MiSTer FPGA Forum

Is the Mister with USB hub and a Meanwell 4A power supply enough to power a portable usb drive or does it need external power of its own?

It would depend entirely on the drive and the other peripherals you have plugged in. If it's a thumb drive or an SSD, it should be fine but if it's a mechanical drive (especially larger 3.5" drive) they usually have higher sustained power draws so I would 100% power them separately.

I use Meanwell 2A. Plugged into my USB board are:
-a portable 2TB WD HDD (not SSD) with no external power source
-Wifi dongle (I think it's 2.4Ghz)
-wirelesss keyboard dongle
-wirelesss mouse dongle
-Bluetooth dongle (for gamepad)
-USB power for TOS link adapter

Initially I had some problems with WiFi/gamepad, but since I swapped these devices around a few times they all work fine, so I don't think it was power-related.

Please note that this is just describing my setup. YMMV.

Thanks for both your replies. I think I would also have a wifi dongle, wireless unified keyboard/mouse dongle and a gamepad attached.

Thing is I don't actually own an external hard drive yet otherwise I would just try it out. I would prefer a portable 2.5 inch mechanical drive but don't want to buy it and find it doesn't work. A 3.5 inch self powered drive is a the safer bet but a bit bulky. I suppose to be on the safe side I'll have to go 3.5 inch.

I have the same PSU, plus SNAC adapters, USB Arcade Stick, USB Dual Shock Pro 3 knock-off, RGB Mouse, RGB Keyboard, and I have a 4Tb Portable HD connected, and powered via USB. The hard drive is a WD 4TB Elements Portable USB 3.0.