Writing light, power source 1. The review of the 750GB version states there is no light that shows whether the drive is writing; true? 2. I don't understand how this is powered by USB if it has an a/c adapter Writing light, power source 1. The review of the 750GB version states there is no light that shows whether the drive is writing; true? 2. I don't understand how this is powered by... » Read More Writing light, power source 1. The review of the 750GB version states there is no light that shows whether the drive is writing; true? 2. I don't understand how this is powered by USB if it has an a/c adapter « Show Less
1330377
This is powered by the a/c adapter, not the USB. I think it may know when to turn off and on because its hooked up to the computer. When the computer is on, it is on, and vice versa.
1330378
it doesn't say powered by usb. as far as i know the only interface that powers 3.5" drives is 6 pin firewire.usb doesn't have the juice for anything more than a laptop drive. even then its shaky for some older usb adaptors which actually tend to have their own ac adaptors, like with pcmcia usb cards.
1704318
You have to have AC to power it. The smaller, "min" versions of the g-tech drives are able to be bus powered. Strangely, on the amazon pages per the technical details, in the "Special Features" section, it says "usb powered". However, upon looking at the g-tech web site and other resources, this likely just refers to it having usb ports...more of a marketing term than a technical term. I reviewed the technical manual, product guide and datasheet on the site for the product with no mention of being able to use the USB to power it. I will try with mine at home but I have had mine for a little over 6 months and had it AC powered the whole time. I would not expect a workhorse like that to be able to be bus powered. You have to have AC to power it. The smaller, "min" versions of the g-tech drives are able to be bus powered. Strangely, on the amazon pages per the technical details, in the "Special Features" section, it says "usb powered". However, upon looking at the g-tech web site and other resources, this likely just refers to it having usb ports...more of a marketing term than a technical term. I reviewed the technical manual, product guide and datasheet on the site for the product with no mention of being able to use the USB to power it. I will try with mine at home... » Read More You have to have AC to power it. The smaller, "min" versions of the g-tech drives are able to be bus powered. Strangely, on the amazon pages per the technical details, in the "Special Features" section, it says "usb powered". However, upon looking at the g-tech web site and other resources, this likely just refers to it having usb ports...more of a marketing term than a technical term. I reviewed the technical manual, product guide and datasheet on the site for the product with no mention of being able to use the USB to power it. I will try with mine at home but I have had mine for a little over 6 months and had it AC powered the whole time. I would not expect a workhorse like that to be able to be bus powered. « Show Less
2020841
The hub itself can use an ac adapter (not included) however it is not required from my experience. But, if your external drives use an external power such as a ac adapter then yes you would still need the power for those drives but not for the usb 3.0 hub itself. You would only need to power the hub itself for power hungry applications. I currently have a WD Ultra Passport external drive (which requires no external power) and two external disc drives attached to mine (one lightscribe dvd writer, and one asus bluray writer drive) each of which is powered seperatly by ac cord. My 4 port Sabrent USB 3.0 Hub has no power to it other than the computers bus power. I hope this helps. Cheers! The hub itself can use an ac adapter (not included) however it is not required from my experience. But, if your external drives use an external power such as a ac adapter then yes you would still need the power for those drives but not for the usb 3.0 hub itself. You would only need to power the hub itself for power hungry applications. I currently have a WD Ultra Passport external drive (which requires no external power) and two external disc drives attached to mine (one lightscribe dvd writer, and one asus bluray writer drive) each of which is powered seperatly by ac cord. My 4 port... » Read More The hub itself can use an ac adapter (not included) however it is not required from my experience. But, if your external drives use an external power such as a ac adapter then yes you would still need the power for those drives but not for the usb 3.0 hub itself. You would only need to power the hub itself for power hungry applications. I currently have a WD Ultra Passport external drive (which requires no external power) and two external disc drives attached to mine (one lightscribe dvd writer, and one asus bluray writer drive) each of which is powered seperatly by ac cord. My 4 port Sabrent USB 3.0 Hub has no power to it other than the computers bus power. I hope this helps. Cheers! « Show Less
1826120
Yes. It does not run power of USB cord. You must have the power cord. I purchased 2 of these 3 years ago and have been moderately happy with them. Though now I require much greater space for my back-ups. Last year I had to purchase 2 new power cords as both of them stopped working. This is a known issue with this Lacie drive. If you buy be prepared to purchase a new power cord about every 18 months.
