Mysterious Cable

***Image Removed*** I'm having trouble understanding the above cable. It's a Mini B male to Type A female cable, but I have no idea how it's of any use at all. Any insight would be very much appreciated. P.S. I found it plugged into a Sony Ericsson phone cable if that's any help.

It's a mini USB to normal USB adapter cable. My Western Digital Passport drives come with one.

And what's it used for? I.E. If you plug it into your hard drive, what's supposed to plug into the other end of the adapter?

It is a USB cable adaptor. Basically you attach it to a standard USB cable when you need one end mini and the other end Type A. The mini connector plugs into a device like a camera or phone. You then take a standard USB cable and plug it into the Type A female connector.

You have a USB A Female to Mini USB B 5Pin Male Adapter Cable. Device <--> Adapter <--> Standard USB Cable <--> Computer

I have a small 7-in-one multimedia card reader that came with a ridiculously short cable like that too. Since my last PC had no front-mounted USB ports, I had to lean over the PC and leave the reader to dangle from the USB port while I retrieved my digital photos from an SD card. I eventually replaced the cable with a 4-foot one and threw the short one away. I suppose it would be fine with a laptop where you can set the device on the desk next to it.

Never! ever throw away cables. Someday you will say "I had a cable (adapter) like that, I wish I had not thrown it away". Scott