ATA/SATA to USB adapter [solved, lock]

Jebus314

Looking for a ATA/SATA to USB adapter. Found these at newegg. I'm a little worried because a lot of the negative reviews said that it the product fried the drive (either because it was very easy to hook up wrong, or because the product was defective).

Anyone have experience with these products, or ATA/SATA adapters in general? Does anyone have a specific product that they have used and can vouch for? I need to hook up a 3.5" ATA (IDE), but if I am going to buy an adapter it would be nice if it could do ATA and SATA.

ArcSyn

At work we use a similar product (they are probably all manufactured from the same place... Seeing how they look almost exactly alike) and it works pretty well. I haven't had any problems.

Vantech's a decent brand, and it's the cheapest of the three too. I don't think for $20 you could really go wrong.

ronya

I've used these successfully. Worked for both ATA and SATA. Looks like it and the three Newegg ones all operate on the same design.

lunchbox12682

I have the 1st one and have used it for years with no issues.
No fried drives, it has been hot-swappable.
I've left it to friends and they then went out and bought their own.

Infidel

Sometimes it will hiccup or not recognize right (or worse, in some horror stories) but the easiest way I found to ensure I never had problems was like so:

1) Hook up the data end of the drive.
2) Apply power to the drive.
3) Wait 10 seconds.
4) Plug in USB to computer.

That way you're not tinkering with the drive connections with power to it, and you don't rush or confuse the order of the drive powering up (usually it just causes detection problems).

General_Win

I'll second the one in the first link. We use it all the time, no issues.

Trentus

I got one of these when I was doing a little repair work in my spare time. I leant it to a mate who had to get some assignment work off an external drive who's enclosure died. I wasn't there to witness it myself, but apparently he took it to one of the labs at his university, and while pulling some data off it (there was quite a lot, raw video footage I believe) he heard a bang and the computer switched right off.

He tried restarting the machine, and it came back up fine. He couldn't access his drive though. He brought it round to my place and we tested it in my machine. The drive was fine thank god, but the adapter was just dead and so ended up getting turfed. I wasted $50 on that mofo and only got to use it twice.

However, I must be the exception to the rule, as a couple of guys I know have the exact same adapters, get quite a lot of use out of them, and have never had a problem. They're damn handy to have.

Jebus314

Thanks everyone. I'm going with the first one.