Vantec SATA/IDE to USB Adapter

U

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Guest
Can anyone confirm if this adapter works with Windows Vista? I just bought shinny new Dell laptop for my desktop replacement and I have 2 hard drives worth of stuff to pick through to keep, an IDE and a SATA. Wanted to be sure Vista supports this first tho :)
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
you gotta be kidding me

Holy cow Rob, I can't believe you told that guy to try just copying the XP files over and then try fixmbr etc. Are you kidding??? Of COURSE it won't boot like that, you can NEVER just COPY an OS and have it boot. As the next post said, you need to use Ghost or something similiar. I can't believe you would be reviewing computer gadgets and not know better than that.

Also, I can't believe that in the review it said how poor the transfer rate was, but then blamed it on the DRIVES!!! All the glowing comments and bragging it up and then tell us you got like 10Mb/s??? What the HELL??? Of course that is NOT just the drive. Do you honestly think that the drive, regardless of whether it is an old laptop drive or not, would only be capable of that kind of transer??? That is TOTALLY the problem of this device. If you had hooked those drives up directly to the IDE channels of a computer, you would have gotten several HUNDRED Mb/s transfer rate. Wow, this thing sounds like a piece of garbage!!
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Holy cow Rob, I can't believe you told that guy to try just copying the XP files over and then try fixmbr etc. Are you kidding??? Of COURSE it won't boot like that, you can NEVER just COPY an OS and have it boot. As the next post said, you need to use Ghost or something similiar. I can't believe you would be reviewing computer gadgets and not know better than that.

"I can't believe you" think that fixing Windows has anything to do with reviewing hardware. It doesn't. That said, my suggestion to him was the result of not reading his inquiry better. I thought he had a non-bootable system, which would render Ghost useless.

As for your second ponder, Matt can handle that when he is on the forums next.
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
Holy cow Rob, I can't believe you told that guy to try just copying the XP files over and then try fixmbr etc. Are you kidding??? Of COURSE it won't boot like that, you can NEVER just COPY an OS and have it boot. As the next post said, you need to use Ghost or something similiar. I can't believe you would be reviewing computer gadgets and not know better than that.

Also, I can't believe that in the review it said how poor the transfer rate was, but then blamed it on the DRIVES!!! All the glowing comments and bragging it up and then tell us you got like 10Mb/s??? What the HELL??? Of course that is NOT just the drive. Do you honestly think that the drive, regardless of whether it is an old laptop drive or not, would only be capable of that kind of transer??? That is TOTALLY the problem of this device. If you had hooked those drives up directly to the IDE channels of a computer, you would have gotten several HUNDRED Mb/s transfer rate. Wow, this thing sounds like a piece of garbage!!

Dude, put the crack pipe down and step back. That old 4200RPM laptop drive would be lucky to see 16MB/s let alone hundreds. Hell, current generation drives don't do hundreds of MB/s except in burst speeds and that's just for the amount of data held in the cache. You really should try learning about computer storage subsystems before posting insane comments. That and the whole stay off drugs thing too.
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
Can anyone confirm if this adapter works with Windows Vista? I just bought shinny new Dell laptop for my desktop replacement and I have 2 hard drives worth of stuff to pick through to keep, an IDE and a SATA. Wanted to be sure Vista supports this first tho :)

Since it's a driverless device in XP (it's seen as a USB mass storage device) I'd lay odds on Vista treating it the same.
 

pm24

Obliviot
Rob, thanks for the very thorough review of the Vantec device. You noted that after many insertions and removals of drives the female connectors may fail. Do you, or does anyone know the likely number of cycles until failure? I abandoned the swappable "drawer" type of hard drive system because of the too-rapid failure of the 50-pin D-connector, and I wouldn't want to jump from that frying pan into another fire.

- pm24
 
O

onekevin

Guest
need help bad

ok i just got the usb to sata/ide hardware im trying to get data off my laptop hard drive it is a 2.5in ide i put the disk in and plugged the hardware in like it says but it wont read my laptop hard drive im using windows xp on a desktop computer any suggestions on what i should do????????
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
Then it's NOT the product I reviewed. IT (the Vantec) has a small 2 prong port on the side of the drive head and a 5V lead that hooks to the PSU that comes with it. Without the 5V adapter hooked to the Vantec it won't read a laptop HDD.

