Is it safe to use a SATA to USB enclosure with a Blu-ray drive?

Question

I have an ASUS N56JR laptop, and I’ve just replaced the optical drive (Blu-ray reader/DVD writer combo) with an HDD caddy. This allowed me to install an SSD into the primary hard disk drive slot, and replace the optical drive with a 2nd hard disk drive, for data storage.

I bought this hard disk drive caddy for the laptop in order to do this. (I removed the plastic bezel from the optical drive so the hard disk drive caddy would look ”stock,” even though the eject button does not do anything)

The optical drive is now sitting in my drawer, but I’d like to make some use of it, if I can, especially since its a Blu-ray drive.

The eBay listing for the hard disk drive caddy suggests buying this SATA to USB external enclosure to re-use the optical drive as an external USB DVD drive.

My question is, is it safe to do this with a Blu-ray drive? It appears to be a SATA to USB 2.0 enclosure. It uses one USB cable for power, and a second USB cable for data transfer. I guess I’m just wondering if USB can provide enough power for a Blu-ray drive.

Or am I just better off buying a new external USB 3.0 Blu-ray drive from Amazon instead?

Solution

You can connect an internal optical SATA drive to a USB port.

A full size 5.25" drive will require external power. A Slimline enclosure can be powered by USB alone.

• NexStar DX, External 5.25" Optical Drive Enclosure USB 3.0 External Interface
• USB 3.0 to Slimline SATA ODD Enclosure

Comments

[Ramhound]

Is it safe shouldn't be your concern, if it would work should be, and the answer to that question is not it will not.

[CaptainStealthy]

@Ramhound Thanks for the quick reply...just out of curiosity, what makes you think it won't work? Is it because of the power draw, like I was thinking?

[Ramhound]

3.5" drives require an external power source IF you are going to connect their data functionality over USB. USB 2.0 by itself won't be enough.

[CaptainStealthy]

Its a 2.5" drive, though. Its the OEM internal optical drive that came in the laptop. The enclosure has two USB connectors, one for power, and one for data.

[Ramhound]

I was given no information about the drive when I provided my initial comment.

[CaptainStealthy]

Thanks for the link to that StarTech product!! I'm considering getting that one instead, haha. Its more expensive, but you get the StarTech brand, Amazon Prime shipping (vs 30 days from China), and USB 3.0.