External drive as an internal drive problem...

[orion14ed]

I have read posts before on people doing this, and I promptly opened my Toshiba Canvio 1Tb external hard drive. I was hoping to find an usb to sata+power adapter inside, but instead I just found a female usb 3.0 port. It looks like the female connector to this plug: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Connector_USB_3_IMGP6033_wp_.jpg

I understand that with normal USB connection, it is not possible to convert the USB to sata because of USB gives power and data or something along those lines, while a sata cable only transfers data.

I have been looking, but have not found a way to connect that usb3 b port to a sata and power cable. I am not sure if it is possible, but when searching I have only found the opposite, such as a sata and power to usb3.

Is there such an adapter? Or am I forced to keep this as an external drive?

 

[Tom Tancredi]

There isn't specifically for those reasons. Many of the HDD makers are making the interface built onto the HDD for externals only use, where as the regular makers just make SATA III drive interfaces built in. So yeah, there is no 'adapter', say USB 3 Male to SATA III M/F with a added connection for power. That is the thing you noted, SATA doesn't include power, it runs as a seperate connection.

Sorry, you need to use these new USB3 drives as external only. Considering how cheap a internal is anyway, why not just buy one?

 

[orion14ed]

There isn't specifically for those reasons. Many of the HDD makers are making the interface built onto the HDD for externals only use, where as the regular makers just make SATA III drive interfaces built in. So yeah, there is no 'adapter', say USB 3 Male to SATA III M/F with a added connection for power. That is the thing you noted, SATA doesn't include power, it runs as a seperate connection.

Sorry, you need to use these new USB3 drives as external only. Considering how cheap a internal is anyway, why not just buy one?

Ah, I see.

The reason I wanted to use it as an internal hd was just to free up a usb port. I will be buying an internal hard drive anyway, but I don't want to waist a hd. (Even though I can just put it on the outside.

That gets me thinking though, what if I used a usb3.0(female) to a standard usb 3.0 socket on the motherboard? Sure, I would lose a USB slot, but I would be able to remove the HD case and use it as an internal drive. Would that work? I wouldn't get sata speeds, but only usb 3.0 which is pretty fast anyway...

 

[popatim]

I dont see why it wouldn't work 🙂
Just dont try to make it a boot drive and make it easy to disconnect for times when it wont detect and you need to pull the usb3 cable out and back in again.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Several Mobos actually have 'internal' USB connections just for that purpose (dunno why seems silly to me since a simple Sata drive is much easier to deal with at full speed). But yeah you could wire it like that potentially.