Having never used the one you've got I have zero idea if there's something not being done correctly (user error) or if the hardware (either the disk drive or the IDE end of the cable) is faulty. If you've got a known good lappy drive then hook it to your adapter and see if you can read it on your desktop.
 
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U

Unregistered

Guest
This morning I go to turn on my trusty computer, and it says -

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. blah, blah, blah...then it offers me the choice of Launch Startup Repair, or Start Windows normally.

Neither option has resulted in my computer starting up. I did get a blue screen message that mentions PFN_LIST_CORRUPT. and """ STOP: 0x0000004E (0x0000008D, 0x00073D81, 0x00411800, 0xC079EC08)

I just got this computer in January, and I have not installed or changed any hardware or software. My computer worked just fine yesterday.

I hit F2 to try the diagnostic thingy and a memory test, and both tests results were fine, but still no startup.

I have a new never used before Vantec SATA/IDE to USB adapter, and the hard drive from my old desktop that I replaced this year. The hard drive should have at least half of the space available on it.

I would like to try to start it up, hit F8 and try to get it to go to "Last Known Good Configuration". and then copy everything I can try to save, photos, files, anything I can save, to the old hard drive before I get this laptop repaired.

Is this feasible? I don't know what else to try!
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
Ok, I'm a bit slow at the moment. What're you wanting to start? The old desktop or the laptop? I think you've had a failure on the lappy and it's not going to start at all until you chase it down. Try safe mode and if it won't start in safe mode you might as well count on a trip to the shop.
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
Vantec SATA/IDE Adapter

Let me start by saying I am not very computer smart--Bought this product because my laptop died and am trying to get my pictures off the old hard drive. It arrived just the other day but i can not figure out how to connect to the power supply. I did not receive a 5 v power cord as shown in the articles picture-I can get my harddrive connected to the IDE but then there is no way to connect power--do I need the power supply for 2.5" or does it get the power from USB
Thanks
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
It's the Vantec unit? Not another brand? I haven't seen the newest version but if you read the review front to back and a bit sideways you'll see the adapter I'm talking about and where it plugs into the dongle. If yours has the spot for the power plug but lacks the plug refer to your instructions and see if it tells you it needs it. If it needs it and you haven't got it then you got a unit that they neglected to put it in with and you need to contact them about it.
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
software

I want to change to another laptop. Will this tool work to transfer all my software and files over to the new laptop so I don't have to reinstall all the software? I'm guessing you can't copy the OS off the hard drive using this tool, but if XP is already on the new laptop, will this tool allow me to transfer the software and files?
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
If you've installed the programs on the new laptop you can use the file and settings transfer wizard to transfer all the saved files from the old PC to the laptop via an ethernet connection so this wouldn't be of any use to you. Now, if you want to just transfer the programs themselves without installing them on the new PC it may or may not work. Some programs will happily run without any registry changes to the OS while others will barf. It's hit or miss there.
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
SATA to USB bridge question...

Does anyone know if the SATA to USB bridge devices work in reverse?

To clarify, I have an embedded device with an internal SATA drive and no USB ports. I'd like to remove the internal drive and instead use the device's internal SATA controller to work with an external USB based harddrive. Any idea if the SATA to USB bridges are capable of this?

Thanks,
Dan
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
That is a great question, but I have a good feeling that will not be possible. I believe these devices are designed to go in one direction, not vice versa. That's just an assumption though...
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
Vantec SATA/IDE to USB

Purchased the latest version of the Vantec adaptor reviewed and it does not have the 5 volt adaptor for 2.5 lappy drives. You must purchase a USB power splitter, which they should have included but didn't. I did however make my own 5 volt power adaptor. Most of the older lappy drives would not power up or be recognized until proper power was provided either by a USB splitter cable or from my little power adaptor cable. They somehow thought that one USB port would supply enough power for a small drive but it only worked on one older server board I have, with a newer 2.5 inch drive. Older drives that require more power would spin up but not be recognized. The extra power solved that problem.

Also found that add on USB cards, even the expensive ones, didn't supply enough power through USB, while the onboard USB ports would supply enough power to run most newer 2.5 HDD's. The problem with underpowered USB on this adaptor is that the drive will spin up, but won't be recognized by Windows.

Other than that, it works perfect with respectable transfer speeds!
 
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