How does a usb disk determine the number of connected usbs?

Question

Iron

There is an external hard drive that is connected with a usb cord to two ports (you need to insert two connectors into the computer, one into the disk).
If only one of these connectors is plugged in, it works.
I tried to connect with a "normal" usb-wire - no.
How does it determine which wire it is connected to?

Answer 1

No way.
The Y-usb wire differs from the usual one in that it is short and the wires in it are thicker. There is no magic in it.
If you connect your HDD with a cheap Chinese long cable, then you do not have enough power, because the losses in the cable are too large and the disk will not start.
Take a good quality short thicker USB cable and your hdd will start up.

Answer 2

The Y-cable has one universal connector and one power connector. In a thicker wire, all 4 braided cores are laid, two information and two power - this is a universal connector. In a thinner one, there are only two cores - from the ground and power contacts of the connector. This is a power connector. It allows you to remove from the second USB port an additional 0.5A allowed by the USB2.0 standard for voracious drives.

Answer 3

And the number of veins can not influence this in any way? It seems there are 4 and 5 wire cables.

Answer 4

If only one of these connectors is plugged in, it works.

There is not enough tension.