Windows 7: USB to electrical power plug? / or solar/AA powered

Does such a thing exist?

I sometimes find I need my external drive for like 5 minutes on the road without a socket in sight so it'd be great if I could just have it suck power from my computers USB port.



Or even solar power.

Obviously I wouldn't power something for a long time with it.

Or it'd be great if only one plug is available like at a coffee shop

Anything like this on deal extreme?

I think the best solution for you would be a portable hard disk that don't need external power supply. I've been extremely happy with Western Digital products, using this 640 GB as my "on the road" drive. It fits to my jacket pocket.

Kari

In addition to Kari's post.

Almost all 2,5" external drives get their power from USB.
3,5"drives need extra power.

I was wondering, when there's no socket in sight, how can the computer you want to connect to run?

Maybe bringing a extra 3 way socket is the cheapest solution.

You can by and inverter for your cigarette lighter. Then plug in to it .As a matter of fact I have one sitting right here in front of me. From RadioShack. You get to still plug in your lighter and have 1 Ac plug it also has a 15 amp fuse just in case in between the lighter socket and the plug.It pivots at the point where you'd plug it in and has a built in fan for cooling.Fabe Oh it's 150w

I mean like maybe something solar powered.
Or if I needed a file for ten minutes it could drain the computer battery.

It'd also mean that the wire for the HD would be as easy to unplug if the plug was right next to the computer

Well, then a 2.5" external USB harddrive would be the thing, right?

1. It is as small as a pack of cigarettes
2. It gets it's power from the USB port.
3. It has only a USB plug, so it's easy to plugin and out.
4. When not operating it can survive a drop because of it's small mass.
5. they come with 320gb nowadays.


You might also consider a USB stick 32gb.

1. it is very small.
2. it get's it's power from USB
3. Super easy to plugin and out.
4. you can run your car over it,
it will survive the washing machine if you forget it was in your back pocket.
it can take extreme temperatures low and high.


To charge your laptop, there are solar chargers, but they are expensive.

A car plug charger is much cheaper.

I hope this is helpful.

Greetings

Hi all

slightly (but only slightly) OT -- on the road why not consider one of the new "Netbooks" - these can have up to 9 hrs (yes 9 hrs) of battery life. Combined with one of those "powerless" USB passport type of drives you are well set.

A small netbook is fine (and quite cheap) -- I can't imagine you out in the field without power etc etc wanting to do a huge amount of "Photoshop".

When you get back home / to studio etc you can copy stuff back from your netbook to desktop / conventional laptop if you need to and of course the small usb drive is totally switchable between computers. The netbooks are also fine for browsing and emails etc etc. I HATE BLACKBERRIES - a proper computer is much better IMO.

BTW these netbooks run Windows 7 fine. They usually have Windows XP home installed but you can easilly install Windows 7 -- if there's no "conventional" internal HD (although a lot do have a 160 GB drive) install Windows 7 via a USB stick -- these "netbooks" allow booting from a USB device and there's loads of tutorials on this board about creating a bootable Windows 7 USB installation stick.

Cheers
jimbo

Laptop solar charger Amstron 315.00 Solar Charger - ASP-10 Green 20 Watt Foldable Solar Charger