External sata 3 ssd drive via usb for steam games?

[Holographic]

I bought an internal ssd sata 3 drive. I want to put a few games on it. I dont have sata 3 on my motherboard apparently. The sata connector pins on the drive look more like pci. Anyway I bought a usb converter box . When connected with usb my comp has it as working but uninitialized.It is not showing up as a drive so I cant load games on it Questions:
!. How do I initialize it?
2. can it be used as a disk drive for steam games via usb at all?
3. If not,is there a sata 3 to sata 2 converter I can buy?
I would rather it be usb so I can remove it and use it on my laptop as well.
Thank you

[Omega]

What laptop do you have? You might have a slim laptop with only a M.2 slot.

1. Rightclick the Windows start button > Disk Manager > It should prompt you automatically
2. Yes.
3. SATA is backwards compatible.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Use SATA3 to USB3.x only
It will be too slow via USB 2.0

SATA is SATA, 2.5 or 3.5 they are all the same connection; Power and Data
If the drive is a lower powered 2.5 inch HDD or SSD, you can easily get away with not even using a Caddy and simply using a SATA3 to USB3 converter cable. Which of course does work on older spec'd drives (like a SATA2 2.5 HDD) and of course also works on USB 2.0; but you won't get the speeds out of a SATA3 SSD unless you run that off of; SATA3, eSATA, or USB 3.x

Here is such adapter, which easily converts and is self powered by the USB port directly.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84
DO NOT use this on 3.5 inch drives though, it will not be able to support that kind of power requirement. If you'd like to install a 2.5 inch drive into a caddy for better protection, here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQ97QGE

Also, if your Laptop's OS is not already running off of an SSD, then you should do that instead and take the HDD and make that your external drive instead. As housing the OS installed to an SSD will speed up the entire system as a whole, not just certain data, such as when using SSD only via external means, or as a Secondary Drive.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

I have a USB 3.0 external disk that has my Steam Install on it. It doepnds on the drive, but my Toshiba Canvio Connext II does well with most games.

[Holographic]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

Use SATA3 to USB3.x only
It will be too slow via USB 2.0

SATA is SATA, 2.5 or 3.5 they are all the same connection; Power and Data
If the drive is a lower powered 2.5 inch HDD or SSD, you can easily get away with not even using a Caddy and simply using a SATA3 to USB3 converter cable. Which of course does work on older spec'd drives (like a SATA2 2.5 HDD) and of course also works on USB 2.0; but you won't get the speeds out of a SATA3 SSD unless you run that off of; SATA3, eSATA, or USB 3.x

Here is such adapter, which easily converts and is self powered by the USB port directly.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84
DO NOT use this on 3.5 inch drives though, it will not be able to support that kind of power requirement. If you'd like to install a 2.5 inch drive into a caddy for better protection, here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQ97QGE

Also, if your Laptop's OS is not already running off of an SSD, then you should do that instead and take the HDD and make that your external drive instead. As housing the OS installed to an SSD will speed up the entire system as a whole, not just certain data, such as when using SSD only via external means, or as a Secondary Drive.

this is the drive I bought for my desktop that says sata3. I am confused.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226880
It looks like a small pci connector to me. I got it working ,I had to initialize it. But my desktop motherboard is usb2 I believe. Will it be ANY faster than my hdd?
As far as my laptop. It came with windows installed so no copy available to load on laptop. Thx

[OLDMAN]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

Use SATA3 to USB3.x only
It will be too slow via USB 2.0

SATA is SATA, 2.5 or 3.5 they are all the same connection; Power and Data
If the drive is a lower powered 2.5 inch HDD or SSD, you can easily get away with not even using a Caddy and simply using a SATA3 to USB3 converter cable. Which of course does work on older spec'd drives (like a SATA2 2.5 HDD) and of course also works on USB 2.0; but you won't get the speeds out of a SATA3 SSD unless you run that off of; SATA3, eSATA, or USB 3.x

Here is such adapter, which easily converts and is self powered by the USB port directly.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84
DO NOT use this on 3.5 inch drives though, it will not be able to support that kind of power requirement. If you'd like to install a 2.5 inch drive into a caddy for better protection, here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQ97QGE

Also, if your Laptop's OS is not already running off of an SSD, then you should do that instead and take the HDD and make that your external drive instead. As housing the OS installed to an SSD will speed up the entire system as a whole, not just certain data, such as when using SSD only via external means, or as a Secondary Drive.

