How to power a 3.5in drive from a laptop?

Question

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?

Solution 1

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.

Solution 2

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: I got it with PremiumCord USB2.0 - IDE + SATA adapter and it is designed to feed big HDDs.

Comments

[Tinfoilpain]

I know, I have seen though ones that have 2 usb ports to draw power and esata to do data.

[Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams]

5.2W still won't power the larger drives.

[henry700]

-1: you can do this. With a hard drive enclosure or hot-swap dock

[Django Reinhardt]

@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?

[henry700]

The entire line of WD passport external hard drives for instance do not require external power.

[Django Reinhardt]

@horatio, The poster is talking about a standard 3.5" HD, the Western Digital Passport is a specially made 2.5" drive.

[Moab]

USB is 5 volts, 3.5" drives need 12v and 5v.