Don’t touch anything! I finally have my USB situation stable (read: everything is working and nothing is complaining about not having enough power). I figure I better blog it so if I move anything around, I can find my way back.

Plugged into the left side of my MacBook Pro I have a Belkin 7-port powered USB hub fully loaded:

• printer
• scanner
• phone
• iPod
• external hard drive #1 – 250 GB
• external hard drive #2 – 80 GB. I originally had the 250 GB drive on the PC and the 80 GB drive on the Mac. I need both until I’m confident that I’ve made the transition to the new computer 100%.
• Wacom tablet

On the right side is a smaller hub that has the keyboard and the USB part of the ADC to DVI adapter I bought this morning.

I found out the hard way that the 2 ports that sit at the top of the 7 port hub must be USB 2.0-only because Parallels isn’t recognizing my phone when I plug in there. So some juggling later, and the iPod and scanner are in the top ports and everything else in the back.

I guess the good part of the MacBook Pro’s lack of USB ports is that it’s easy to disconnect everything when I want to take the notebook out. All I have to do is make sure all the drives are ejected and unplug two cords, Ethernet and power. Maybe that’s why Apple hasn’t had a docking station for their PowerBooks/MacBooks…yeah, they meant to do that.