I need to power a WD portable USB powered drive from a separate USB 5V power source feeding into the USB data cable along side the data. The application is to use an existing 5 year old WD portable USB powered hard drive connected to a Samsung smart TV to record TV broadcasts. The TV instructions states that the external hard drive need to have it’s own power adapter (despite supplying USB 5V at 1A). Also it states the USB hard drive must support USB 2.0 or later and 5,400 rpm or higher.
I was wondering, is it possible to take the drive USB cable through a USB power source / hub / splitter or something similar, located in-between the drive and TV so that the drive has a separate power source?
I won’t be using a WD desktop drive supplied with power adapter as I’m using an existing drive.
If the TV has a 5V 1A USB port that will be more than enough to power a USB drive
I have a 4TB USB WD Elements USB drive and on my USB Tester it draws 5V 420mA
My 2TB USB WD Elements USB draws even less at 5V 220mA … but increases under load to 420mA
Personally, i would try the USB connected directly to the TV
If the Hard Drive starts “beeping” then the TV port is not providing enough power as it claims.
Which leaves you the only option to use a AC Powered USB HUB connected to the TV and then plug your USB drive into the HUB.
Then it should work.
