Looking for power supply for LaCie Pocket Drive 40GB

Looking at their older product sheets:

https://www.lacie.com/ca/en/support/mobile-storage/

It seems like you might be looking for a power supply with a USB lead:

http://myvolts.com/MV_search?manID=4933

Pocket Drive is listed here.

That isn't an Apple product. For some time, LaCie made a product line that was targeted at Apple users, featuring external enclosures with FireWire and or FireWire/USB ports. The 40 GB HDD size and date code on the underside would suggest that it was manufactured in February 2000. Your top photo shows the pin configuration (center pin is +) for the power supply connection. Your bottom photo shows the port on the far left. How are the dimensions of that enclosure? It appears to be large enough for a 3.5" hard drive and if that's true, the drive needs both 12 volts and 5 volts to operate. That's why a Molex power plug has (4) wires: The yellow is 12V, red is 5V, and the 2 blacks are grounds. Smaller laptop drives run on 5 volts, and that's why those pocket-sized enclosures are typically powered from the USB (5-volt) port. The 12-volt, single-pin power connection must provide enough overall power (amps), because the internal circuitry separates it into 12-volt and 5-volt outputs, as required by the 3.5" hard drive. I'd recommend using a power supply with a 3 Amp output, just to be sure that it isn't under-powered. If the enclosure originally shipped with one having a 2.5 Amp output, it doesn't matter. The voltage must be exactly the same, or you will likely damage the internal bridge board and/or hard drive. The polarity of the power supply's plug must match what is printed on the underside of your enclosure: center pin is + and outer band is -. The power supply will also have a similar diagram on it, indicating the polarity of the plug. If you check ebay, you can find thrid-party external power supplies, but unfortunately, there is no standardization with those power ports. You must match the barrel diameter of the plug and the internal diameter of the sleeve into which the power port's center pin is inserted. Some enclosures have a thicker center pin on the power port, making it impossible to insert the plug found on some power supplies, even though the voltage, power, and polarity are correct.

I saw the specs listed for the drive on this CNET page, which makes it smaller than I thought. They indicate that Apple is the manufacturer, but it's undoubtedly a LaCie product that Apple ordered and sold in its stores. If those overall dimensions indicated (3.4" x 5.6") are correct and match your enclosure, the internal drive has to be a laptop drive. A 3.5" hard drive wouldn't fit inside that enclosure. Oddly enough, the specs indicate "None" following the "Power Device Type" category. Maybe the power supply was an optional accessory? Did you buy it new and do you remember needing to connect one? If not, one might suspect that the hard drive is dead. A laptop drive itself only requires 5 volts to operate, but the enclosure may require more power than a typical USB port can provide because of the USB/FireWire bridge board contained within. Until you can be sure of the voltage required, I wouldn't make a recommendation based on guesswork. In addition to polarity, it's ridiculous that they didn't indicate the voltage/power requirement on the underside (as many products do). The product is so old, that a web search and an ebay search turn up little or nothing. If you found an identical one listed at ebay, I'd check the listing for the power supply info or ask the seller, explaining your situation. If it weren't already packed for shipping, a helpful individual might be willing to check it for you — even if you weren't bidding on that one. I'd be tempted to open the enclosure, remove the hard drive, and connect it directly to the computer via a USB-to-2.5" IDE or SATA adapter. If it still doesn't power up/spin, the drive is bad. These adapters aren't Mac-specific, so you can buy one from any PC store for about $15.

Internet archive information from November 2002 for an apparently similar 20-60 GB line of LaCie PocketDrive U&I models indicates an 8W power consumption and a voltage 5.8-30 VDC for all. It also says that there is not a need for an AC adapter when used with a self-powered IEEE 1394 bus on the computer.

Albeit not mentioning a T4513LL/A, this information could perhaps indicate an approximate DC voltage range for your drive, but we do not know for sure whether it is OK to connect a power adapter (if at all needed) with any output voltage within the range to the DC input jack of the drive. We can only guess that the drive enclosure contains voltage regulating circuits allowing this. However, as Jeff said, do not do anything merely based on guesswork; try to get the power adapter data confirmed before carrying out tests. If the lower voltage 5.8 VDC of the range is correct, a 6 VDC output power adapter (with something like 2-3 A output current capability) ought to work.

Addendum

If I had a hard drive enclosure like this, with an unknown DC input voltage, and without any chance of getting a confirmed voltage value, I would begin by testing a power adapter with exactly 5 VDC output (capable of delivering 2-3 A current). According to the power input icon, as Jeff also mentioned, the centre pin is + (plus). If the enclosure does not have any voltage limiting circuits, one would not risk immediately damaging the hard drive inside that way.

I would then open the drive enclosure and use a multimeter and try to measure the DC voltage both at the input jack and at the hard drive connector. The voltage at the drive connector should be 5 VDC (and in any case not lower than approx. 4.75 VDC). A substantially lower voltage at the drive connector than at the input jack would indicate a voltage drop, coming from (for example) a polarity protection diode or a voltage limiting/regulating circuit. An inspection of the internal circuits should give a good picture of the design. If necessary, if there is an intended voltage drop, one could then possibly increase the input voltage to 6 VDC as a next step (and thereby check that the voltage at the hard drive connector does not exceed 5 VDC).

Universal power adapters with a number of different DC plugs can be found in many shops. These adapters do often have an adjustable regulated DC output.

Hi,

You could of course use a multimeter to check that the power adapter in question was working, The multimeter can also be used to verify the polarity, if this is not shown on a label.

However, testing with a 5 V power adapter may or may not work at all. It would only work if there is a direct link from the DC input jack of the drive enclosure to the power supply pins at the internal hard drive. This is why a multimeter reading from inside the enclosure is required (see my addendum above). If there is merely one silicon diode (or some kind of regulating circuit) between the input jack and the internal hard drive, the voltage drop leads to the hard drive receiving a lower voltage than required.

If the 5.8-30 VDC voltage range in the aforementioned Internet archive information in fact is correct (for the DC input jack), it means that the power adapter would have to supply at least circa 6 VDC. Without other voltage verification, multimeter testing is necessary.

Having said all this, your test with FireWire ought to have worked (without a power adapter), so something indeed appears to be wrong inside the enclosure. The hard drive itself may be faulty (you could test the hard drive externally, as suggested by Jeff), or there may be a fault in the controller circuits inside the enclosure.

I'm having trouble finding pictures of it online. It has a separate power supply connection/input?

Here's the USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter that I use. I've bought two of them when on sale for $15 and use them with Macs and PCs.