I thought I'd share this smidge of joy, it might be useful to someone...
A few years ago I sold my tower to make room for a laptop - I kept the 5.25" Blu-ray writer though, the idea was to use it externally.
Fast forward a couple of years and I decided to make use of my drive but didn't really fancy sticking it in an enclosure, they're like £60 which is more or less the price of an external drive anyway.
I decided to look for a USB to SATA adapter in the vain hope it'd work, I ordered an Anker one from the rainforest which specifically said it works with HDD and optical drives - at £20 I gave it a punt.
When it arrived I gleefully hooked it up and... nothing. It powered on fine but Windows didn't detect anything, I tried other PCs and ports etc, no joy though it did work with an HDD I had.
Of course I returned it and forgot about it. Fast forward another 6 months and I decided to try again, this time with a cheaper version that also said it'd work with optical drives.
It arrived earlier today and is currently connected via USB type c (an adapter) and is currently playing a Blu-ray perfectly well.
TL;DR - if you're after a cheap way to hook up an external drive, it's possible and costs around £30 - with the type C adapter, I'd assume it'll work with a Surface too. Thought it DOES require power from the socket.
A few years ago I sold my tower to make room for a laptop - I kept the 5.25" Blu-ray writer though, the idea was to use it externally.
Fast forward a couple of years and I decided to make use of my drive but didn't really fancy sticking it in an enclosure, they're like £60 which is more or less the price of an external drive anyway.
I decided to look for a USB to SATA adapter in the vain hope it'd work, I ordered an Anker one from the rainforest which specifically said it works with HDD and optical drives - at £20 I gave it a punt.
When it arrived I gleefully hooked it up and... nothing. It powered on fine but Windows didn't detect anything, I tried other PCs and ports etc, no joy though it did work with an HDD I had.
Of course I returned it and forgot about it. Fast forward another 6 months and I decided to try again, this time with a cheaper version that also said it'd work with optical drives.
It arrived earlier today and is currently connected via USB type c (an adapter) and is currently playing a Blu-ray perfectly well.
TL;DR - if you're after a cheap way to hook up an external drive, it's possible and costs around £30 - with the type C adapter, I'd assume it'll work with a Surface too. Thought it DOES require power from the socket.