usb y type

Today, i purchased an external dvd player coming with y type usb cable.
As a tech in the store said, I need two usb ports to connect each of male connections in the cable to a computer. when i open the product later, i just realized this y type usb cable is the same as that of my external hard drive i have used for a long time. The questions is that ,now that i never used the second connection in the y type usb cabled for my portable external hard drive, i may not need that one in my external dvd player& writer.
(tech guy said i need two connections for data transfer and power)
any opinion?

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lkh312

lkh312 wrote: »

Today, i purchased an external dvd player coming with y type usb cable.
As a tech in the store said, I need two usb ports to connect each of male connections in the cable to a computer. when i open the product later, i just realized this y type usb cable is the same as that of my external hard drive i have used for a long time. The questions is that ,now that i never used the second connection in the y type usb cabled for my portable external hard drive, i may not need that one in my external dvd player& writer.
(tech guy said i need two connections for data transfer and power)
any opinion?

i checked the web manual of the product , which shows that ,as i guessed, its optional..

RomBUS

Yes I have the Y type for my external HDD as well and the second connection is optional... I use one connector all the time.

TheShadow

RomBUS wrote: »

Yes I have the Y type for my external HDD as well and the second connection is optional... I use one connector all the time.

It really depends on the current draw of the device. External HDD do not take very much if they are the 2.5 inch varity which most are. You will find that external DVD burners and most reader will need both connectors or the single port will shut down with an over current condition or just get data errors because the voltage level becomes unstable based on current draw. My netbook will run my 320 Gig external HDD just fine. No such luck with two different brands of DVD's one reader only and one burner. They die on media spin-up.