Mini Product Review - USB to IDE Adapter
30 July 2003, 10:27 AM
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I shelled out some cash last week for a new 'gadget' from Maplin. It's an USB to IDE adapter.
As the name suggests, it lets you use a standard IDE device through a USB port on your PC. For instance, as I type this, I have my Compaq N600c laptop sat next to me. Hooked up to one of the USB ports is an IBM 3.5" 7200rpm 180GB HD.
It comes with an external mains PSU, so HDs that draw a large current are fine (thanks to the heat the IBM HD kicks out, I'm just boiling the kettle for a brew on it as well). I connected everything up, fired up Windows XP on my laptop and XP installed the drive as a USB Mass Storage device (2000 and XP have built-in drivers).
A quick trip into the Disk Administrator MMC snap-in lets me initialise the disk, create a partition and format it. I then have an extra drive letter in Explorer. A nice <Ronseal> product for once
I'm now copying data from a network share onto the HD. It supports both USB 1 and 2. As my laptop is only USB 1, the USB becomes the bottleneck when copying on Fast Ethernet. Still, it's quick, easy and there's no need to open up a PC.
If you support PCs and need to pull data off HDs from dead PCs or want to backup your home PC to a high capacity device, then IMO it's well worth the £29 (£10 discount in their current sale).
If I find a spare CD-RW drive, I'll try burning a CD through it.
Chris.
As the name suggests, it lets you use a standard IDE device through a USB port on your PC. For instance, as I type this, I have my Compaq N600c laptop sat next to me. Hooked up to one of the USB ports is an IBM 3.5" 7200rpm 180GB HD.
It comes with an external mains PSU, so HDs that draw a large current are fine (thanks to the heat the IBM HD kicks out, I'm just boiling the kettle for a brew on it as well). I connected everything up, fired up Windows XP on my laptop and XP installed the drive as a USB Mass Storage device (2000 and XP have built-in drivers).
A quick trip into the Disk Administrator MMC snap-in lets me initialise the disk, create a partition and format it. I then have an extra drive letter in Explorer. A nice <Ronseal> product for once
I'm now copying data from a network share onto the HD. It supports both USB 1 and 2. As my laptop is only USB 1, the USB becomes the bottleneck when copying on Fast Ethernet. Still, it's quick, easy and there's no need to open up a PC.
If you support PCs and need to pull data off HDs from dead PCs or want to backup your home PC to a high capacity device, then IMO it's well worth the £29 (£10 discount in their current sale).
If I find a spare CD-RW drive, I'll try burning a CD through it.
Chris.
30 July 2003, 09:22 PM
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me been usiong external usb ide HDD enclosure for a few year now. darn good to keep personal data away from the company's laptop coz of their policy of no "non-business" data on company's laptop.
i got mine from www.argosy.com.tw while working in the far east. it's the one using 2.5inch laptop HDD which doesn't need any external power as it will draw the power from the usb port.
have a look at pcnextday.co.uk for usb external enclosure.
i got mine from www.argosy.com.tw while working in the far east. it's the one using 2.5inch laptop HDD which doesn't need any external power as it will draw the power from the usb port.
have a look at pcnextday.co.uk for usb external enclosure.
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