Are IDE to USB Adapters Reliable?

[Shaina11]

I currently have a couple of Vantec SATA to USB adapters for my 2 TB SATA drives, though I was thinking of getting a IDE/SATA adapter to use with older drives that use the IDE interface. This would be especially useful for repairing older PCs and testing the hard drives.

The problem is, I've heard many horror stories of people's hard drives being fried from these adapters, thus why I went with the more expensive, SATA only adapters. From what I've read, it seems to be primarily the power adapters supplied with the converters. And some have said the molex wires were not wired correctly.

If you search for "fried" in the comments of this amazon page, you'll find all sorts of horror stories of fried hard drives.

So my question is, do these people not know what they're doing, or is it true? And how could one avoid the issue aside from buying a separate molex AC/DC adapter?

 

[InvalidError]

ISA ? lol if you want to go that old then you wont find working HD from that era ... thats like pre 1993 times ... What then a 512 MEGA harddisk ? lol

I have a working 200MB Maxtor HDD which begs to disagree.

(Why do I still have it? I have no idea. How do I know it is still working? When I found my retro-gaming PC's HDD stuck, I wonder if my even older HDD which had been sitting for even longer would fare any better. Much to my surprise, it spun up without a hitch.)

 

[Samer1970]

you dont need drivers .. they emulate IDE harddisk

Here's one more issue for you. SD cards have limited write cycles compared to unlimited on hard drives.

You do realize this argument is pointless and wasting everyone's time, no one, is going to budge, so we might as well drop it. Stick to what you like, I'll stick to what I like. That is all.

I am not wasting anyone time you dont know wht you are losing .... all my old stuff got SD kit, Amiga floppy , Amiga HD , SNES , GameGear , Lynx , Turbo Grafix 16 .. , NDS , Game Boy Advance ,

have a nice day , and I was trying to give you the best .. see ya .

 

[Samer1970]

ISA ? lol if you want to go that old then you wont find working HD from that era ... thats like pre 1993 times ... What then a 512 MEGA harddisk ? lol

I have a working 200MB Maxtor HDD which begs to disagree.

(Why do I still have it? I have no idea. How do I know it is still working? When I found my retro-gaming PC's HDD stuck, I wonder if my even older HDD which had been sitting for even longer would fare any better. Much to my surprise, it spun up without a hitch.)

nice ... are you old enough to have a working Amiga , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , Apple //e ?

 

[Shaina11]

I am not wasting anyone time you dont know wht you are losing .... all my old stuff got SD kit, Amiga floppy , Amiga HD , SNES , GameGear , Lynx , Turbo Grafix 16 .. , NDS , Game Boy Advance ,

have a nice day , and I was trying to give you the best .. see ya .

If I couldn't find an alternative, I would certainly try the IDE to SD adapter, and I have been reading into console modding, it's interesting to read about it.

 

[Samer1970]

good luck finding a sata card driver for win 95, or win 98 much less 3.1 or NT.
vintage means old.

http://www.delock.com/produkte/G_70146/merkmale.html

click on "drivers"

 

[InvalidError]

nice ... are you old enough to have a working Amiga , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , Apple //e ?

My first video game was a multi-mode pong/tennis machine with analog control paddles. (Well, it wasn't mine, it was my parents'.)

I did have a Gemini 2600 (Atari clone) but I forgot to clear the garage when I moved apartment ~20 years ago, so it got left behind.

 

[Samer1970]

nice ... are you old enough to have a working Amiga , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , Apple //e ?

My first video game was a multi-mode pong/tennis machine with analog control paddles. (Well, it wasn't mine, it was my parents'.)

I did have a Gemini 2600 (Atari clone) but I forgot to clear the garage when I moved apartment ~20 years ago, so it got left behind.

My first PC was APPLE //e ..

My First Console was ATARI 2600 , Then Coleco Vision ..

My First Japanese Console was NES

I moved to PC late , my First PC was 486 , before that had Apple , Commodore 64 , Atari ST Then Amiga 2000 ...

 

[Shaina11]

http://www.delock.com/produkte/G_70146/merkmale.html

click on "drivers"

Doesn't list DOS or 95. And doesn't specify whether it's 98 FE or SE, some software says it supports Windows 98, when really, it only supports the Second Edition.

 

[Samer1970]

http://www.delock.com/produkte/G_70146/merkmale.html

click on "drivers"

Doesn't list DOS or 95. And doesn't specify whether it's 98 FE or SE, some software says it supports Windows 98, when really, it only supports the Second Edition.

okay how about this ?

SATA to IDE Bridge

Convert all SATA devices to IDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwRClahcUCI

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-SATA-Bridge-Board-ADP-06/dp/B002SZDOM6

it even works with SSD

 

[Samer1970]

more SATA to IDE Bridges

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=sata+to+ide+bridge

 

[Shaina11]

okay how about this ?

SATA to IDE Bridge

Convert all SATA devices to IDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwRClahcUCI

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-SATA-Bridge-Board-ADP-06/dp/B002SZDOM6

it even works with SSD

more SATA to IDE Bridges

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=sata+to+ide+bridge

If the hard drive is of small enough capacity, <120 GB for Windows 98 SE, then it has a good possibility of working on legacy systems, depending on the capacity the motherboard and BIOS supports, as for DOS, it's limited to 2 GB partitions if I recall correctly, but you can partition larger drives to 2 GB each, but I wouldn't get one that's over 32 GB for 95 or DOS.

 

[Samer1970]

okay how about this ?

SATA to IDE Bridge

Convert all SATA devices to IDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwRClahcUCI

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-SATA-Bridge-Board-ADP-06/dp/B002SZDOM6

it even works with SSD

more SATA to IDE Bridges

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=sata+to+ide+bridge

If the hard drive is of small enough capacity, <120 GB for Windows 98 SE, then it has a good possibility of working on legacy systems, depending on the capacity the motherboard and BIOS supports, as for DOS, it's limited to 2 GB partitions if I recall correctly, but you can partition larger drives to 2 GB each, but I wouldn't get one that's over 32 GB for 95 or DOS.

I know , you can try cheap 64/32GB SSD as well ..


those bridges are only $6-$10 , give it a try ... I never used one to recommend a brand , but it is interesting

some one wrote that his 256GB SSD worked !

Edit : I d love to see dos games on SSD lol !!!

 

[Shaina11]

I know , you can try cheap 64/32GB SSD as well ..


those bridges are only $6-$10 , give it a try ... I never used one to recommend a brand , but it is interesting

some one wrote that his 256GB SSD worked !

Edit : I d love to see dos games on SSD lol !!!

Just make sure to use CPU slowdown software, if your CPU is too fast, especially with an SSD, DOS games will be unplayable. For DOS you only need a few hundred MHz if not slower like 33-66 MHz for some games to run properly, otherwise they run too fast.