Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsWorked like a charm!
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2016
First and foremost, I’m very pleased with this adapter. The package arrived on time and in good condition. The adapter does exactly what is advertised. Plug and play. Just to level set expectations, I’m an I.T. guy by trade, but I swear that anyone can set this up in a matter of minutes. Well worth the price. On to the detailed review.
Here’s what came in the box: The adapter with three data ports (2.5” and 3.5” IDE drives and SATA drives), a power brick with detachable mains pig-tail (plugs into the wall) and a SATA data cable (all pictured assembled in the photo labeled Adapter and Power Brick.)
I tried the adapter first on a 2.5” IDE drive from old laptop. To give you a sense for how old this drive is, its capacity is only 20 Gig! Anyway, all that is needed for this type of drive is the adapter (no power brick) as the drive gets its power from the USB connection. I connected the drive to the adapter (keyed so you can’t screw it up unless you start forcing things and bending pins) and then the USB end to the computer. The blue data transfer LED lit up in the adapter and in about a minute, the drive appeared in my list of available hard disks in Windows 10. The picture labeled 2.5” IDE Laptop Drive shows the various connections used for the 2.5” IDE drive.
Next, I tried the adapter on a 3.5” IDE drive. This drive wasn’t as old as the 2.5”, but at least its capacity (120 GB) shows it age. This go around, I used the other side of the adapter (slightly bigger edge connector. Just like the 2.5” drive connector, the 3.5” connector is keyed, ensuring the pins are lined up correctly. This type of drive requires an external power source, so I plugged the Molex power connector (1 of 2 power connectors coming out of the power brick) into the drive. The Molex connect is keyed so it only fits one way. Next, I plugged the power brick into the wall outlet and turned on the nicely constructed, in-line rocker switch to provide power to the drive. The LED on the rocker switch lit up and the drive spun up to speed. I then plugged the USB cable into the computer with the same, successful results as with the 2.5” IDE drive. Same computer running Windows 10. The picture labeled 3.5” IDE Desktop Drive shows the various connections used for the 3.5” IDE drive.
Lastly, I prepared a 3.5” SATA, 1TB capacity drive. This drive is relatively newer (a couple of years) and had recently been decommissioned because of possible data corruption. Though the drive is still fully functional, I decided to pull it from primary usage until I could put it through its paces to clean up any bad sectors. Just the same, I connected the SATA data cable to the adapter as well as the 3.5” SATA drive. Then I connected the SATA power connecter coming from the power brick to the drive. All of these connectors are keyed so that they only fit one way. As with the 3.5” IDE, I flipped the power brick’s rocker switch on, the LED lights, and the drive spins up. I plugged the USB cable into the computer and sure enough, the drive appears in the list of drives, just like the others. Same computer running Windows 10. The picture labeled 3.5” SATA Desktop Drive shows the various connections used for the 3.5” SATA drive.
Overall, I could not be any happier with the product and the way it has performed thus far. The only drawback is that by virtue of using USB 2.0, the highest data transfer rate I achieved was roughly 25 MB/second. Not blazing, but relatively acceptable.
