# Seagate FreeAgent Go vs. WD My Passport (# of USB ports required)



## meimei (Dec 5, 2009)

I apologize in advance for a repeat of the discussion; I've been skimming through past threads regarding this, but none seemed to focus on this question directly...

I am under the impression that my mom's Passport uses one USB port only, but I noticed in a review for Seagate's FreeAgent that it requires two.

Can someone from their own experience please share how many USB ports are required for each? I understand that each laptop/desktop is different, but I was hoping to get an idea just the same. And, I guess I don't know much about these things.. but if I were to compare a 500 gb hard drive versus a 320 gb hard drive, would less power be required for the latter?

Any additional suggestions regarding these two products would be greatly appreciated and are welcome :]

Thank you!


edit: I wanted to add that after asking, both my mother and boyfriend confirm that their 500 gb Passports only require one USB port for their computers


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

The issue here is that some USB drives have marginal power requirements and laptop USB ports may also not supply the full .5A current required. In that case, a dual-headed USB cable is used to connect to two USB ports for added current.

I have two WD Passports, and both the 120 and 320 gig models only require a single port on a variety of laptops, so that's the way I'd go.


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## Amber1 (Jan 31, 2009)

hi, meimei.
i have the Seagate FreeAgent Go 320 gig model, and it comes with a SINGLE head USB. I use it on a 5 years old XP laptop with no issue what so ever. 
i also have the docking station ( sold separately ) that has a dual-headed USB cable, however i only use one of the USB to connect the docking station it it works perfectly.
The reason the dock station comes with (2) USB connectors is for backward compatibility when used on older systems with USB 1.1 or early USB 2.0 (low USB power provision) ports - using two ports essentially doubles the power that's fed/required to spin up the FreeAgent module. Newer computers with full power supplying capability USB 2.0 ports will work just fine with only one connector attached.

Amber


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