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Geek Culture / Power supply to external hard drive?

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Slow Programmer
19
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Joined: 5th Apr 2006
Location: USA, Tennessee
Posted: 28th Feb 2012 04:30
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A question I have been pondering lately.

I have an external hard drive that uses an adapter that outputs 12 volts at 1.5 amps max. What would happen if I made an adapter that would connect a computer (4 pin Molex) power supply running at 12 volts and 45 amps output to this hard drive?

Normal operation or a tremendous explosion?

There are two kinds of computer users. Those that use Macs and those that wish they did.
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MrValentine
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14
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Joined: 5th Dec 2010
Playing: FFVII
Posted: 28th Feb 2012 06:40
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Why not get a cheap external caddy¿ or even a hot swap base unit

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Van B
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 28th Feb 2012 12:33
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The PC 12v supply would probably just burn out the board in your external HDD. Get a caddy, or just get a new external drive - you don't want to turn your PC into a fire hazard for the sake of £50 or so. You can even get external drives that are powered solely by USB.

Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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bitJericho
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Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 28th Feb 2012 14:57
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the drive inside the caddy is probably a regular drive. Just get a caddy that does what you want. They cost about 10-20 bucks.

darkBIT TGC Torrent Tracker / File Server - AGK Chat: #agk : irc.devhat.net
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the_winch
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Joined: 1st Feb 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posted: 28th Feb 2012 18:09
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It will work fine. My old desktop pc had molex connectors built into the front of the case so you could get power out.
The only thing you really need to worry about is if you do something dodgy like create a short circuit or draw too much power, the power supply will shut off to protect itself and your computer will restart.

By way of demonstration, he emitted a batlike squeak that was indeed bothersome.
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bitJericho
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Location: United States
Posted: 28th Feb 2012 18:14
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Quote: "the power supply will shut off to protect itself and your computer will restart."


If you have a decent one (ie, not the cheapest one you could find on newegg)

darkBIT TGC Torrent Tracker / File Server - AGK Chat: #agk : irc.devhat.net
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