External hard drive enclosure w/ self power -- possible?

[Sagekilla]

My dad is looking for an external hard drive + enclosure so he can put all his VMWare images on it. It'll be used along with his laptop and he needs it to be self powered because he doesn't want to have to lug around a power supply. From what I've read, it seems like the only drives that are self powered are the 2.5" drive + enclosure. Right or wrong? If that's the case, he's limited to a maximum of a 160 GB drive.


In short, the things he's looking for are:

1. An external Enclosure
2. Self powered
3. High capacity (The bigger the better)
4. Good performance

I was talking to him about this and this really doesn't seem completely possible. 2.5" drives top out at 160 GB and it seems like some of them are self powered, which is what he wants. But, he also wants high capacity and decent performance from it. This really doesn't seem possible, can anyone help us out here?


Would it be better to simply go for an external enclosure and a hard drive, or to buy an already assembled enclosure + drive from a company like Seagate? His laptop has no Firewire, or eSATA, but he does have an ExpressCard slot on the laptop. If he has to get a card to support FireWire or eSATA, he can do so (if they even exist) I don't know what his budget is, but his company is paying for this.

Edit: On a side note, I'm not 100% sure if it's an ExpressCard Slot or a regular CardBus.

 

[pat]

My dad is looking for an external hard drive + enclosure so he can put all his VMWare images on it. It'll be used along with his laptop and he needs it to be self powered because he doesn't want to have to lug around a power supply. From what I've read, it seems like the only drives that are self powered are the 2.5" drive + enclosure. Right or wrong? If that's the case, he's limited to a maximum of a 160 GB drive.


In short, the things he's looking for are:

1. An external Enclosure
2. Self powered
3. High capacity (The bigger the better)
4. Good performance

I was talking to him about this and this really doesn't seem completely possible. 2.5" drives top out at 160 GB and it seems like some of them are self powered, which is what he wants. But, he also wants high capacity and decent performance from it. This really doesn't seem possible, can anyone help us out here?


Would it be better to simply go for an external enclosure and a hard drive, or to buy an already assembled enclosure + drive from a company like Seagate? His laptop has no Firewire, or eSATA, but he does have an ExpressCard slot on the laptop. If he has to get a card to support FireWire or eSATA, he can do so (if they even exist) I don't know what his budget is, but his company is paying for this.

Edit: On a side note, I'm not 100% sure if it's an ExpressCard Slot or a regular CardBus.

2.5 hdd are running on USB or Firewire power. these port CANNOT supply sufficient current for bigger 3.5 hdd. You have to get separate power supply with them.

 

[Sagekilla]

So if we grab a 2.5" drive along with a 2.5" USB enclosure, it should be able to power the drive alone?

He said he's willing to deal with lower performance since he's only going to be doing demos with the databases, he doesn't intend to do massive I/O operations, and it seems like the only intense I/O that will occur will be booting up.

Anyone have any recommendations for a 2.5" enclosure? We're looking at the hard drive charts right now to find a decent drive.

 

[sandmanwn]

for western digital that "passport" line will suit your needs. that includes the enclosure and drive.

the self powered drives are dependent on your laptop or whatever it is you are hooking the enclosure up to, some can do others cant. most will come with a power cable just in case.