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Use a 2.5" drive in a 3.5" drive enclosure?

P

pappy1

Member
A few years ago I bought two of these 3.5 inch enclosures. http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product1.php?id=NDg=
Somehow they got "Lost" in my basement. I found them yesterday.
I have two 2.5" drives. One that was removed from a laptop that died and one I bought as a backup for the dead laptop before it died.

I would like to use the 2.5 " drives in the larger enclosure.
Electrically, will it work?

Once I know it will work I can modify the metal holder to work with the smaller drive.
Thanks
 
2.5" drives use the standard sata interface. Should work no probs.

It won't work the other way around since 2.5" drives only use 5v, while 3.5" drives need 12v as well. (obviously physical dimentions will limit it as well 😛)
 
Sure, I do it all the time. There are inexpensive adapters (eg, Frys has them) that allow the notebook HDDs to interface to a conventional interface designed for 3.5". In fact, a lot of people are not using 3.5" drives anymore in their servers, but using notebook drives instead.
 
I know I am dense!!!
The 2.5 drive plugs right into the socket in the Anted unit.
Physically the drive lays right on the metal plate. So I don't need brackets, etc. to make it fit.

Electrically is what concerns me.
Since the pins and from what I have been able to find the voltages on the pins all show 12 volts. Since 12 volts is supplied on the pinout, and the 2.5 drive needs just 5 volts,,, will that fry the 2.5 hdd??
Or, will the 2.5 drive knock the 12 volts down to 5 volts?
Looks like I am ci=onfused here! LOL
 
I did a quick search for the adaptor and came up empty.I am probably using the wrong search terms, etc.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks
 
Don't worry Pappy. The SATA power has pins for 5v, 12v and even 3.3v and your notebook drive's power connector is wired to accept whatever voltage it's designed to work for, usually 5v.

If all your enclosure provides is 12v then it will only output 12v from the 12v pins. The 5v pins should be powerless. So if you plug your notebook drive in, nothing should happen, it shouldn't even power up... because it just got FRIED. j/k

Voltages from 12v should not be remapped to 5v or 3.3v, unless it's going somewhere ( like a transformer) beforehand, more likely, to lower the voltage to 5v or 3.3v.
 
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