Sunday, November 17, 2019

USB hard drive with 2 connectors; can I plug one into the wall for power?


I've got a USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure which came with a cable with 2 plugs on it. I know that this is done so that it can draw more power if necessary.


If the hard drive can't draw enough power with just one of the plugs, does the second plug have to attach to the same computer? Or can I get my power by attaching the second plug directly to a wall-wart?


(Specifically, I am planning to attach this drive to a Raspberry Pi, where power and USB space is limited)


Answer



This should work fine. However, to be safe you should probably use a powered USB hub rather than a power adapter as typically used for charging a mobile device as some of them are designed to use non-standard voltage/amperage.


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