I have a SATA DVD drive (pulled from an old computer) that I want to use with my laptop over USB. I have a USb-SATA hard drive adapter that I'm trying to use to make this work. When I plugged the drive into the USB-SATA adapter and try to use it, the following happens:

• I push the button to open the tray, it opens and I put a disc in, I push the button to close the tray
• The drive tray closes and the green activity light on the DVD drive starts blinking
  • I can feel a slight vibration from the drive, but I don't think the disc is spinning at full speed
• After about 30s, the activity light stops blinking and goes dim

At no point during the above process is the disc recognized in Windows. Device manager has the USB-SATA adapter listed as a "JMicron SCSI Disc Device".

Parts involved:

• DVD Drive: HP Super Multi DVD Rewriter (model gh80n)
• USB-SATA adapter: Sabrent USB 3.0 Enclosure

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Why wouldn't this work? From reading online, it seems that this could be a power supply issue over USB, but I don't think this is the case. The USB-SATA adapter is connected via a powered USB hub. Could it be the way that the adapter is recognised in Windows?

6

1 Answer

The desktop-size DVD Writers 3.5" formfactor are power-hungry and usually need both 12V and 5V power sources. The Sabrent enclosure is for 2.5" drives, which only uses +5V power.

To use your old HP drive, you need to find a USB-to-SATA enclosure designed for 3.5" formfactor. It usually takes an external 12V power to operate.

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