Thursday, September 23, 2004
Mobile Data on the Go: The Iogear 2.5" Firewire/USB Hard Drive Case
Posted by Jason Dunn in "HARDWARE" @ 09:00 AM
Small Drive, Big Accessories Required to Make it Work
Once I completed assembling the drive, it was time to connect it to my desktop computer and make sure everything was working. This is when I was in for my first real disappointment with this drive – the power adaptor for the drive was huge! I was further disappointed to see that the USB power adaptor required a PS/2 port, something my laptop lacks. This is a bad approach to powering the unit.
Figure 5: The bulky power adaptor that comes with the Iogear enclosure.
Figure 6: The USB connection plugs into a PS/2 port for power – but only if your laptop has that port.
Figure 7: Everything that comes with the Iogear unit. The leather carrying case for the drive is a classy touch, but it would have been nice to have a pouch on the front for the cables.
My last external 2.5" enclosure, a no-name brand I bought at Fry's when I was in Las Vegas, had a single cable that plugged into another USB 2.0 power and drew power from it. This was a much more elegant solution than the Iogear brick adaptor, and it just so happens that it works in the Iogear drive! Given that these drives are much smaller than 3.5" enclosures, mobility is a key factor here – which makes me wonder why they’d saddle the user with all these cables.