Why that just get a hard drive external there cheap $8.99

[Holographic]

Originally posted by OLDMAN:

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

Use SATA3 to USB3.x only
It will be too slow via USB 2.0

SATA is SATA, 2.5 or 3.5 they are all the same connection; Power and Data
If the drive is a lower powered 2.5 inch HDD or SSD, you can easily get away with not even using a Caddy and simply using a SATA3 to USB3 converter cable. Which of course does work on older spec'd drives (like a SATA2 2.5 HDD) and of course also works on USB 2.0; but you won't get the speeds out of a SATA3 SSD unless you run that off of; SATA3, eSATA, or USB 3.x

Here is such adapter, which easily converts and is self powered by the USB port directly.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84
DO NOT use this on 3.5 inch drives though, it will not be able to support that kind of power requirement. If you'd like to install a 2.5 inch drive into a caddy for better protection, here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQ97QGE

Also, if your Laptop's OS is not already running off of an SSD, then you should do that instead and take the HDD and make that your external drive instead. As housing the OS installed to an SSD will speed up the entire system as a whole, not just certain data, such as when using SSD only via external means, or as a Secondary Drive.

Why that just get a hard drive external there cheap $8.99

I got this I am using now.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0VN-0003-000H1
I only have usb2. Will it be any faster than my hdd with the slow down of usb2?

[Omega]

Linking the laptop you have or telling us the make and model would be more usefull then linking us the drives.

[tacoshy]

SATA SSD's use a bandwidth of 6 Gbps. To use the full speed of a SSD you need the full Bandwidth.

USB 2.0 = 0.48 Gbps = ~35-40 MB/s
USB 3.0 = 5.0 Gbps = ~500 MB/s
USB 3.1 = 10.0 Gbps -> limited by SATA III 6.0 Gbps = ~550MB/s

So using USB 2.0 SSD will be slower then using a normal USB 3.0 HDD.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

What is all this "looks like PCIE" nonsense?

SATA is SATA, thats it.

SATA Power + SATA Data, it's 2 connectors.

On a USB adapter or Caddy it will just be one connection as they are already there to accept your drive.

Why is this so hard to understand?

How do you only have USB 2.0?

Every Laptop and Tablet since like 2010 has USB 2.0 & 3.0

[Holographic]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

What is all this "looks like PCIE" nonsense?

SATA is SATA, thats it.

SATA Power + SATA Data, it's 2 connectors.

On a USB adapter or Caddy it will just be one connection as they are already there to accept your drive.

Why is this so hard to understand?

How do you only have USB 2.0?

Every Laptop and Tablet since like 2010 has USB 2.0 & 3.0

Thank you for your kind response.
I found out from another post the PCI thing I was talking about was the power connector. I had never seen one like it. I am on my desktop not my laptop, and the mother board was bought in 2010. My other sata cables are plastic and look much different. Also I am using a dock that is usb3 and My motherboard ,according to the manuel,only has usb 2.0. Now I am dowloading a game to see if this ssd will be any faster this old pathetic setup of mine .I did not spend much so it`s fine either way. Plus I can use it for my laptop,that has usb3
I hope this clears it up for you. And thanks again for your timely response.

[tacoshy]

Well if it only has USB 2.0 then it can't be faster. See my explanation above. Your speed is limited by bandwidth of USB 2.0 not by your drive.

Unless your different SATA Port you talking off is not SATA but IDE.