[mdlug] External Floppy Drive

[Michael Rudas]

--- Peter Bart wrote:

> I'm in need of an external floppy drive; and taking Rays advice on not
> letting the drive suck power from USB; I went looking. Just quickly
> looking in a few places, all seem to be powered via USB. Is this because
> the power requirements are not as large a hard drive and could safely be
> powered by the USB port, or should I seriously go looking? I would be
> using this at home, so power availability is not an issue.

Basically, ALL USB-external floppy drives are port-powered--I've never
seen one with external power--the power requirements of a 3.5-inch
floppy drive are less than the 2.5 watts (5V at 500mA) that a USB port
can source.  As Aaron pointed out, a powered hub would reduce draw
from the PC--in fact, a USB 1.1 hub is fast enough (floppy drives are
SLOW)--and you might even have one around the house...

~~ Michael Rudas
    My home page: http://MRudas.2Ya.com
    My blog: http://FaveSoft.blogspot.com
    My Protopage links: http://TinyURL.com/3wt54n