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Is it really necessary to use WD cable kit for PiDrive 314?
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 11:03 am
by serzh
Hi guys,
I've just finally received my long waited PiDrive 314GB but it turned out there was't a special WD cable kit inside. As it takes too long to wait for package to arrive in my country I'm thinking about some workaround. Hence the question - is it possible to connect a PiDrive to my Raspberry Pi without the use of this WD cable kit?
Re: Is it really necessary to use WD cable kit for PiDrive 314?
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 10:58 pm
by DougieLawson
The cable provides two things.
1. SATA to USB2.0
2. Divided power, one leg to the drive, one to the RPi
It's a very good, well-designed system built by folks who understand both hard disks and Raspberries.
Re: Is it really necessary to use WD cable kit for PiDrive 314?
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:29 pm
by jbudd
I connected my Pi 3 to a Pi Drive with a straightforward USB 3 cable. It boots from the SD card not the PiDrive and is powered by a 3A power supply (actually the one I got with my recent purchase of PiDrive cables).
It does mount the PiDrive successfully and I can write to it.
I guess it would work with a micro USB cable too, though the PiDrive has a USB 3 socket.
I don't think the PiDrive cable converts from Sata to USB, that's built in to the drive.
What I think is perhaps more interesting is that the PiDrive cable should let you use any USB 3 external hard disk enclosure. It has a USB 3 plug, though the Pi only has USB 2. Is the drive itself USB 3? I don't know.
Re: Is it really necessary to use WD cable kit for PiDrive 314?
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:33 pm
by gregeric
The WD drives are native USB3, backwards compatible with USB2. There's *no* SATA conversion involved (save for hidden in the drive's electronics itself, maybe).
Just use whatever USB cable you have to hand - even a micro-USB will poke into one half of that widened connector on the PiDrive314 HDD. With a beefy enough power supply & thick/short enough cables all should be OK.
Re: Is it really necessary to use WD cable kit for PiDrive 314?
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:37 pm
by drgeoff
jbudd wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:29 pm
I don't think the PiDrive cable converts from Sata to USB, that's built in to the drive.
Correct. As
http://wdlabs.wd.com/products/wd-pidriv ... ition/#hdd says
"HDD version comes with:
Native USB 7mm HDD
microSD™ card (preloaded)
WD PiDrive Cable
2-year Limited Warranty"
Re: Is it really necessary to use WD cable kit for PiDrive 314?
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:45 pm
by jbudd
The official Raspberry Pi power supply is £8 (ish)
WD are offloading 3A power supplies with the PiDrive cable for £6.50. When you buy one they even give you a 20% discount code for future purchases, Postage is a bit heavy though.
https://www.wdc.com/en-gb/products/wdla ... it-3a.html