Supply for external hard drives, but only one black cable connected.

Thread Starter

Harrygrower

Joined Jun 17, 2014
14
Hi All,

I have a bit of an unusal query. I purchased a 'set' of cables for connecting an external hard drive. This came with various drive connectors -IDE,SATA- and a power supply. The unusual bit is that the female molex only has three live holes - yellow, black, empty, red. Th connector between black aand red has no connection.

The adapter has an ouput rating of 5v 2.5A and 12V 2.5A and the disk I am looking at driving has a powwer rating of 5V 0.65A and 12V 0.5A.

My question is: could I connect a second female molex and lead ablack cable from the adapter into the new female molex, thereby proving the correct configuration?

Thanks

Harry
 

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ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi Harry,
I don't quite follow why you want to add a 4th wire.
The hard drive 0v for the +5v and +12v are common on the drive PCB.
The diagram on the adaptor shows the voltage and pin location.
E
 

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Thread Starter

Harrygrower

Joined Jun 17, 2014
14
Thanks Eric. Sorry for the delay in replying - I have only just read this.

My reason for wanting to bridge the 4th wire is that this power supply will not work on all drives. However if I connect it to a standard PSU, taken from an old PC with the green and black wires connected, the drive will power up. I can only assume that the drive needs this extra path/cicuit, which is why I would like to connect this 4th wire.
 
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