Question Can I use USB 2.0 cable and USB 2.0 port for a USB 3.2 SSD (accepting that speed will be slower)?

[wchang99]

Can I use a USB 2.0 cable, plugged into a USB 2.0 port, for a USB 3.2 SSD? I accept that speed will be slower.

Just want to make sure that there won't be data integrity issues (reading/writing to the SSD), and that enough power is supplied to the SSD.

The cable is a 30" phone charging cable; I only need to use it in a pinch right now, and won't use it permanently for the SSD.

(If the cable is OK but the USB 2.0 port is a problem, please let me know. (I should be able to find a non-ancient machine with USB 3.0 for this task.))

Thanks so much,
wchang99

 

[Tech Junky]

Should work provided it is a data cable and not just a charging cable. Some charging cables only have the negative and positive wires and leave the others out to keep them cheap

 

[wchang99]

Thanks. Yes, it is a data cable; I just checked that I can use it to see the phone's contents in Windows Explorer on the PC.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Jimminy]

Should work provided it is a data cable and not just a charging cable. Some charging cables only have the negative and positive wires and leave the others out to keep them cheap

I've had some problems using usb 2 cables on usb 3 drives. It's been a long time, so my memory might be faulty: My external drives wouldn't work with the cable, but they did work if they were plugged in directly to the usb2 port.

Only way to know is try it. If it appears to be working, I wouldn't worry about any data corruption.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Just want to make sure that there won't be data integrity issues (reading/writing to the SSD), and that enough power is supplied to the SSD.

That might be an issue. USB2 only supplies 500mA@5V, so around 5W. This might be on the low side for a HDD, particularly with a longer cable. But if it works, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Seba]

That would be 2.5W.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

That would be 2.5W.

Yup. Brainfart.

USB2 ports are usually (NOT ALWAYS, SO BEWARE) hard fused with 2A, so that's the real limit.

 

[wchang99]

Thanks, everybody. The problem has eased; I thought I would need to do a backup of a system's HDD onto a USB SSD because Windows wasn't booting, but I was able to do a system restore and Windows is booting for now. So with the urgency gone I had time to get a proper USB 3 cable. (I also realized I could skip a step and don't need to connect the USB 3 SSD to a USB 2.0 port; I wasn't approaching the task in the best/most informed way initially. )

In terms of powering a HDD from a USB 2 port, I realized I have one of those USB y-cables that allow connecting one device to 2 USB ports to draw power from 2 ports, but couldn't find it for this task. But I thought I'd note it here in case anyone ever comes across this thread in the future.

Thank you again.