Hardware USB Micro B HDD To Internal Sata?

JJO192 · Apr 23, 2019

So I bought an external portable 3TB HDD with the intention to crack out the drive from within the enclosure to install into my laptop for an internal drive. When I got the drive out of the enclosure it was one of the drives that has a USB 3.0 micro b port instead of a SATA connection.

So I have looking into a means of getting USB 3.0 to SATA for the purpose on internal install.

Using this to get from SATA to mSATA / mPCIE,

And then using this to give myself an internal USB 3.0 port from a SATA connection internally,

The question is will it work? I'm of the opinion that it wont. Being that the SATA controller will likely not be able the detect a USB drive. I'm not sure if the board in between would be able to sort that out. What do you think? Could it work? or is there another way to get that USB HDD to SATA internally? Thanks

Ryccardo · Apr 23, 2019

Won't work:

miniPCIExpress is a connector that provides (PCI Express 1x (iirc) + USB 2 + some added control signals (disable inputs and led outputs, intended for wifi/bluetooth/cellular cards) + pins for a sim card slot located elsewhere), mSATA expands that connector by recycling 4 unused pins for the data pins as seen on the normal SATA data cable, but your first adapter just connects those 4 pins and power (not like it could do otherwise)

Most non-Microsoft operating systems install to and run just fine from an USB drive, of course...

For that you will want just a miniPCIExpress to USB adapter (which for USB 2 is just a passive device, the USB 3 one you posted must have a chip somewhere)

Hayato213 · Apr 23, 2019

Ain't gonna work, that HDD is the wrong height I believe.

JJO192 · Apr 23, 2019

I have seen a few tutorials for finding the SATA data line from the HDD's logicboard and soldering a connector. Might look into that more. Thanks

JJO192 · Apr 23, 2019

I suppose the next question would be, could I use that second board, the USB to mPCIE, replace my wifi card with it and run the hard drive off of that?

Hayato213 · Apr 23, 2019

JJO192 said:
I have seen a few tutorials for finding the SATA data line from the HDD's logicboard and soldering a connector. Might look into that more. Thanks

Just buy a regular SATA drive, you are making your life difficult, Laptop can only support internal up to 2TB regular HDD based on the form factor.

Ryccardo · Apr 23, 2019

JJO192 said:
I suppose the next question would be, could I use that second board, the USB to mPCIE, replace my wifi card with it and run the hard drive off of that?

You probably could (I didn't make it clear enough in my previous post, but that active converter would need a chip somewhere, so I doubt it's the real deal - probably just USB 2, or is a part of completely incompatible miniPCIExpress to standard desktop size 1x slot kit)

Depending on whether it's a simple USB 2 port, or some active PCI Express device, you may or may not run into whitelist issues, and the USB pins may or may not be wired up (if it currently has a wifi card, the pci express ones definitely are)

Minox · Apr 27, 2019

Could you post a picture of this harddrive? Sometimes these drives can initially look like they have another connector but in reality it can be a tacked on board in addition to the normal harddrive.

The Real Jdbye · Apr 27, 2019

In theory you can convert anything to anything, but making it work reliably and at decent speeds is a whole other issue. I think you'd be much better off using it as an external, and getting a proper SATA drive for your internal. The Seagate FireCuda 2TB is pretty cheap, and you'll get faster boot speeds and such with a SSHD than a pure HDD.
@JJO192 Also, any 2.5" HDD 3TB and above will be 15mm thick. Some laptops will have room for that but most won't, since the focus is on making everything slimmer these days. The standard thickness is 7mm so that's what most laptops are made for.

Hardware USB Micro B HDD To Internal Sata?

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