Hands on with Newer Tech’s Universal Drive Adapter

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Hardware Review

Hands on with Newer Tech’s Universal Drive Adapter

1/9/2007

By David Nagel

01.10.2007—Here's one for the technician on the move. Chances are that the computers on your campus use at least two different types of hard drives—probably more. You have, of course, SATA and PATA 3.5-inch hard drives in your desktops and workstations. But you also have SATA and PATA 2.5-inch drives for your notebooks. (The more recent high-performance notebooks like Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro use 2.5-inch SATA drives.) And this means that when it comes time for diagnostics, recovery or general maintenance on these drives, you're stuck finding enclosures or docks for each one of these different interface types.

Maybe that's not too much of a hassle for you. But if you have to move around a lot in your maintenance odysseys, it isn't exactly convenient to carry around four types of enclosures to handle the various types of drives you might encounter. So what if you could carry around just a single USB 2.0-based adapter for all four of the drive types I've mentioned? And what if it occupied no more space in your tool bag than a single external enclosure? And what if it cost about $25?

I know. I was thinking the same thing the first time I heard about Newer Technology's USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter. But the fact is that it works. It's effective and reliable, and it's a convenient way to adapt internal hard drives for external access quickly (and temporarily) for whatever maintenance tasks you need to perform.

UNIVERSAL DRIVE ADAPTER FEATURES

Newer's Universal Drive Adapter consists of three elements: a power supply, a USB 2.0 base cable (with various interfaces for the hard drives) and adapter cables for power and data for certain types of drives. Below you see the basic equipment supplied with the unit.

Universal Adapter equipment

There's nothing else to it. No software to install. The cables are self-explantory. It's simply a hub for four different types of drives.

PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY

Now, I've had a chance not just to test the Universal Drive Adapter with all four different interface types, but to use it on a regular basis for accessing data from my collection of orphaned drives on a regular basis. These include Seagate, Samsung, IBM and Fujitsu 3.5-inch ATA drives; Seagate and Maxtor 3.5-inch SATA drives; a Hitachi 2.5-inch (notebook) ATA drive; and Hitachi and Fujitsu 2.5-inch (notebook) SATA drives.

In all cases, the Universal Drive Adapter has performed flawlessly.

Note, however, that the Universal Drive Adapter may not be suitable for extended use, since it's just bare cables without cover or fans. But for temporary setups, it's pretty close to ideal.