Hello,
do you think in typical atx case usb 3.x
wiring from the mb to the casing front side connector 30 cm would be too much
to spin up a 2,5 hdd, adding 30 cm cable.
just using a 1m cable from back panel only usb sticks work.
with hdd no change.
@sonyveijo you need to provide external power to the HDD, I suspect the USB power is not sufficient…
For several years I operated this drive attached to the USB 3.2 Gen 1 Connector on the front panel:
erlangen:~ # smartctl -i /dev/sdc
smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-linux-6.18.0-2-default] (SUSE RPM)
Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Elements / My Passport (USB, AF)
Device Model: WDC WD20NMVW-11EDZS3
Serial Number: WD-WXD1A36N86P2
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2b81135a0
Firmware Version: 01.01A01
User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5200 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database 7.5/5894
ATA Version is: ACS-2 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Thu Dec 18 07:04:29 2025 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
erlangen:~
Never observed any issues with USB power (5V at 900mA).
You don’t say what kind of drive and enclosure it is.
I bought several used laptop drives for $6-$10 each, WD, Seagate, Toshiba etc. I used them in a $6 Orico clear plastic 2.5 HDD enclosure. I copied 100-300 GB’s of data from them to the desktop daily, something like 14TB’s total and never had a problem.
I have some nice Aluminum 2.5" HDD enclosures and apparently they supplied cheap cables with them. I had problems when I used the supplied cables but they worked great with a better quality cable.
So make sure you have good quality cables and you should be ok. Some drives require a little more power than others too, so I try to get drives that require a little less power.
I also a have an external 2.5" Toshiba brand 1TB drive that came in a factory enclosure and it works just fine too. It’s 10 years old with very low hours and works just fine on multiple laptops and desktops. It’s a Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (HDTB310XK3AA).
I do have problems with some USB-C 10 Gbps NVMe enclosures. It’s actually the NVMe drives that require more power that are the problem, some work fine. I’m going to get a powered USB-C/A 10 Gbps hub to solve that problem. That’s an option for you too if your motherboard isn’t supplying enough USB power.
I invoked smartctl and it tells all.
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