nGear USB2.0 to SATA/IDE Drive Adapter 2.5/3.5/5.25IN Drives w/ Power Adapter

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Although this item is a great concept, it does not function properly. The USB connection is unreliable, randomly dropping. The Power Switch works sometimes, depending on how you press the switch in. Overall, very disappointed in what should be an excellent utility item.

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These are great for on the fly diagnostics or quick use with your hard drives and optical drives. However, the power adapter is substandard, but this is to be expected with the price.The first one I received the power brick didn't even work, no current reached the drives. I did an RMA and NCIX's excellent service had me with a new one in 2 days. That one I tried out on a Western Digital IDE drive, but the power was intermittent and succeeded in killing my hard drive.It did work with the CD-ROM drives I tested on it though. I would have returned it but I didn't have the RMA express service (hindsight is 20/20) and it would cost me more to return this than to keep it.All in all I'd say this is semi-useful diagnostic tool, but I'd be leary of using it with any large capacity hard drive.

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This is a very useful gadget to have. Not having to crack open a case or taking apart and reassembling a hard drive enclosure to temporarily connect a hard drive is a time saver. The ability to connect 2.5 inch IDE as well as SATA in addition to the regular 3.5 inch IDE is a plus.Considering that this device is just a simple IDE/SATA to USB bridge, and that cheap USB hard drive enclosures can be had for less, this piece is rather overpriced.An oddity with the included power supply, one of the ground leads was left out on the Molex connector. This isn't an issue when use with hard drives but for users playing around with the power supply powering other devices may have a problem with some devices.

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Very good price/quality tag for this kind of device. Useful for people who swap data from any kind of HDD devices; SATA, 3.5" IDE and 2.5" IDE.

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For just attaching any sort of drive via a USB interface, this product rocks. It's definitely a must have for anyone that regularly works with a variety of computers, mobile and desktop.Having an On/Off switch on the power connector cable was a bonus and I'm thrilled to have it, I only wish there was some sort of visible On/Off indication. (There's a push-click switch and it's difficult to see if the power connector is live or off.)My only regret is that I was looking to mirror a 40GB mobile SATA drive to a new 60GB drive and I couldn't get Acronis True Image to work. Acronis reboots the system and seems to want to do its work before Windows boots. However, the USB attached SATA drive is not visible to the software at this point and the mirroring task fails. Too bad. :-( This review was modfied by poster @ 08-22-06 04:54 AM

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This device is very useful for connecting SATA, IDE, or laptop HD's to another machine without the need for an enclosure type device.

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Have been using this product for a few days now and it works great. Recognized my WD right away (although the HDD was already partitioned and ready to go; still have not tried this with a brand new unformatted drive yet but it seems like it should be intuitive enough to get that going - plug it in, go to Disk Managament tools, format and set to active).Have been doing massive backups of over 30 Gigs of media from internal HDD and external firewire enclosure HDD to a 3.5 inch IDE HDD using USB 2.0 with no issues. Have not tried 2.5 inch HDD or SATA yet.Although this is really meant for benchtop testing where you can easily switch out HDD's, but this is a low cost tool to back up to a drive that you may have laying around. Will even fit a notebook 2.5 inch IDE drive as well. Wait for it to go on sale and it is an even better deal! This review was modfied by poster @ 12-29-06 11:05 AM

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I bought this to transfer data from an old harddrive that was in my laptop and it was great ! I tried it on a 3.5" HDD afterwards and it's awesome. All you need is an external case and you have a portable HDD the size you want! I bought one for where I work and for 20 bucks, it's totally worth it.

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This is probably one of the most useful accessory that I bought for a while along with a PSU tester. I have a bunch of hard drive that have been given to me or taken out from older computers and had no idea if they worked or not. This lets me test each of them without opening my case! So far everything I tried turned out just fine. On the downside, I think the price could be less expensive because the hardware feels a bit cheap. Even tough it is USB2, transfer is somewhat slow. You can use this tool with only 1 device at the same time. Overall it is a must have for any techie out there!

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Bought this because I was tried of using external enclosures or hot-swap racks for recovering data and testing drives. This lets me easily hook up any kind of drive to my test-bench system or my laptop if I'm on the go. I'm impressed with the build quality and drives recognize fine in XP. My only gripe with it is that Western Digital drives don't recognize easily. This review was modfied by poster @ 06-29-06 06:01 AM

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This has been a very handy tool for work, pulling data off old drives and creating ghost images.Some weird errors with the ghost images and doesn't seem to connect drives that aren't partitioned already.Didn't connect with an old 1Gb drive.Don't expect miracles but a very handy addition to any workbench. I'd guess 90% of the drives I've connected worked.

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good for emergency purposes, its easy to use and you can connect any type of drive with it. performs very well. also good if you run out of connections on your mobo

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A must-have for any techie. Useful for retrieving data off of laptop hard drives, as well as for backing up data onto an external unit. Transfer rates are reasonable.

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These things are great if you need a quick hook up. This one has sata connectors too, which makes it extra handy. If you have multiple hard drives you use to back up stuff and you don't want a bunch of enclosures, this thing is perfect.

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- This product makes transerring data from hard drives for backups very easy and eliminates the need for opening yet another computer. Highly recommended!! A+++

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-bought this to transfer off my old ATA133 drive. This also has the compatability with SATA drives too! With WinXP no drivers are needed, just plug it in and it works hot-diggity-damn! I'll use this on my tech bench to pull data off because its quick and easy. Its a great tool for under $20!