Product Description

The SATA/IDE-USB Adapter gives you the flexibility of connecting almost any type of drive to your computer via USB.  SATA, 3.5-inch IDE, 5.25-inch IDE, and 2.5-inch IDE drives are all supported and can be easily hot-swapped to your system.  The included external power adapter will allow you to power your drives outside your system giving you the ability to quickly add or swap between drives without opening your case.  The SATA/IDE-USB adapter incorporates 3 interfaces to one USB adapters.

Product Details

• Brand: Vantec
• Model: CB-ISATAU2
• Dimensions: 2.50" h x 4.50" w x 6.50" l, .15 pounds

Features

• Easily Add Storage to Any System with USB
• Supports HDD Capacity Up to 1.5TB
• Transfer Rates Up to 480 Mbps with USB 2.0
• Hot-Swappable: Plug and Play without Rebooting
• Compatible Windows PC or Mac with Available USB 2.0 Port

Customer Reviews

Good device for techies
I bought two devices of this kind, one is this Vantec USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE adapter and the other one is Bytecc, which is a little less cumbersome to use.

A device like this is a must-have for techies and pros who work with multiple hard disk drives and frequently need to quickly connect an external drive to a PC, regardless whether it's 2.5 or 3.5", SATA or IDE.

When I was buying the first one, I chose the box which weighted less, and apparently that was not a relevant reason, but coincidentaly I made a good choice.

Disadvantages of this device compared to Bytecc's one:
- More parts to carry with, more complex connection
- Needs a manual, which is, although mostly decent technical writing, printed in four pages per one printout without any collating or order
- The power connector (provides the same connection as the standard IDE drive type of power connector usually found inside of PCs) is connected to the power supply with a very do-it-yourself style cable which works but it's rugged with cables sticking out of it and it doesn't have the finish or an appeal of a good quality product.
- It needs several different power cables/adapters and it's easy to lose some

Advantages:
- Unlike the power connectors, the data part/connector looks a bit more sturdy/compact compared to Bytecc
- The SATA drive data connection is done via a regular SATA data cable, so it would work with any SATA drives with non-standard distance between the power and data connector (I haven't seen any like that yet and I've worked with both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives).

The USB and AC power supply cables on both devices are too short and could be at least 3' longer.

You may want to read my review of bytecc adapter like this which gives more details how this concept works.

Bottomline: Good product, mostly for techies, my experience with Bytecc one is better

Easy hard drive access
This is a very useful device for anyone with a bit of experience tinkering under the hood of a computer. The package includes:

- the actual adapter itself, which provides an USB connection to 3 different types of hard drive connectors -- 5.25" / 3.5" IDE, 2.5" IDE, and SATA.
- an IDE (4-pin MOLEX) power adapter.
- one SATA-to-SATA data cable.
- one IDE (4-pin MOLEX) power to SATA power adapter.
- a mini-CD containing a manual and drivers. It is not necessary to install drivers in Windows ME / 2000/ XP and above systems.

Both the SATA/IDE-to-USB and power adapter cables are reasonably lengthy; 3' for the former, maybe 5.5' for the latter.

Vantec's SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter provides an easy way to access a hard drive without needing to install it into a computer. It also works great for extracting data from old computers without having to figure out how to turn them on -- all you have to do is take out the hard drive.

Maybe OK for casual use, not for large files
I bought this product to copy drive images from older systems to some new 500GB internal drives that I purchased for this purpose. I had some serious problems with copying the images to the drives (through the dongle), with it typically bombing out around 40MB on USB 1.1 systems and around 500MB on USB 2.0 systems. After messing around with it for a few hours (and discovering that smaller files worked just fine), I began to get the feeling that it was a faulty product. After trying another Vantec with the same results, I returned it and bought the very similar product from Bytecc. While I agree with another reviewer that the connectors are better on the Vantec, the Bytecc product actually worked with my multi-GB files, which is kinda the point. Score: Bytecc - 1; Vantec - 0...