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I have an Asus S96S and the screen went bad. So i want to make it a desktop. I want to add a nice big hard disk thats relativley cheap. I don't want to use external power.

So basic question is, where can i find an adapter that changes usb power to sata power (for 3.5" drive), and use esata for data connection?

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4 Answers

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As Ignacio pointed out, USB does not supply enough juice to power a 3.5" drive all by itself. You want an external harddrive enclosure, which will allow you to connect the drive to the laptop over USB or eSata for the data, and use an AC adapter to provide power.

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It is not possible. Look on the 3,5 external drives - all have external power supply because USB is unable to feed them. If you do not want to use common computer power supply, why not to use adapter like this one: enter image description here I got it with PremiumCord USB2.0 - IDE + SATA adapter and it is designed to feed big HDDs.

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USB only supplies 2.6W of power, which is not enough to run a 3.5" platter hard disk.

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I know, I have seen though ones that have 2 usb ports to draw power and esata to do data. – Tinfoilpain Jun 14 '11 at 18:36
5.2W still won't power the larger drives. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jun 14 '11 at 18:36
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Unfortunately you can't do that. Sata drives need a 12v and USB is only 5v. Sorry. (If you could, not external harddrives would require not external power supplies.)

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-1: you can do this. With a hard drive enclosure or hot-swap dock – horatio Jun 14 '11 at 20:05
@horatio, USB does not provide enough power. Period. I think you need to read what your voting on before voting. A hard drive enclosure or hot-swap dock do not do what you're claiming they do. Also, did you downvote everyone else's answer, or just mine? – Johnny W Jun 14 '11 at 22:09
The entire line of WD passport external hard drives for instance do not require external power. – horatio Jun 15 '11 at 13:49
@horatio, The poster is talking about a standard 3.5" HD, the Western Digital Passport is a specially made 2.5" drive. – Johnny W Jun 18 '11 at 15:19
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