1

Is there any risk to either the hard drive or the laptop if I connect them together using a USB 2.0 to SATA IDE cable?

Is there any risk in creating a back-up of the laptop, on the 3.5" SATA HDD with only 5w power using with USB 2.0 TO SATA/IDE cable?

gparyani
  • 1,845
  • 9
  • 30
  • 48
user324890
  • 31
  • 1
  • 2

2 Answers2

4

There is no problem using a 3.5" hard drive external to a laptop. However, you will need to use a separate power supply to power the hard disk, as the USB can provide neither the amount of power, nor the correct voltage to run the drive.

Tripp Kinetics
  • 201
  • 1
  • 13
1

There is absolutely no risk, however you will get a bit of a problem with powering your 3.5 Inch HDD. You will need a special connector and a source of power for your 3.5 Inch HDD. You will not be able to power it directly from USB. As of other differences between the two, there is a very high quality thread on SU

Community
  • 1
Art Gertner
  • 7,149
  • 11
  • 42
  • 72
  • -1 'absolutely no risk'; a fluctuating power level (e.g over-strained USB bus) can directly cause data corruption. (My only source is personal experience - faulty caddy with 12v rail that varied +-0.5v @0.5Hz would render drives unreadable). – RJFalconer May 19 '14 at 15:31
  • USB has no 12V rail, so that would have been your adapter's PSU at fault, not the USB. Also, it has over-current protection - draw too much current and it shuts off the power. You don't get "over strained" USB busses. – Majenko Jun 12 '14 at 18:51