basically I'd like to connect a 3.5" SATA drive to the place were a 2.5" SATA drive would be in my laptop.
Here's a picture showing both kinds of drives by Dsimic:
I have been reading up on SATA connectors and apparently only the left side of it is being used for data, the right one is for power as the following diagram shows:
Since my 3.5" also has a PATA power connector (the one on the left, uses one of those Molex cables. Would it be possible to connect the big disk to the laptop somehow? Maybe using a Molex cable to provide the drive with a 12V source and enough power, and a regular SATA data cable for the connection?
NOTE: This question could be related to this one but I think it goes its boundaries.
Best Answer
Yes, the connectors are identical.
A rule of thumb, if they would have been different, it would simply have a different shape to make sure it would not work. This is something that wasn't always the case, but for the past, I dunno... 10 years, in ICT, connectors that fit can be used without causing any form of damage.
The only exception here is USB-C. It will work, but USB-C can have additional protocols, so if a cable does not support that protocol some features may not work. But SATA connectors, both power and data have this rule: if it fits it'll work.