SATA to USB 3.5” hard drive using only usb power

hard drivesatasata-to-usbusb

I have purchased a SATA to USB 3.0 with two USB cables and it works great with 2.5'' hard drives. But apparently 3.5'' drives require not only 5 volts but also 12 volts. Nowadays there are a lot of quick chargers which provide 12 volts via USB. Will the converter work with 3.5'' drives if I insert one of the USB cables in a quick charger and another one in a computer? If no, then what are other ways of getting 3.5'' drives to work with that cable?

Best Answer

You can't simply plug a USB cable into 12V instead of 5V - chances are, you'll just fry something: Best case only the USB/SATA adapter, worst case the mainboard of the Computer.

SATA Adapters with only USB power supply are by design only usable for devices, that can be powered by USB - these are all SSDs I know of and the majority of 2.5" drives. The 3.5" drives not only need another voltage (which could be created via a step-up converter in the adapter), but due to the much bigger mass of the platters also a much larger amount of power to spin them up. USB is not able to provide that amount of power.

So, long story cut short: You can not use this adapter with 3.5" drives.