I'm considering purchasing a LaCie Rugged Mini as a portable backup for my Macbook Air, but I'm not sure if the Macbook Air will provide enough power through a single USB 3.0 port. The staff at LaCie are not sure, and I dont know how to check. Is there a way to see how much power the USB ports on a Macbook Air provide? Has anyone else already used this paticular external drive?
Thank you very much!
MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)
I would not count on it. USB on Macs has invariably befuddled USB vendors with Apple's low power mode for Energy Saver that also enables itself when you close the lid of its notebooks. Get an external power supply for the hard drive.
Thank you for the reply Brody. Does the thunderbolt port have the same limitation?
Since I don't yet have a Thunderbolt Mac, I'm sorry, but I don't know.
No such entity as a RUGGED hard drive, its a selling stunt, of that I can assure you.
The power is 5V via USB, enough to power any 2.5" drive
Lacie doesnt make hard drives, its a SEAGATE or likely a Hitachi HD inside that box.
The "rugged" is just a rubber bumper, there is NOTHING rugged about it, you drop it, you ruin it.
avoid it unless you want a bulky ext. HD with an orange bumper on it that does nothing.
Call me lucky, but my sudden motion sensor has saved me on a few occasions.
But I agree, never let one drive be your only copy for any data. One drop with the wrong inertia can ruin your whole day with almost any drive.
Yes. People are paying crazy prices over regular just to get a $2 rubber bumper that wont protect the drive in a drop or serious bump regardless.
All hard drives are evil devices secretly plotting to flush your data 😊
Lacie Rugged are $150
and contain a $65 hard drive.
So youre paying $80 for a $2 rubber bumper and a $10 enclosure.
Its a scam I tell you. 😉
Here are USB power standards:
Note that you may also use a USB 'Y' cable that will allow you to tap two ports for power.
Ciao.
Thanks for the information. The issue I've found with Y cables is that they cant reach both USB ports on a Macbook Air as each of the two ports are on opposite sides of the Mac. I'm suprised though that these stats show that the USB ports should be enough to power a 2.5 drive, and yet when I use my current portable enclosure with a SSD inside, it doesn't mount unless I use a Y-cable (with an extended usb cable).
Thank you.
On any 2.5" HD you never need more than the 5V from one USB port, if you do you have a faulty drive or more likely a corrupt SATA interface card , of which the later is always failing.
I looked at the specifications of the enclosure on the manufacturers web site and they look totally compatible. A quick review of comments on these forums regarding the Samsung SSD developed no negative issues with the drive itself.
Electrical out put on Macbook Pros have been found to be different from port to port. I do not know of this applies to MBA's or not. Perhaps a visit to an Apple genius and have the actual output checked would be beneficial. If you do that, bring the SSD with you.
Theory says you should not need a 'Y' connector. Then theory is not always factual.
Ciao.
LaCie Rugged Mini with Macbook Air 2013
