2d ago

Help with Dell Constellation HDD

Hi, I bought a used Dell constellation HDD from eBay. Here's the link for the listing.

It's supposed to be tested by them, but when I received it, it didn't spin up. I tried putting it inside my Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny, and also tried using an external SATA to USB adapter, but none of them work.

Now, it's a bit weird and different from the usual HDDs. It's 2.5 inch, but thicker than usual, 7200 RPM, and is supposed to be enterprise grade. So maybe I'm doing something wrong, and need a special adapter for it. Or it can be a faulty drive. I'm not sure. If anyone has experience with these drives, please let me know if I should be doing something different. Thanks.

5 comments

It should work fine in your thinkcentre using the onboard sata power and data cables. Being enterprise doesn't change this. 7200rpm makes it a bit noisier and hotter and faster, and use a tiny bit extra power, but it's a 2.5" so it's never going to be that hungry.
If there's no sound/vibration on start, and your BIOS doesn't detect it, it's probably dead.
Vendors do lie about testing second hand drives, but couriers also drop stuff all the time.
Contact the seller, explain the situation and ask for a replacement.
- I just did that. Hopefully they'll replace it.
when youre using a usb adapter, does the adapter have its own power supply? because standard usb outlets do not provide enough current to power a hard drive of a single usb conmection.
- No separate power supply. But it does work just fine with standard 2.5 inch drives.
  
  the reason why it works with (some) 2.5" drives is because theyre often spinning slower or designed to use less power. it's why sometimes in order to get enough current, you would need a Y splitter to draw power from 2 usb ports if it doesnt have its own power supply.
  though assuming internally youre powering it with a sata data and sata power cable, don't see what that configuration didn't work. if that one didnt work, id imagine its a dead drive.
  for the record, if you're plugging it into a standard USB-A port, a typical usb A port is 5V 0.5A connection. the drive specifically requires 0.8A if using 5V (as the label says so), so if your adapter is single USB, its not going to properly power it.