This question may well turn out to be extraordinarily stupid, but I don’t know where else to turn. I bought a mobile hdd to use for backups ages ago, but almost as soon as it arrived I had a family crisis, packed it away, and forgot about it. It occurred to me the other day that it’s been forever since I’ve backed up anything, and … well, it’s been so long I don’t even recall where I bought it, and even some preliminary Googling isn’t helping. The box is labeled “WeGo USB 2.0 for 3.5 USB Mobile HDD”. Apparently a very off or retired brand, because I’m not finding much. Still have the instructions, but they don’t address my problem. When I bought it, the seller said that all it needed was a USB cable, something I have in abundance and didn’t think twice about. However…
Here’s where my problem gets stupid. There are exactly two slots of any kind on this device. One is for the power cord. The other is for the thin, flat shaped end of the USB cable (the end that has the little network picture next to it). Normally that’s the end I would expect to plug into my hub and/or computer, but it definitely connects to the device. The other end - the smaller, sort of flattened off circle - that I’d expect to plug into the device is what’s available. There’s no port on my computer that will accomodate it. The only one on my hub that will is the root port that connects the hub to the computer, without which the hub doesn’t work.
So, can anyone provide a way, creative or otherwise, that will enable me to hook this mobile HDD up? I’m sure I’m missing something super basic, but my addled brain isn’t seeing it. Is there an adaptor of some sort available? A new hub (which, after the grief involved in getting this one to work, is a possibility I dread)? Or ??
Once again, the Dope comes through in record time. Thanks! Why I didn’t find such cables in my searches is a mystery for the ages (though almost certainly connected to the fact I didn’t know how to phrase what I was looking for). Off to spend some more money…
I got a lame digital ‘pen cam’ that probably only cost 20$ that included a USB A->A cable. I later bought another one for some reason at a dollar store for… 1$. I mention this 'cause 26$ seems kind of steep.
astro That page specifies USB B in two places, but if the connector is in the side in that yellow-orange picture, it sure looks like A to me.
The USB spec is pretty clear on what types of devices get what type of USB connector. That a A to A cable is even needed means somebody is not implementing the USB spec correctly.