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I'm having issues connecting a 3.5 inch WD Caviar SE (WD3200AAJS) via a SATA to USB adapter. The drive is recognized, but it doesn't spin, so it just shows up with a capacity of 0 bytes.

Note that the adapter I'm using is originally for 2.5 inch drives. Connecting a Seagate Momentus (2.5") drive works just fine. I've read somewhere that it doesn't matter if the drive is 2.5 or 3.5 inches, so long as it's SATA. Also, when I connect the power cable from the desktop PC to the WD drive, it spins normally. That's just to confirm that the drive isn't generally broken.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? One theory I have is that the WD drive might need to have different jumper settings for this to work. Then again, my laptop already recognizes it, it just doesn't spin... So perhaps it's just not getting enough power through the USB cable?

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  • I wonder if the answers here are current, considering the power that newer USB ports can supply
    – golimar
    Nov 11, 2021 at 14:18

5 Answers 5

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It does matter what size the drive is. Large 3.5" hard drives require more power then what even two USB ports can provide. For reference, a single USB port can provide a maximum 500 mA of current. A Western Digital WD3200AAJS, on the other hand, requires 1444 mA at idle, and 1608 mA when reading/writing files to/from the drive.

It is part of the USB specification that if a device attempts to draw too much power, it is simply disconnected from the target system - this is why, while your adapter itself shows up, you can't access the drive. There is no jumper setting to change, SATA drives don't have any.

What you're trying to do is, quite bluntly, impossible. You'd need the power of almost four USB ports to get the HDD working, which is also why you never see full 3.5" drive enclosures without an external power supply.

Your only option is to power the drive from the computer, power it using an external power supply, or if you can find any (reliable) +5V and +12V DC source, you could hack together your own. Or you could just buy a USB HDD enclosure that has the power source.

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  • Ok, thanks. I'll get myself a USB HDD enclosure then, that'll cut the hassle down to a minimum.
    – Brokenstuff
    Aug 15, 2011 at 17:05
  • Hello, can I just ask what about the possibilities of a) newer USB 3 superspeed power outpuit (900mA??) and b) using another computer's 12V power to power the drive (would the grounds need to be connected etc even if plugged into the same mains connection).
    – Wilf
    Apr 22, 2016 at 14:36
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    @Wilf technically, using a single device that draws power from more than one USB port (e.g. using a Y-connector) is non-compliant with the USB specification - from http://compliance.usb.org/index.asp?UpdateFile=Policies#72: Use of a 'Y' cable (a cable with two A-plugs) is prohibited on any USB peripheral. If a USB peripheral requires more power than allowed by the USB specification to which it is designed, then it must be self-powered.
    – Breakthrough
    Apr 22, 2016 at 16:46
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    @Wilf In the case of using a secondary 12V source, yes you would need to connect the ground of the device's power supply to the ground of the computer (which you can do by simply connecting it to the ground/zero-volt wire of the USB cable itself, since it shares the same ground as the power supply of the computer). The mains AC supply ground is not the same as the ground rail provided by the DC supply, it just becomes the reference for what zero volts is, with respect to the voltage rails the power supply provides (which can be both positive and negative).
    – Breakthrough
    Apr 22, 2016 at 16:56
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    Note that USB-C cables can also carry 20V, but usually that's only for charging the laptop – the computer's ports almost never supply 20V.
    – mb21
    Mar 1, 2018 at 20:25
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A 3.5" drive requires both 5v and 12v, wheras 2.5" drives only need 5v. USB only supplies 5v. USB adapters/enclosures for 3.5" drives have a separate 12v input in addition to the 5v, which can be supllied by the USB bus or by the power supply, in which case the PSU is supplying both voltages.

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    I think this is truly the correct answer as no matter the amperage one could supply on the 5V lines, you need to have the 12V for the 3.5 drive which you will not get unless the adapter is specifically designed to supply it (the 12V). Good catch @Rob!
    – Damon
    Oct 12, 2017 at 2:20
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    But there are 5V to 12V step-up converters... there could be devices that take 5V from the USB port, convert it to 12V and pass that to the HD. The other problem would be power but new USB specifications allow for supplying more power
    – golimar
    Nov 11, 2021 at 14:12
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A single USB cable is not sufficient to power most 3.5" drives (which is why you might have seen some crazy USB Y-adapters on certain enclosures-- those are to draw power from two ports and power the drive without an external adapter), but it can power a 2.5" drive. You will need to get a proper external enclosure that can support the power requirements of a 3.5" drive.

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    Well, I do have a Y-cable - seems that's not enough, though.
    – Brokenstuff
    Aug 15, 2011 at 15:16
  • Then I would guess that you need an enclosure with an external power supply. Perhaps it's a particularly high-power device, or needs more than usual to spin up. In any case, I wouldn't expect a self-powered 2.5" adapter to provide sufficient juice for a 3.5" drive.
    – Darth Android
    Aug 15, 2011 at 15:21
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To get the 3.5 HDD running on USB sata adapter please do the following:

  1. Buy USB SATA adapter with 12V power adapter included
  2. Connect SATA connector to HDD without the power cord
  3. Connect USB connector to the laptop
  4. Wait for the USB device to recognize the adatper
  5. Connect the 12V power cord to the SATA adapter
  6. HDD will now spin and will be accessible
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  • Avoid posting answers to old questions that already have well received answers unless you have something substantial and new to add.
    – Toto
    Sep 10, 2022 at 18:32
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Here are some of my old computer notes, which might be helpful.

The problem: SATA drive works fine when connected via SATA cable, but does not work when attached through a USB drive enclosure. The drive spins up, and appears on the "eject external drive" menu of the system tray, but does not appear in Windows Explorer. In the Disk Management application, this drive shows up as "invalid dynamic disk".

The solution: Open up the disk management application (Computer>manage>disk management). Will need to enter a sys admin password. Find the drive in the disk list, where it shows up as "invalid dynamic disk". Right-click on this entry and choose "convert to basic disk". All data will be destroyed in this step! Now you can partition and format this disk, and it will function normally from the USB drive enclosure.

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    OP has already accepted a convenient answer so no need to destroy all data
    – yass
    May 9, 2017 at 17:34

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