Comments on: USB IDE

Question: USB IDE

king walnut — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:47:25 -0800

What's a good product for reading old IDE and EIDE drives through USB?

I have a bunch of old drives that I'd like to get at, but I don't have a desktop computer any more. What's a good device for doing this? I'd need something that supplies its own power to the drive.

Windows XP, if it matters.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:51:47 -0800

There are a variety of such enclosures available for a range of prices. You can also just get adapters that don't come with any enclosure at all. These should be easy to find at local computer stores as well as online at places like newegg.

By: procrastination

procrastination — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:54:55 -0800

I use these all the time. Google for IDE USB enclosure. 2.5" will fit a laptop drive, 3.5" a desktop.

By: aerotive

aerotive — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:57:38 -0800

I like the adapters that odinstream mentioned. Enclosures take a bit more time to set up and are more expensive. The adapters can be had for a little as $5 if you already have a compatible AC adapter on hand.

By: king walnut

king walnut — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:59:46 -0800

As mentioned, I need a device that also provides power to the drive. That means enclosure and not just an adaptor cable, right?

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:07:55 -0800

All devices that read 3.5" drives will need to provide power to it, since there is not enough USB power available. Be sure to get one that comes with a power supply, just in case it's assumed that you provide your own AC adapter. The 2.5" adapters may or may not pull power from the USB port. This is not what you're interested in, though.

By: sharkfu

sharkfu — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:08:17 -0800

Here's one.

By: pupdog

pupdog — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:12:25 -0800

I saw one online not too long ago (but a quick search hasn't turned it up) that's basically a docking station setup - 2 ports for 2.5 or 3.5 drives, upright, just plunk whatever drive you want into it...

By: adipocere

adipocere — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:44:41 -0800

Beware on these. I almost put up an AskMe about mine.

I bought what appears to be a perfectly nice enclosure with power, etc. No drivers required for XP. And, yeah, it's not recognizing discs. Other friends in the same boat have had similar issues with USB enclosures.

Let us know if you find a good one. I'll buy one more, but if it doesn't work out I'm just going to grab a craptastic machine, hit it with XP, and just manually do the drives one at time with RoboCopy and some love.

By: TomMelee

TomMelee — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:50:20 -0800

I got a bytecc one on the cheap from newegg some time ago. I think it cost ~$15. No drivers or anything, you just have to make sure the drive is set to MASTER and not slave or cable select.

By: astrochimp

astrochimp — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:47:23 -0800

I bought a Vantec NexStar 3 and it reads two disks I've tried fine from either Linux or Windows, without any fuss.

By: aerotive

aerotive — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:11:10 -0800

king walnut: "As mentioned, I need a device that also provides power to the drive. That means enclosure and not just an adaptor cable, right?"

The adapter cables can be bought with and without AC power supplies. I bought mine without as I already had a compatible power supply available.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:48:31 -0800

One thing you need to be aware of when hooking up old drives via USB enclosures: Windows will consider any drive connected via USB to be a "removable" disk, and will only work with the first partition on it. If your old drives have more than one partition, the easiest way to pull files off them is using a Linux live CD.

By: strangecargo

strangecargo — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:20 -0800

Wiebetech makes enclosure-less adaptors that provide power. That particular one I linked to will do both 3.5" and 2.5" IDE as well as SATA. I've never used their products, but occasionally I find myself in a situation similar to yours, wishing I had one. I usually get the job done with a USB enclosure, but it's a pain to get the drives in and out of an enclosure if you're dealing with more than a couple drives.

By: samsara

samsara — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:37:23 -0800

Where I work (IT dept) we use the blue Cables to Go USB to IDE adapters depicted on this page with a fairly high success rate. They also make sata variants as well. (tip: when plugging any of these in, have everything already plugged into the IDE drive, but leave the power cord disconnected from the transformer...that way when you connect it there's less likelyhood you'll damage the molex connection or IO board on the IDE drive..then plug in the usb part to the notebook and it should recognize it).

If you have any 2.5 IDE drives, there are adapters for that as well.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:09:52 -0800

Speaking as someone who loves NewEgg, I suggest checking locally. I bought a cheap aluminum enclosure (made by Dynex) from a local big-box store. Check prices (don't neglect smaller stores either). You may be able to get one cheaper and faster locally, with the added bonus of easier returnability if it doesn't work. No real issues using it. Two screws removed to open the case, four screws to hold the drive in place. The circuit board and power supply work fine out of the enclosure, so if you're switching drives a lot it isn't an issue, but you get the benefit of the enclosure if you want to drop in a large drive and use it as a backup device. No configuration issues aside from setting drive to Master/Single.