Network Drive or External Drive?

You bought a Maxtor drive? Send it back before it catches fire.

I've had six of them fail on me over the last decade (compared to not a single of over a dozen Western Digital drives), so I don't trust them at all. This is where everyone tells me about how reliable their Maxtor drives have been, I bet.

 

More commonly an indication that it's already completely fucked. The one time I've run into this on a working drive, the drive lasted, although the read/write speed was atrocious. Either way it isn't right, and it needs to be returned.

 

Anyone?

 

usb are selfpowered, esata aren't and ethernet either probably, but not sure.

 

most USB external drives are not self-powered, with the exception of some slimmer drives

 

The distinction is pretty cut and dry - 2.5" (laptop HDD) based external drives can be powered from USB's 5v line alone (unless they're really shittily made), 3.5" external drives require external power (I presume it's a 12v line).

 

Chicky external drives is not something to be very worried about unless it is excessively loud or Windows is having issues accessing the drive, especially if it is a 3.5" drive inside the enclosure. If performance is nice and fast but you hear it accessing the drive then this is is probably just down to the model you bought. I handle a large number of external drives of various brands in my line of work and there is no sure sign that noise = impending doom.

So hopefully that eases your mind somewhat.

Ethernet is only 'self powered' if it supports PoE and is connected to a device that supports PoE. For USB there are various options, as Alchy says - 2.5" based externals usually power from USB input, some 3.5" and 2.5" drives power from an additional USB cable (they have two USB cords to the computer), some require a power cord. E-SATA (fastest connection) usually require a power cable, but I have seen some that use a USB cord to power themselves also.