MBP - software to control USB power?

Hello all!

Just got a MBP, LOVE IT. Had the 20" iMac desktop but I'm moving to Boston in a few months and I can't wait to hop coffee shops with the WiFi.. Thinking about getting a 3G card for places that wouldn't offer WiFi, anyways...

I have a Black Cherry Simpletech hard drive (great item) and I had plugged it in to my desktop before I sold it so I could get all my of 16,000 something songs, 200 something videos, 700 pictures and installation files for photoshop, toast and other programs onto the drive before shipping it out. (I would really.. really.. REALLY hate to lose all those files) I got my MBP and plugged it in, and nothing happened.. No computer will recognize the drive, I've tried many different Macs and even a few Windows computers..

The drive is formatted for Mac, and the light turns on indicating it does work, and it hasn't been jostled or dropped. The company said not enough power was reaching the drive through the USB port, especially for notebooks.

My question is, is there some freeware/software out there that lets a user specify how much power travels through a USB port? OR if there is a place I can buy a dual USB plugin port that would fit a mini B jack...? (yes I've googled many different things) Thanks.

Have you tried a powered USB hub?

skaheadpunk said:

Have you tried a powered USB hub?

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I haven't, students budget is tough and I spent most of my bank account on the MBP for school. I needed the extra power in a MBP rather than a MB for audio editing/music production, graphic design, and a little gaming.

Hmm... does it not work either way? I have a USB powered enclosure with my old HDD in it and it will only work with them one way round (owing to less power on the back port, so far as I know). It's something to do with the rear port already being on some class of internal hub.

skaheadpunk said:

Hmm... does it not work either way? I have a USB powered enclosure with my old HDD in it and it will only work with them one way round (owing to less power on the back port, so far as I know). It's something to do with the rear port already being on some class of internal hub.

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Tried both ports, I'm curious if firewire would supply more power, not sure if they come in MINI b though, haven't used firewire before. Worried now because I've been testing the external HD so much, plugging in and out, hoping it's not getting corrupted because of the improper unmounting.. even though it was technically never mounted because it was never recognized.

I did just find this, I think it's what I need:
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-B-Mini-...ryZ42322QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It's a dual USB connector, one USB cord powers one is data transfer. This is what most simpletech drives come with anyways..

So the drive uses one port or two normally?

skaheadpunk said:

So the drive uses one port or two normally?

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When I used it on the iMac I just used one USB connector, as it originally came with the dual USB cord pictured in the eBay auction. However I since got rid of the cable because it worked fine with just the one port (yes, stupid.. I know) I'm assuming the drive worked fine with the iMac because it was a very powerful desktop and there was plenty of power going to the USB drives so it was fine with one. Simpletech drives apparently need a lot of power, it does have a power input but it didn't come with a power cord so it seemed optional. Their hotline said to plugin both USB cords to supply more power. I assume this means one is for power, one is for data transfer. Only tricky thing now is, the two USB ports on my MBP are on either sides, so the cord on the eBay page definitely won't reach.

Tricky... male to female USB extension? Or find another mac with ports closer together... though you'd probably have to write it all to DVDs or something which would be a mission and a half.

Or if you've got a mate with a macbook air it should run off the one port - they throw out more power

Though being a student you probably don't have the mate with the MBA. I saw one being brought in for repair when i was in the Apple store last... first time I've seen one that's not locked in a metal box bolted to a table - amazing!

skaheadpunk said:

Tricky... male to female USB extension? Or find another mac with ports closer together... though you'd probably have to write it all to DVDs or something which would be a mission and a half.

Or if you've got a mate with a macbook air it should run off the one port - they throw out more power

Though being a student you probably don't have the mate with the MBA. I saw one being brought in for repair when i was in the Apple store last... first time I've seen one that's not locked in a metal box bolted to a table - amazing!

Click to expand...

Yeah, lol. Do you think the data is ok from all the plugging in and out?

For your sake I hope so... so I'm gonna say yes hopefully everything is fine and dandy. I've abused hardware like that before and never had a problem - but I might just be lucky!