolt-equipped machines at my disposal (at work or otherwise). There are a couple of dual USB 3.0 / thunderbolt drives. Buffalo and G-Drive come to mind, along with the Seagate Flex series...of which I'd need to purchase two adapters in the latter case. The Buffalo drive is a 5400 rpm drive, the Seagate drive I am not sure of (but am guessing it's 5400 rpm, and I "think" the G-drive is 7,200...but it's the most expensive of the lot -- with all of them being *far* more expensive than the usb 3.0 equivalent, sadly. Your suggestion is a possible solution though. Another downside, though, would be that I wouldn't be able to have my drive hooked up via thunderbolt & also to the projector (when teaching classes). I know that sounds trivial, but I teach visual effects classes, and they tend to have quite heavy overhead with image sequences & such. Again though -- good answer. 🙂

LowLuster, I likely didn't state my intent quite well enough; I'm trying to add USB 3.0 ports via the expresscard/34 slot (or by other means), not use the existing USB 2.0 ports. I certainly do wish they were 3.0 ports though. 😉

The drive does work fine via the built-in USB 2.0 ports, actually. It's just capped at 2.0 speeds, whereas at 3.0 speeds the drive can sustain 133MB/s (under ideal circumstnaces, of course).

You ask a fair question, and it's mainly because I'd like to be able to use the macbook & hard drive in situations where I won't have access to electricity. Those situations don't come up "all the time", but they definitely arise. Otherwise, I definitely do agree with you. 🙂

(I actually end up using a 2.5" / 3.5" dock more than anything at home)

From what I understand it's actually not the CalDigit adapter, but rather the power limitations of the expresscard/34 slots themselves. This thread seems to cover quite a bit on it, and mimics what I'm finding:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/23559/recommendations-for-usb-3-express card-34

So with an adapter, it seems the only way to get it to work would be to have an external power supply for the card, like the Sonnet one supports.

If I'm wrong, someone please feel free to correct me!!

That is a great find -- I did not notice that last line (that's what I get for not 'reading to the end', huh?!)!!

I will have to give them a call tomorrow and confirm. This would be the solution I am looking for if it is indeed the case. I'll be fascinated to know how the heck it can 'borrow the power' from the built-in ports.

So I did end up calling OWC...they weren't sure, but directed me to CalDigit's support. I then called them, and they said it's a ac adapter type plug, that goes into a USB plug on the other end...which is where it gets the rest of the power. This does seem like a workable solution, as the tech support rep said that it should work with any type of storage device.

It will be limited to the Expresscard/34 slot's speed, but that's ~200 MB/s, which is more than my 7,200 rpm drive would be able to cover anyway.

The only downside is that the card has very, VERY few reviews ... 1 on OWC, and some other scattered sites. The reviews I've read have been mixed ... with some people having sporadic / improper drive ejects, driver loading issues, etc. I also have a worry that as the Mac OS evolves, their custom-written drivers may be not kept up to date, either. This happened with my esata expresscard/34 cards when Lion came around.

But, considering it does sound like my best option, I'm going to check on their return policy, and if it is reasonable, then order through them (CalDigit) or OWC; the adapter isn't listed on Amazon at all.

Thank you everyone for your help, and hopefully this will be helpful to people searching on here donw the road as well.

As a (likely) final update to this thread, after talking to CalDigit one last time, this product is no longer being produced by them, and one of the only vendors left for it seems to be OWC.

The card does not come with the USB "ac adapter"-type cable to add the extra needed power for bus-powered storage devices, and is not available through them, either. The CalDigit tech support rep recommended a regular USB 3.0 y-cable.

When I inquired about driver updates, the gentleman said it will likely continue to be covered for approximately 2 more OS system updates (typically 1.5 years each, so 3 years, according to him). He said that, as I have read, that it is indeed possible that the driver is more unstable under Mavericks.

At this point it seems there is no sure-shot solution based on expresscard/34. This is a huge pitfall, as everything else with my older macbook pro is wonderful (and upgradeable).

Anyway, just wanted to give that final update, as it varies significantly from what I was hoping for in my last post. I suppose I could "try" it, but OWC has a 15% restocking fee, along with having to pay return shipping...both of which I confirmed I would have to pay with OWC. I am not willing to do that, as that comes out to almost $20 just to return the product if it doesn't work correctly. Shame, as I would like to give it a fair try, at least, but they don't seem to be willing to budge, and after getting burned on bad products from the past (from other sites with restocking fees), I am no longer willing to go along with those business practices.

Good luck, everyone. 🙂