I had an old 2011 HP laptop that sat idle for years with a broken screen. It had a Blu-Ray drive that could be removed by loosening a screw. So I plugged in this Blu-ray drive, removed the plastic cover, bought this cable, and plugged this drive into the USB port on my desktop case. My desktop computer has a USB port at the top and the top is flat, so this *very* short cable works well for my particular situation. In other situations it may be useful with just a USB cable extension (male/female) or when connected to a laptop on a desk.