S-ATA&IDE to USB Adapter

[CharleslRay]

Just bought this adapter, my bench comp reads anything I plug into the adapter except a laptop SATA hdd. It came with a cd about 200mbs large that only has SATA drivers for Win98. I've googled, used driver updaters and anything else that I can think of and I still can't get it to recognize the laptop hdd. Any help is much appreciated.

It's been great so far, just need to get the laptop hdd accessed! ARrrgh!

Peep the specs
http://www.masscool.com/product_detail.php?tab=2&pid=142&id=96#p

 

[dhrandy]

Is the laptop SATA larger than 500G? I noticed the website says it don't recognizes up to 500G.

Does it recognize a 3.5 SATA hard drive? I think it would be weird that it would read a 3.5" SATA and not a 2.5". It seems that there may be a hard drive problem beyond the adapter.

 

[CharleslRay]

It's 200gb and a 2.5. I hear it spinning just fine and the comp reads it as an unrecognized device with no driver properties.

What are some good apps to test the drive itself for errors related to this issue?

 

[iptech]

It's 200gb and a 2.5. I hear it spinning just fine and the comp reads it as an unrecognized device with no driver properties.

What are some good apps to test the drive itself for errors related to this issue?

Unless you can get the HAL to recognise the drive correctly any test applications will be useless. If a 3.5" drive works Ok then the interface is obviously being recognised by the system OK so you need to look at the disk as being at fault. Does the adapter have a power in port (they usually do), it may be that you need to provide a bit more power to the unit that is being done by your system's USB port. You may also be able to get around it by using a double connector mini USB lead whereby the power can be drawn from two USB ports on the host.

I've used several of these adapters and from my experience their performance can be somewhat varied and I've had problems with low power to 2.5 inch drives on several occasions.

 

[CharleslRay]

Very good point and yes the adapter has a power port. I'm going to try and use some power from the tower itself to power the SATA drive. I'll get back to you on how that goes. Think it could be a driver issue? Seems like such a great little tool to have in my bag, sucks if it's going to be hassle to always use it.

 

[iptech]

Very good point and yes the adapter has a power port. I'm going to try and use some power from the tower itself to power the SATA drive. I'll get back to you on how that goes. Think it could be a driver issue? Seems like such a great little tool to have in my bag, sucks if it's going to be hassle to always use it.

No, I don't think it's a drive issue, the hard drive should be recognised as a mass storage device which is a standard internal driver to Windows, it'll be the same driver that's used by a 3.5" drive on the same interface.

 

[iptech]

For bench use these hard drive docking stations work very well although they are a little large for a mobile toolkit. They use an always-on power connector when in use for both 2.5 and 3.5 drives. Thay are only available for SATA interfaces though, there's no IDE equivalent that I'm aware of.

 

[rtrahan]

Are they powered by AC or USB, the group discussions lead one to believe it was USB?

 

[georgenoise]

I know sometimes with the one I have it will act like it see's it but pull up no auto-run menu, no drive letter under my computer. Sometimes though if you check the usb device listing like you were going to remove the device safely, it will actually show it with a drive letter assigned and from there you can just manually switch to that drive...

 

[iptech]

Are they powered by AC or USB, the group discussions lead one to believe it was USB?

All disk drives are powered by DC, this can be delivered direct from a PSU (internal or external) and/or the power output on the USB. No disk drives that I've ever been aware of are powered directly from AC and certainly no SATA drives ever are. AC current is converted by the PSU to DC and is never used directly on PC components and it's never likely to be - it's unstable, irregular and too higher voltage.

The point I was making was that the DC input from a USB port may not be enough alone.

 

[CharleslRay]

I ended up pulling power from the CD drive, plugged in the USB, restarted and it recognized the drive. Thank you!