Is there an External HDD with a power button on the front?

[gary11364]

I need a 500GB External Hard drive with a power button on the front. I have Googled this but could get no conclusive results. I was wondering if the Maxtor One Touch III or the WD My Book have this feature. I don't want to spend more than $160.00. Your help is appreciated. Thanks.

[redwudz]

It would be uncommon to have a power switch on the front of a external drive. You don't want to accidentally shut it off when the drive is being written to or from as that will likely corrupt the data on the drive.

Neither one of the drives mentioned appear to have front power switches.

[moviebuff2]

pst...check this out: Acomdata HD500UHE5-72. On sale at Fry's for $149.99. According to manufacturer's site, it has on/off switch on the back, but its power LED is on the front (I guess you want to see readily if the drive is on or off, right?). And, it is a 500-GB drive.

I bought a 40-GB Acomdata drive in 2001. It has both power switch and power LED on the front. It has been working great.

[gary11364]

I have two Seagate External Hard drives that are hot swappable and with a power button on the front. Unfortunately they are not made any more. I want to be able to shut it off because of the extra security( downloading Torrents, Etc.). Thanks.

[yoda313]

I have a 160gb wd external drive. The power button is on the front. I think all the Western Digital MY BOOK drives have the power button on the front. Its a big round circle with a green light around fyi.

[moviebuff2]

gary11364 wrote:

I want to be able to shut it off because of the extra security( downloading Torrents, Etc.).

You can shut it off even if its power button is on the back. No?

[gary11364]

Moviebuff2 that is option number 2. Thanks.

[Seeker47]

It would be uncommon to have a power switch on the front of a external drive. You don't want to accidentally shut it off when the drive is being written to or from as that will likely corrupt the data on the drive.

Neither one of the drives mentioned appear to have front power switches.

My Seagate external (which predates their FreeAgent line) has a power switch on the side. All of the ones I've made myself, out of a drive + ext. enclosure, have a power switch either on the top, side, or back. I think one would have to be dumb, careless, or extremely tired to just turn it off: the proper procedure is to unmount the device with the USB connected-device control in the System Tray (which shouldn't be happening in the middle of some write operation), and then power down the external drive.

[redwudz]

Seeker47 said:

I think one would have to be dumb, careless, or extremely tired to just turn it off

I agree, but manufacturers don't want consumers doing those type of things and then blaming them. I have seen a couple of those external drives that turn off with the computer. But I think they just power down to a suspend state, not switch entirely off. All my external drives have the switch on the back.

[yoda313]

The western digital power button is a giant button that you have to hold down for a few seconds before it powers down. You can't accidentally turn it off. Also its an inward curve so it won't bump into something and turn off.

If that is what you want than take a look at the western digital external 3.5" harddrives. They are selfcontained harddrives with a power strip that plugs in like a normal appliance and a usb cable (2.0 of course I'm 99% positive).

[jantxn]

The Apricorn EZ-BUS-DT-500 is exactly what you are looking for. Is an aluminum enclosure with a very good cooling fan in it. I have had one of these enclosures for about 2 years.

[rhegedus]

WD MyBook



The green circle is the power button - it needs to be held in for a few seconds to switch off.

[rallynavvie]

The issue with the MyBook drive is that it can be restarted while powered off if it's still plugged in via USB. This is done simply by cycling the USB service (searching for new devices) and it'll come back up. Only way to be really secure is to pull the USB cable. Mine sits behind my Dell 24" monitor and I simply plug and unplug the thing to the USB ports on my monitor to turn it off and on. Plugging the USB in turns and on and disconnecting the USB powers it off. I keep backup images, driver updates, and some customer project backups on mine so I never really need it plugged in and powered on that much.

[rhegedus]

cycling the USB service (searching for new devices) and it'll come back up.

How do you do that?

Mine stays off if I restart or power up.

[coodbe]

WD MyBook



The green circle is the power button - it needs to be held in for a few seconds to switch off.

This apparently is not the case with my 750GB Western Digital, Model WDG1U7500N. The manual states, "Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in your system tray. Select Safely remove USB Mass torage Device. Once a message is displayed that it is safe to remove the drive, disconnect the AC adapter to turn off the device."

The Button was rigid on my drive. I pressed a little harder. I heard a snap. The button moves freely now but no matter how long I hold it down it doesn't turn off. It will turn off if I disconnect the USB. It turns back on when I reconnect the USB.

I am using it as an external drive for my Dish 722 receiver.

[rhegedus]

Well, gary11364 wants a 500Gb drive. Mine works as described.

Sorry to hear about yours.

[rallynavvie]

I've one of the white 500GB ones with both flavors of FireWire in addition to the USB so maybe it's a different bridge board that causes mine to come back on? Or maybe it's just faulty. Either way I do know that when I turn off the monitor that it's plugged into that it disconnects the USB devices plugged into it.

[pepegot1]

Go to ACE Hardware. They have a switch that you plug the external drive's power cord into, then plug their switch into the electric. Use the switch to turn the power on and off. Just a few bucks.

[rhegedus]

I've one of the white 500GB ones with both flavors of FireWire in addition to the USB so maybe it's a different bridge board that causes mine to come back on? Or maybe it's just faulty. Either way I do know that when I turn off the monitor that it's plugged into that it disconnects the USB devices plugged into it.

You went for the Premium version? I thought about it but was too cheap to buy a FW800 card to go with it

Does FW800 live up to the hype?

[rallynavvie]

I found 1394a to be sufficient to support several devices on the chain. I upgraded to 1394b to support more bandwidth for a new VTR and XDCAM, not so much for the individual devices.

[moviebuff2]

psst...

Check this out! 500 GB, front power button, a little more than $100.00 at Fry's.

A little clarification: I have no affiliation, whatsoever, to Fry's.


Buffalo 500 GB HD-HS500U2