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A line of external hard drives by Western Digital, styled after hardbound books. Available in various editions from Essential, to Premium to World Edition.

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WD My Book Studio Edition II (2xHDD) with wrong power supply

Hi guys,

I have My Book Studio Edition II (2x500GB) and this external HDD should be powered with 12V 3A 36Watts but it's working with 12V 1.5A 18Watts - should I get the right one power supply ? Or it's OK how it is ? What can go wrong wit is not powered enough ?

Thanks a lot for any ideas/advice.

EDIT: also if anyone have this drive, can you please post picture of the power supply specs.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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@roboscrap, If it works, with 1.5A, when it was designed to operate with 3A, it’s 100% not going to operate optimally!

In order for the unit to function as designed in all situations, you need a PSU that’s capable of delivering at least 3A. Running it with a PSU with less power could very well be destroying the device, as it’s trying to utilize more power than it can possibly get.

An analogy is: You can lift a max of 100lbs, but to operate your job it is required that you lift 200lbs. You try to lift it, and you can possibly slightly move the weight, but in the long run you’re simply destroying yourself in trying. (NB! The human body would grow, and the more you tried, the better you’d get at it. Electronics does not work that way.)

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3 Comments:

Thanks a lot, I get it second hand for almost free - now I know why :D

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I am wondering - if I am using 12V 1500mA and it’s connected over FireWire - it’s possible that other 1500mA (to get 3000mA) is taken from FireWire ?

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@roboscrap FireWire can supply up to 30V and 1.5A, so you’re probably getting the remainder via that connection, to operate.

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Rob will be eternally grateful.
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