1614048
Are you sure that you used the USB cable correctly? You need to plug both USB cables to your computer for the drive to work. One would only provide power, and the other would be used to transfer DATA, neither one can work on its own. As a troubleshooting step, try to use a drive in the enclosure that you know for sure is not dead, if that one works, and the other one is still giving you problems, then it might be a problem in the drive itself but not the enclosure. However, if the drive that you know is working well, still doesn't show up on the computer, then it might be a problem in the enclosure. Hope this helps! Are you sure that you used the USB cable correctly? You need to plug both USB cables to your computer for the drive to work. One would only provide power, and the other would be used to transfer DATA, neither one can work on its own. As a troubleshooting step, try to use a drive in the enclosure that you know for sure is not dead, if that one works, and the other one is still giving you problems, then it might be a problem in the drive itself but not the enclosure. However, if the drive that you know is working well, still doesn't show up on the computer, then it might be a problem in the... » Read More Are you sure that you used the USB cable correctly? You need to plug both USB cables to your computer for the drive to work. One would only provide power, and the other would be used to transfer DATA, neither one can work on its own. As a troubleshooting step, try to use a drive in the enclosure that you know for sure is not dead, if that one works, and the other one is still giving you problems, then it might be a problem in the drive itself but not the enclosure. However, if the drive that you know is working well, still doesn't show up on the computer, then it might be a problem in the enclosure. Hope this helps! « Show Less
1434295
A little late, but I just got this media reader and I have the same problem. My guess is some newer internal usb inputs stay powered when the computer is off in order to charge stuff plugged into it (phone, camera, etc) EVEN when the computer is powered off. In this case that power makes the blue light stay on.
360950
By the way, I also checked Seagate's website and they have no pictures of their 500gb with the new light pattern, which I find odd because if anyone's going to have the most up-to-date pictures of their products, it should be them.
882441
In short, your answer is yes. While formatting the drive, the console may display a statement about perfomance issues. Most probably pertaining to the USB drive's read/write speeds. In my personal experience, writing to the drive is average, albeit a little slow. Reading from the drive, I have yet to see any issues in using this exact USB drive.
1772032
It is powered by the USB port. In fact, actual USB 3 ports have stronger power than USB 2.
1401159
Someone else will have to answer, but I can tell you it's a great drive and well worth what you pay for it. It's light and works perfectly. I'm not savvy about how to burn.
1137667
I don't know where to get the power cord, but I can say I have never found a need to use it. Every time I have tried the drive it has worked fine with just the regular USB cord and no power cord.
1149352
Mine does not seem to disk over write once full. I recently had to erase all to free space as it appeared to have stopped recording. Since then I´ve been careful to erase once in a while and haven't let it go to full again so I don´t know if it was an isolated incident or if not over writing is the rule. For the rest, it works very well.
1786850
Well, I have a test tool, that shows 233.7MB/s write and 319.0MB/s read with a SSD drive in an USB 3 enclosure via an iogear USB3 hub.Most USB sticks, or SD cards are way slower than this.The USB3 hub disconnects, when Yosemite goes to sleep. Then via eSata it copies 1.4GB in less than 5s to my backup drive, not sure, if my drive is a bottleneck, but I am happy with the speeds.
2237836
It's powered by the USB cable it comes with. I'm happy with this hard drive. It has an extra usb power cable if main usb output is not giving it enough power
404128
When you are using the flash drive amd it have finished with what you told it to record, then there is a place on your computer at the bottom right side that will tell you that you can safely remove the flash drive. The flash drive has a light that comes on when you plug it into the computer. i haven't filled my flash drive all the way up yet. Other smaller drives have not had a light come on, just the message at the bottom on the computer.
1456219
The box is plain cardboard; the DVD device itself doesn't say either. However, USB is typically 500mah maximum, and so far I haven't had any trouble using the DVD while the same unpowered hub has 7 other bus-powered devices connected, so it can't be TOO close to the maximum draw or things wouldn't work reliably. Also, there's a warning that if it's not sufficiently powered, burning speed may slow down (not fail), which mine has never done -- I get full speed with everything that reports a speed, and so far zero "coasters". AND NO, THIS DEVICE DOES ***NOT*** REQUIRE TWO CONNECTIONS. It has the ABILITY to take two connections, which is dubious because on MANY USB busses, all ports are actually the same electrical power connection. I have NEVER used the power cable on this drive at all -- Along with the tiny portable size, the single data cable, not needing additional external power, is one of my favorite features!
1403023
The device has its own power cord. I do not think it is designed to draw power from USB but only to power the USBs in the device itself. Thus the power cord.