USB powered external drives-any good?

[Peel]

I have a bunch of USB drives on my system -- none of my audio stuff is there, but I use them for backups, pr0n storage, etc. The one thing to consider is noise -- it's comparable to adding another case fan to your PC. And one of them is incredibly annoying, producing a loud low-frequency throbbing drone. Ironically, that's the one I bought because the box claimed it was quiet (possibly it is in terms of pure dB, but because it's a pitched, low-frequency tone, it's really hard on the ears).
Not really a problem if you'll only be using it to make backups.

[Curois]

I have a decent Lacie external firewire drive and it works perfectly, so I disagree with the stay-away-from-Lacie comments.

[rp314]

I did that with Dimension Pro, and it works just fine.

EDIT: I misread the original post. My external drive is not powered by USB, but it does connect to my computer via USB.

Yeah you have to be careful about some of these details. The drive in the link in the original post is a 5,400 rpm and you definitely would not want to use that just to avoid having an external power supply, other than when it's absolutely necessary.