IDE-to-USB adapters


In the table below, "Yes" means that the partition on the drive appears as a drive letter within Windows Explorer of my Windows 10 computer.

Note that many places on the internet indicate that these devices only work with drives that have support for logical block addressing (LBA).


Model UD200A adapter:  Photo at here.  USB2.  Adapter powered via USB interface.  Drives powered separately via a supplied AC adapter (which is not powerful enough for the spin-up requirements of some IDE drives).

Model SA491 adapter:  Photo at here.  USB3.  Adapter powered via an AC adapter, rated at 24W.  Even though the adapter has a molex plug to power the drives, I decided to power the drives separately via a dedicated AC adapter.  Without a drive connected, as soon as this was powered on, the 'Disk management' tool of Windows 10 displayed an extra drive, with that drive described as "Removable (E:)" and "No media".

Model XT-U33502 adapter:  Photo at here.  USB3.  Adapter powered via an AC adapter, rated at 24W.  Even though the adapter has a molex plug to power the drives, I decided to power the drives separately via a dedicated AC adapter.  Without a drive connected, as soon as this was powered on, the 'Disk management' tool of Windows 10 displayed an extra drive, with that drive described as "Disk 1" and "Removable" and "No media".




Year
Drive
make-model
Drive
info
Drive
size
Drive
power
Drive
interface
Drive
interface		 Drive
LBA
support		 Drive appeared
using
UD200A ?		 Drive appeared
using
SA491 ?		 Drive appeared
using
XT-U33502 ?

   Comment
1997 WD Caviar 11200
(AC11200-00LA)		 Link 1.2 GB 6 W
note 2		 PATA ATA-3 small_tick.gif Yes No No  UD200A adapter: Disk Management shows one partition, a 1.19 GB FAT32 partition
1998 Maxtor 82160D2 Link 2 GB 14 W
note 3		 PATA ATA-3 small_tick.gif Yes No Yes  UD200A adapter: Disk Management shows one partition, a 1.96 GB FAT32 partition
 XT-U33502 adapter: See note 8 below.
circa
1998		 Seagate ST32122A Link 2.1 GB   PATA ATA-3 small_tick.gif Yes Yes Yes  UD200A/XT-U33502 adapters: Disk Management shows one partition, a 1.96 GB FAT32 partition (labelled "ST32122A")
 SA491 adapter: See note 7 below.
2000 Fujitsu MPE3064AT Link 6.4 GB 25.6 W
note 4		 PATA ATA-4 small_tick.gif Yes Yes Yes  UD200A/SA491 adapters: Disk Management shows one partition, a 24 MB FAT partition
 XT-U33502 adapter: See note 6 below.
circa
2000		 Quantum QMP20000AS-A   20 GB   PATA ATA-3 small_tick.gif Yes Yes Yes  All 3 adapters: Disk Management shows one partition, a 24 MB FAT partition (labelled "HELLO")
 
2003 Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
model 6Y120P0		 Link 120 GB 15 W
note 2		 PATA ATA-7 small_tick.gif Yes Yes Yes  UD200A/SA491 adapters: Disk Management shows one partition, a 114.5 GB NTFS partition (labelled "GHOST")
 XT-U33502 adapter: See note 5 below.





Note 1 Re 'Drive interface'.  ATA/IDE/EIDE transfer modes at here.
   
Note 2 Source: Sticker on drive.  In some cases, this may be a nominal figure, not a peak figure (which occurs during spin-up time).
   
Note 3 Source: 'Spin-up' figure in maker's documentation.
   
Note 4 Source: Sticker on drive indicates 8.2 W (i.e. "12V 0.40A" and "5V 0.67A"), but maker's documentation indicates a 'spin-up' requirement of 25.6 W (i.e. "5V:0.8A, 12V:1.8A").
   
Note 5 Initially, the 6Y120P0/XT-U33502 combination did not work.  Disk Management crashed.  Disk Management would not reload with the drive attached.  The drive content was mostly a 110 GB sized file that had been created by Ghost 11 (hard drive imaging software).  After moving that very large file off the 6Y120P0 drive, the XT-U33502/6Y120P0 combination worked.  As an experiment, I copied the file back, expecting the problem to return, but it did not.
   
Note 6 On the first day that I tried this MPE3064AT/XT-U33502 combination, the combination did not work.  That was observed a few times.  But, the next day, I discovered that the combination worked if I waited about 30 seconds after powering on the adapter.  That approx. 30 seconds was consistent.  Odd, because the Seagate ST32122A on the same adapter comes up within a few seconds.  Maybe on the first day, I wasn't waiting 30 seconds.
   
Note 7 On the first day that I tried this ST32122A/SA491 combination, the combination did not work.  That was observed a few times.  But, the next day, I discovered that the combination worked !!!
   
Note 8 On both the first and second day, this 82160D2/XT-U33502 combination did not work.  That was observed a few times.  Then, as an experiment, I reformatted the drive (FAT32 before, FAT32 after).  The 82160D2/XT-U33502 combination now works !!!  Unfortunately, it didn't get the 82160D2/SA491 combination going.