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Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?
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Author:  TCayer [ Tue May 23, 2017 9:34 am ]
Post subject:  Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

OK, so my EX470 died after more than a decade of faithful service. Believe it or not, I got a NEW in box EX485 on ebay. Never opened! Thanks to the kind people here of the forums, I was able to copy almost all of my data of the drives. I had been having trouble with one drive that had intermittent failures, which I could not remove. Then another failed. Both of these were external drives. I'm looking at buying new ones, and see inexpensive Seagate Expansion 2TB drives. They are USB powered. Anyone use USB powered external drives? I plan to start from scratch ad then copy my data back to the server. Thanks in advance!

Author:  Ruben Rocha [ Tue May 23, 2017 9:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

I am not aware of anyone that has used one.
In theory I guess they should work.
But not enough info from the specs.
It states that it is compatible with win 8-10.
But nothing about say xp.
Probably because it supports usb 3.0.
The one item I would be concerned about is it probably is a advanced format drive.
Meaning when you fill it up, you could have performance issues or possibly data corruption.

Also if you use more than one it may overload the power supply in the server.
since there is no data on power needs
No specs on that either.

Not knowing what you future plans are for the drive.
Why not just spend a few more dollars and get a dual usb docking port and use standard drives.
Then you can just plug the drive into the server after and use it for multiple issues that come up later

Author:  Gardian [ Thu May 25, 2017 7:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

I agree, I have used a usb powered dvd-rw drive but would not try a full size drive. I wouldn't say they won't, but would be afraid of pulling to much power.
If you decide to use them, please let us know. It might help others.

The up side, if it worked without damage, is when/if the server was shut down, the drives would shut down as well which could be cool.

Good luck

Author:  TCayer [ Fri May 26, 2017 4:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

Thanks for your thoughts. I have 4 2 TB drives in the server and 4 2TB external drives. (I'm maxed out!) One died, and the other was knocked off my desk by the cat while I was copying my files off it. Since I was adding two, I was just browsing at what's available. I guess I'll just stick to the usual powered drives. While the others are cheap enough, I don't really have a need for them if they don't work in the server.

Author:  Gardian [ Sat May 27, 2017 8:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

For external I would recommend something like this. It is very cheap, "was not always so" it is a good deal these days.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576009&cm_re=medisonic-_-17-576-009-_-Product
They also have a 8 bay version of this but one would have to go usb to access all the drives and I have heard mixed reviews on drives dropping out.

And these will shut off "power sync" if the server shuts off. They will not turn on when the server turns on ( I have not been able to find one that does that) but still an idea for 4 more drives USB/Esata.

Good luck and enjoy.

Author:  TCayer [ Sat May 27, 2017 2:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

Gardian wrote:
For external I would recommend something like this. It is very cheap, "was not always so" it is a good deal these days.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576009&cm_re=medisonic-_-17-576-009-_-Product
They also have a 8 bay version of this but one would have to go usb to access all the drives and I have heard mixed reviews on drives dropping out.

And these will shut off "power sync" if the server shuts off. They will not turn on when the server turns on ( I have not been able to find one that does that) but still an idea for 4 more drives USB/Esata.

Good luck and enjoy.


I am talking about adding external drives to the storage pool of my Media Smart server via the 3 rear and one front usb ports. I had 4 drives but two have died. Does the product you mention work with your server storage pool?

Author:  Gardian [ Sun May 28, 2017 9:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

The product mentioned above will allow you to add up to 4 drives externally via one USB or Esata connection and you will be able to add each drive to the storage pool.

I do have to say I just found out after more checking that this device has a setting that it can be set to sleep if your server was off and then when the server was fired back up, it would awaken.
Or, you can set it to turn off if the server turns off and then you would need to manually turn it back on the the server was fired back up

While I do not have this product, it has been one of the "best in class" for the money, for the home server.
When I run out of room it is what I will use unless something better comes along.

The idea is having to use only one connection.
I don't know how your externals are connected now, was just trying to show an option that could add 4 drives on 1 connection , with it's own power supply.

Edit: The ex-485/487 seems to me had something different with with the external (port multiplier) being able to see more then one drive.
I don't remember if it was just usb or just esata, but at least with this unit you have both to try.
That is why I went ex-470 to the x-510 as the ex-48 series seem to have a bit more problems and limits then the rest.

Edit, I did some searching and it is the Esata connection that will only see one drive on the ex-48 series, so as long as you are willing to use USB this product should work for your server.

Author:  TCayer [ Sun May 28, 2017 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

Gardian wrote:
The product mentioned above will allow you to add up to 4 drives externally via one USB or Esata connection and you will be able to add each drive to the storage pool.

The idea is having to use only one connection.
I don't know how your externals are connected now, was just trying to show an option that could add 4 drives on 1 connection , with it's own power supply.

Edit: The ex-485/487 seems to me had something different with with the external (port multiplier) being able to see more then one drive.
I don't remember if it was just usb or just esata, but at least with this unit you have both to try.
That is why I went ex-470 to the x-510 as the ex-48 series seem to have a bit more problems and limits then the rest.

Edit, I did some searching and it is the Esata connection that will only see one drive on the ex-48 series, so as long as you are willing to use USB this product should work for your server.


Thanks for the info! That means you can potentially expand the capacity beyond the 16 TB that I was at. I am going to take a look at one of these! I will be starting from scratch with the new server, since I have all my data backed up on an 8 TB external for now. I'll post down the road when I get it up and running!

Author:  Gardian [ Sun May 28, 2017 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can I use USB Powered External Hard Drives?

I did some digging as I forgot what the max storage is on Whs V1.
WHS will support up to (32) 2tb Drives. But I have heard that that last drive can be tricky. lololol

So in theory you could have a couple of them for (8) 2tb drive external and (4) 2 tb drive internal very easily. without using the front usb port.

They also have an 8 bay, but it is very pricey compared and I have heard that keeping all 8 drive online can be a trick.

Good Luck

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