External hard drive power question

[Ozwalt]

Hi folks,

I killed my old laptop with Dr. Pepper, but I managed to pull the hard drive and put it in an unpowered case to use as an external drive. It came with a split USB cable -- one for power, one for data. The irritating thing is that my tablet only has one USB plug, so I can't power the drive and use it there, BUT I had a thought (dangerous). Can I put one of the split USB plug-ins into a wall outlet USB adapter for the power and plug the other into my tablet? Have any of you tried that? I'm nervous about experimenting -- I have a fear that the current direct from the wall would blast the tablet and the drive to kingdom come. I'm guessing it would be fine, but not certain enough to do it without first getting some outside feedback.

Thanks.

 

[Paperdoc]

I have two options for you.
1. Buy a powered enclosure that will accept your small laptop HDD and uses USB2 to connect to your tablet's only USB2 port.
2. Buy a powered USB2 hub. Plug the two connectors from your enclosure into that. Plug the single cable from the hub into your tablet's USB2 port.

 

[jsmithepa]

External drives with a split cable are meant to be powered externally, and externally means from the wall.

 

[Ozwalt]

I have two options for you.
1. Buy a powered enclosure that will accept your small laptop HDD and uses USB2 to connect to your tablet's only USB2 port.
2. Buy a powered USB2 hub. Plug the two connectors from your enclosure into that. Plug the single cable from the hub into your tablet's USB2 port.

Thanks. The powered usb hub did the trick.

 

[Ozwalt]

External drives with a split cable are meant to be powered externally, and externally means from the wall.

Really???? Who wounda thunk it??? 😛

FWIW, I'm not some moron who doesn't realize that power comes from a wall socket. I simply didn't know if a direct current (aka a current that doesn't go through a transformer of some sort) could potentially harm my hardware.