I have a 1tb seagate external hardrive I would like to power off of my laptop, is there any way to do this? I do not want to buy a usb powered hardrive so I would like to figure out how this might be possible. Any help would be very appriciated.

thanks!
-maximilian

hello max...
I find your statement of problem to be confusing.
You say you would like to power off of your laptop, but you do not want it to be usb powered?
How would you like to power it?
If you have a ps2 connector (now mostly disappeared, I think) you might be able to get an adapter this way.
But maybe I am not understanding your question.

Is it that the seagate requires a 12v powers supply? (That is what my Maxtor requires).
AFAIK, (and I might be underinformed) - You cannot get 12v from your laptop.

sorry for being a bit unclear, basically what I have acer aspire one and a 1tb seagate freeagent external hardrive. Right now in order to use them both in my car I need to create 2 outlets out of the cigarette lighter, the largest usb powered external hardrives are either 500 or 640gb so I want to use the one i have if at all possible.

I tried to post links for the specs of the laptop and the hardrive but my profile is too new to post links.
thanks again
-maximilian

see this re usb power limitations: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic67979.html#1

Another suggestion: 12v Lighter-->Power Inverter-->110ac to USB drive. Quick and cheap way to do it. Just remember external hard drives are not shock proof. Using it in the car raises the risk of damage if you drop it or bump it.