Last night I bought a 160-gig Toshiba external hard drive at Circuit City for backing up my current files and for storage of future downloads. When I plug it in, I get a message that says something to the effect of "this device has exceeded the power limits of its USB port." (Not the exact words but that's the gist of the message.) After a minute or so the E:\ drive appeared in My Computer and I was able to back up all my files (meaning that I can't return it now? I don't know). It seems to work fine, but I'm wondering if I should be worried about that message. Or buy a powered USB hub as I've seen several people mention when I googled my problem. Should I have the external HD plugged into the USB port before powering up my laptop?
Also, when I went to Device Manager in I think Control Panel it says I have two USB ports, but I can only see one on the back of my laptop. I have a Compaq Armada M700 laptop (yeah, dinosaur, I know), and I've downloaded the user manual and looked at the computer components on that as well, and I can't find that extra USB port. (Unless it's that card slot on the side of the laptop. Next to my CD/DVD-ROM drive. There's nothing in that slot.)