USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter--turn any drive into a hot swappable USB drive $17.99 Shipped

This little tool is very handy:

USB to IDE/SATA Adapter

Turn any drive into a hot swappable USB drive with this SATA/IDE to USB adapter from BYTECC. The external power adapter ensures that you have enough power for 3.5" hard drives and 5.25" optical drives.

Because you don't need a case, this is a great setup for tech benches and repair shops. It makes data recovery and transfer faster since you don’t have to mount the drive into a system or external case first. Check and connect drives in a hurry with this versatile little tool!

This is regular price. Great tool, but not exactly a HOT deal.

Folks I had the Bytec power supply burn out two drives. The first time I assumed drive failure.... the second drive had me drag out the voltmeter and found it was pouring over 18 volts into the two drives. One was a IDE and the
other a SATA. Luck for me they were small drives....an 80 gig and a 120 gig. Into the dumpster the whole mess
went. Oh and the dealer who sold the thing to me said about half of them had irregular voltage but he hadn't heard
of one that high.

And I have read several references to two other almost identical units by other companies that do destroy SATA
drives.

retiredlawman said: Folks I had the Bytec power supply burn out two drives. The first time I assumed drive failure.... the second drive had me drag out the voltmeter and found it was pouring over 18 volts into the two drives. One was a IDE and the
other a SATA. Luck for me they were small drives....an 80 gig and a 120 gig. Into the dumpster the whole mess
went. Oh and the dealer who sold the thing to me said about half of them had irregular voltage but he hadn't heard
of one that high.

And I have read several references to two other almost identical units by other companies that do destroy SATA
drives.

From a Newegg review:

Pros: As one of the buyer wrote: If you want to risk frying your drive, buy this. But this comment is actually not precise it doesn't fry it smokes. At least in my case - although I when I saw a smoke. I unplug it immediately.
The cute thing is it works one or twice smoked brand new and tested SATA HDD work again burned another brand new HDD ect. If you like an adapter that sometimes works and sometimes smokes - this is the perfect choice
Cons: After testing the unit I bought, I can verify to other numerous buyers accounts of frying the HDDs. In my case these were brand new 160 Samsung SATA 3.5' drives (different models) previously tested.I burned only 2 HDD and I will stop here as I don't want to have my HDD RMA package heavy.
Additionally the soldiering on circuit board is of very low quality.
Prior to purchase I send to Bytecc inquiry about the product. I have never received any reply.

Sounds too scary to use for me.

VirtuaL said: retiredlawman said: Folks I had the Bytec power supply burn out two drives. The first time I assumed drive failure.... the second drive had me drag out the voltmeter and found it was pouring over 18 volts into the two drives. One was a IDE and the
other a SATA. Luck for me they were small drives....an 80 gig and a 120 gig. Into the dumpster the whole mess
went. Oh and the dealer who sold the thing to me said about half of them had irregular voltage but he hadn't heard
of one that high.

And I have read several references to two other almost identical units by other companies that do destroy SATA
drives.

From a Newegg review:

Pros: As one of the buyer wrote: If you want to risk frying your drive, buy this. But this comment is actually not precise it doesn't fry it smokes. At least in my case - although I when I saw a smoke. I unplug it immediately.
The cute thing is it works one or twice smoked brand new and tested SATA HDD work again burned another brand new HDD ect. If you like an adapter that sometimes works and sometimes smokes - this is the perfect choice
Cons: After testing the unit I bought, I can verify to other numerous buyers accounts of frying the HDDs. In my case these were brand new 160 Samsung SATA 3.5' drives (different models) previously tested.I burned only 2 HDD and I will stop here as I don't want to have my HDD RMA package heavy.
Additionally the soldiering on circuit board is of very low quality.
Prior to purchase I send to Bytecc inquiry about the product. I have never received any reply.

Sounds too scary to use for me.

The retard probably plugged his molex in upside down.

It should be less than $10. Indeed, I got one for less than $7.

I too have had bad experiences with Bytecc warranty and rebates, but cannot comment on this particular product

This is an all around cold deal. Bad company, bad product. Stay away.

Caveat emptor.

I use one of these all the time and love it.

However, I too have fried two drives on it, one a DVD burner, the other a hard drive.

The molex connector on this is not only not as tight as it should be, but it is upside down when the adapter itself is right side up.

A friend told me over the phone he had his USB port "die on him" on his laptop and I said "I bet you're using a USB/SATA adapter and you have the power connector upside down". He said "how did you know that?"

I eventually drew silver lines on the molex connector such that when the adapter is in upside down it is obvious. And I always check this before plugging it in.

If you never put the power connector in upside down, you'll love this. But unfortunately it is easy to do due to the design. So be careful.

Edit:
Putting the power connector in upside down doesn't damage the adapter itself at all. It does put too much voltage into your computer (or USB hub) and hard/optical drive though.