Not much to comment on here. It lets you connect 2.5” IDE drives in desktop machines. However, (and this is very important for retro computing enthusiasts) it does not work with most really old drives, probably around 10 GB and below. Every reasonably modern drive worked. I tried a 20 GB, a couple 30 GB, and a 100 GB and they all functioned perfectly. The problem showed up when I connected the 3 GB drive from a machine from around 1998. The drive simply wouldn’t spin up at all. The same problem occurred with a 2 GB, a 1.3 GB, and a 540 MB. Clearly, something about these older laptop drives didn’t make the adapter too happy. I think it may have something to do with the drives lacking advanced power management support, but don’t quote me on that. Read more
Just what we needed, good price and relative quick delivery. We probably will buy another one Read more
My sister's laptop died and she asked me to help her rescue some files for her. I connected it to my desktop using the IDE1 cable and jumpering her drive as slave. One slight hitch was that the PIN 1 indicator on her drive was wack and so I didn't get any happiness until I reversed the ribbon cable from what the manufacturer of the hard drive stated. This is clearly not the fault of this little adapter, it did its job great! Having read other reviews on this item, I was careful with connecting the power adapter to the plugs on my computer. It is not too hard if you've done that kind of thing before. They're always a little wiggly and so you have to kind of work them in... The main plug fits really tight, which is a good thing but it makes removing it from the hard drive a little tough without bending the pins a bit or having it feel like they bent. Read more
Turns out more than this product offers! About the best thing I can say is under ideal conditions it's able to do what it claims to do. The real problem is with the power adapter and jumper settings. First I've found that this thing only works as advertised in some jumper settings. That's a limitation on its usefulness. The bigger problem is clearance for the power connector. Often times I don't have room for it in a huge mix of adapters or a tight fit. Also, the supplied power dongle is pure junk. The pins fell out of the plastic housing after one use. None of these are real deal breakers. I've pulled all the plastic off the power dongle and bent the contacts to get it to fit in tight spaces. When it works, it works, when it doesn't work I find something else. (ps - I don't recommend doing this, you'll need to be very careful) I'd be more unhappy if it hadn't been so darn inexpensive. Read more
This product seems to be well-made, so if you plan on installing it inside an OLD PC it should be fine. However, because of how the power plug is designed, it will not work in most other situations. It's advertised to be a good adaptor for cloning an old laptop drive... Sure if you also happen to have an old IDE PC around to connect it to. But if you wanted to use an enclosure, or adaptor, to clone or read the drive on a modern PC, it will likely not fit. I was also hoping to use it on the PS2 for my sd card to IDE adaptor, it also won't fit that. But again, if you're connecting directly to an IDE cable, you'll probably have enough space, but this won't work with pretty much anything else. Read more
Used this IDE Disk drive to copy the contents of seven old to very old (20 years) SATA drives to my SSD. Plug in the drive, and it is recognized by the computer. Just drag and drop the files. Pretty easy. Read more
My desktop 3.5 inch hard drive failed and I happened to have a spare 2.5 inch laptop drive. Both were PATA drives connected with ribbon cable. The adapter enabled me to use the smaller drive. I restored the operating system and files and its been working perfectly for a few weeks. The quality and workmanship of the unit is suburb. It was even packaged in a zip lock bag. Yes I would recommend it. Read more
The adaptor performed as advertised, however the printed label on the drive suggesting jumper settings was incorrect. The "slave" setting fried the drive, I lost everything. Checking with the drive mfr I found the setting was not allowed, go figure. It is imperative that you check with the drive mfr before setting any jumpers, do NOT rely upon the label. I would recommend this product to anyone, however I would caution that they check current settings for the drive. Read more
