Usb power insufficient to 2 1Tb hard drive and 1 other device

[BananaKnight]

I am having 2 1 Tb external hard drives connect to my laptop through a Usb 3.0 4 slot hub but if i attempt to connect another device ie laptop fan, printer, headphones ect, the hard drives start to tick, i searched around on google and found that it is most likely because the single usb slot does not provide sufficient power to my drives. are there any ways to remedy this? i don't have enough slots on my laptop

[papapoi]

use a powered usb hub

[papapoi]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=powered+usb+hub&sprefix=powered+usb+hub%2Ccomputers%2C236

[BananaKnight]

3 minutes ago, papapoi said:

use a powered usb hub

wow, i didn't even know these existed, thanks.

 

 

[Ivyk]

You need a USB hub which is powered by an external power source.

[BananaKnight]

2 minutes ago, Ivyk said:

You need a USB hub which is powered by an external power source.

 

7 minutes ago, papapoi said:

use a powered usb hub

are these the same?

 

[Droidbot]

5 minutes ago, BananaKnight said:

 

are these the same?

 

 

yes

 

 

[BananaKnight]

will the ticking damage my hard drives?

 

[Captain_WD]

1 hour ago, BananaKnight said:

~snip~

Hey there BananaKnight,

 

Under-powering your drives with this USB hub shouldn't cause any damage to them but rather wear them out a bit from the constant head parking that the drive does when detecting lower than required power. This shouldn't degrade the overall lifespan of the drive.

 

I'd still check the health of the drives with a tool from the manufacturer, though.

 

Captain_WD.