Ok, I have an external 2.5" hard drive enclosure from China. It came with a USB-A to USB-mini-B cable (I believe). It had two identical connectors on the USB-A side, presumably in case a single port was unable to supply enough current to spin up the drive. However, this never occured, so in practice I always just plugged in one head of the cable.

Well, I've managed to lose that cable, now I wish to replace it. Went to tiger-direct and bought a USB-A to USB-mini-B cable. It only has one head on the USB-A side, but it was never needed so I didn't mind.

However, the drive does not spin up when plugged in. Is it possible the cable had custom pin-outs? Is it possible I'm confusing USB-mini-A and USB-mini-B?

2/28/2007 12:58:19 PM

The quickest thing to do would be to provide a url/pictures of the drive so we can see what we're looking at. We'll tell you the correct cable configuration quickly once we can know for sure what we're dealing with.

2/28/2007 1:04:38 PM

The hard drive in question is identical to this one on E-Bay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150094779456

2/28/2007 1:37:57 PM

The drive you showed needs an external power supply. Do you have/need that?

Also, it looks like you need a USB cable like the following:

2/28/2007 2:16:21 PM

I have that exact cable, I believe, USB-A to USB-mini-B.

And the power cable is only used when it is not being powered by the USB port. When you plug it in it disables the USB port and powers the VGA and Video jacks.

Upon closer inspection, depending on which computer we plug it in, the hard drive clicks every second or so, implying to me that the cable works electrically but is not carrying enough current to spin up the drive, a reasonable possibility as my new cable is 6' long and is probably a lower guage than the old cable... Does anyone have a short USB cable of the type I need?

[Edited on February 28, 2007 at 3:27 PM. Reason : .,.]

2/28/2007 3:24:46 PM

Leave it alone.

The free market will fix it.

2/28/2007 3:26:33 PM

Good point. I will pay $cash money for a cable that works with my hard drive! Thanks you in advance for any assistance that can be offered.

2/28/2007 3:38:54 PM

Quote :

"And the power cable is only used when it is not being powered by the USB port. When you plug it in it disables the USB port and powers the VGA and Video jacks."

... Huh? That doesn't make sense to me. If it supposedly "disables" the USB port, then how would you transfer data?


I know on all 2.5" external hard drives I've used recently, I've had to use BOTH cables (USB-mini + Auxilary USB or AC power).

[Edited on February 28, 2007 at 4:30 PM. Reason : ?]

2/28/2007 4:28:40 PM

i have an aluminum enclosure very much like this one...it came with a the cable pictured above, EXCEPT that it had an extra USB-a head coming out of it that only used two of the wires (power pos/neg)...i only had to use the extra head (the flat "standard" one) in one case where i was connecting to an older laptop

that said, i thought i could quit carrying around the bulkier USB cable that it came with use ones of those that rolls up...no dice...the power light came on and it would click

upon further inspection, it was the gauge of the wire that was causing problems for me (the original cable was thicker while the new one was so freaking tiny)...i believe i have some heavy-gauge USB cables like what you're looking for, so if you're interested, let me know...i'll test them with my drive first to make sure (i would imagine that as i'm running the same setup you are, if it works for me, it'll work for you)

2/28/2007 4:38:46 PM

Alot of those drives, and it appears yours may be one of them, should have 2 cables.

Cable 1 - USB mini to USB for the data transfer

Cable 2 - Power connect on one side, USB on the other

The one I am currently using is setup this way, and without having BOTH of the USB cables run to your computer, the drive will not work

2/28/2007 4:41:35 PM

^^ That is exactly what is happening! Thanks quagmire! I would love to come get a cable from you!! PM Sent!

2/28/2007 4:50:40 PM

imho the usb mini cords are junk... my usb devices do not stay connected worth a crap.

2/28/2007 5:00:02 PM