[rjfvillarosa]

For quite some time now we have been recommending the use of USB to IDE/SATA adapters, these adapters have various uses including backing up data, imaging and virus scanning. Using one of these adapters for the first time can be a bit of a hit and miss affair. I personally have three of them, one purchased in the UK and two purchased in the US and their operational procedures are pretty much the same. I want to list a few points to help people attempting to use an adapter for the first time.


1. First plug the adapter into your computer without a harddrive attached, this will allow your computer to recognize the adapter and load any necessary drivers for it.

2. Always dismount the adapter regardless of whether a harddrive is connected to it or not before unplugging it from your computer and definitely dismount the adapter if you do have a harddrive connected to it. Just because you have finished working with the harddrive it’s possible that Windows is still accessing the harddrive and could be indexing or writing System Restore information to it. Unplugging a USB mass storage device of any type without dismounting it first can cause file system damage and make an already problematical harddrive worse.

3. One of the questions I am often asked is “why doesn’t the harddrive show up on my computer when I use the adapter?” The adapter is working as a USB mass storage device and your computer sees the harddrive via the adapter, the adapter needs to see the harddrive first and report to the computer what it is. It is therefore important to take into account the harddrive jumpers. The adapter needs to know what is plugged into it and with most of the IDE harddrives I have connected via the adapter you need to jumper the harddrive as Master or Cable Select. You should be able to find the jumper positions on the manufacturers’ website if they are not clearly marked on the harddrive.

4. When using an IDE laptop harddrive be very careful with the jumpers and the data plug, the jumper has a tendency to hinder the correct installation of the data plug. Depending on the position of the jumper it is possible to very gently bend the pins up or down just enough to allow the data plug to slide onto its contacts, do this by manipulating the jumper out of the way rather than trying to bend the pins themselves.

5. You will soon know if all is well if AutoPlay starts scanning the drive for known file types.

6. Don’t be surprised if the next time you need to use System Restore that a warning pops up saying that drive xx (whatever drive letter was used for your adapter) will not be included in the System Restore. This is only because restore information was saved for the harddrive at the time it was connected to your computer and now the harddrive is not seen.


These adapters can really come into their own when you are experiencing problems with Windows not recognizing a faulty harddrive. On several occasions I have found that by connecting a harddrive using the adapter I have been able to view and access a harddrive that previously didn’t show up in the BIOS or Windows Disk Manager.
For some reason connecting the harddrive up using the adapter seems to be less of a drain on the harddrives resources and therefore allows you to view and access a previously troublesome harddrive.
Laptop harddrives do not require the use of the power supply that comes with the adapter, they get their power from the USB port and I have found that by using the adapters’ power supply at the same time, it again helps when trying to access a faulty harddrive.
All the points listed here are based on my own experience gained from using these adapters over the last three or four years, obviously I cannot comment on every scenario only the ones I have seen, but for me anyone serious about data recovery or virus/malware scanning would certainly benefit from using one of these adapters.