Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata
by APRICORN MASS STORAGE
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List Price: Our Price: $33.16 You Save: $4.83 (13%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $33.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata
Customer Review: more versatile than the manual implies
Summary: 5 Stars
This little device is elegantly general in its possibilities. Indeed, it has more possibilities than those described in its manual.
The "EZ Gig II Backup & Disaster Recovery Software" that comes bundled with it is very powerful, and I say more about that in the next paragraph. Even without using that program, the hardware itself enables one to peer from any USB-equipped computer into the directories and files of a disk drive that is mounted on the adapter. Just as one can browse through file-containing directories (folders) on a USB flash drive, one can do the same with the contents of an intact disk drive attached to this adapter. When my daughter's laptop quit working for reasons unrelated to its disk drive, I removed the laptop's disk drive (a simple process requiring only a Size #0 Phillips screwdriver), connected the disk drive to the Apricorn DriveWire, plugged the DriveWire's USB cable into my desktop computer, and easily retrieved the document files that she needed.
Now to the "EZ Gig II Backup & Disaster Recovery Software." The happy ending to this story is that a potentially disastrous loss turned into no loss whatsoever and a painless disk-drive upgrade from 100GB to 160GB. Here's the problem I faced. Knowing that the shop which was going to perform an extended-warranty repair was likely to wipe the laptop's hard drive of its contents and reinstall Windows, I wanted to preserve all of the installed software and Windows customization to which my daughter was accustomed. To accomplish this, I needed to clone the laptop's disk drive and keep the clone when sending the laptop in for repair. If the laptop had still been working, this would have been easy to do with the EZ Gig II software: install the software on the laptop, attach a new drive to the Apricorn DriveWire, plug the DriveWire's USB cable into the laptop, and run the program. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that because the laptop was dead. Here's how I solved the problem. I bought two Apricorn DriveWires--one for me and one for my daughter. I installed my copy of the EZ Gig II software on my desktop computer. I mounted the laptop's original, 100GB disk drive on one DriveWire adapter, and I mounted a new, 160GB disk drive on the other DriveWire adapter. Plugging both USB cables into the desktop computer and running EZ Gig II, I was able to clone the contents of the 100GB original onto the 160GB replacement.
When the repair shop fixed the laptop, it did as I had feared: It wiped the laptop's hard drive of its contents and reinstalled Windows. No problem. My daughter replaced the Windows-only 100GB disk drive with the 160GB clone, and she was completely back in business. The only change was a 60GB increase in storage capacity!
Customer Review: Invaluable!!! Must Have!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, it's only a must have if you're someone like me. I'm constantly swapping in and out hard drives and burners. If your PC is full or if you're just tired of going in and out of your PC, this adapter is invaluable. Because now when you shop for hard drives or burners, you no longer have to buy the more expensive external versions. Externals are always more expensive due to the case and power supply. Now you can buy internal drives, you don't even need retail versions, you can buy internal OEM's too because you won't need any hook-up accessories.
I'll give you two examples of how useful this is!
1.) My PS3 is only 40gb, my Dell Inspiron is equipped with a WD Scorpio 160gb. After some research, I learn that the Scorpio works really well with the PS3. So I wanted use my 160gb in my ps3 and buy a new 320gb for my notebook, and that's exactly what I did!! The drivewire cloned my 160gb hard-drive onto the new 320gb (also scorpio) hard-drive. My notebook was up and running smoothly! My PS3 is also running smoothly with 160gb of space. :)
2.) I've been on the fence about Blu-Ray burners. I'm not even sure my desktop has the power for it to be practical for me to encode m2ts files to mkv or whatever. Before when I did not own this drivewire adapter, I would look at external blu-ray burners and never had the guts to pull the trigger because of how expensive they are. Even though you know you can return it if it doesn't work out, I just didn't want my card to be charged with such a high priced item. I never considered internals either because even though they are cheaper, it's a hassle to open up my PC when I'm not sure if the blu-ray drive would work. However, ever since I've owned the drivewire, I've been test-driving blu-ray burners left and right. Because with this, I can now shop for the cheaper internal blu-ray drives. This thing has allowed me to take my time in choosing the proper blu-ray player for my system.
I already got moneys worth out of this Drivewire!! You will too!
Customer Review: very good product
Summary: 5 Stars
I orderd this product along with a Western Digital hard drive to upgrade from a 200GB to a 500GB on my Toshiba A215 S-4747 laptop. While waiting for the Apricorn Adapter I began researching about cloning hard drives. I found on the Internet Easeus Todo Home Backup software and installed it on my computer. When the equipment arrived found cloning software along with all the necessary cables to connect my new hard drive to my laptop. I immediately connected the Apricorn to my computer and plugged in the new hard drive. I did clone my first hard drive using the Easeus cloning software. It took about 2.5 hours to complete. Upon completion I shut down my laptop, removed the battery and gained access to my 200GB hard drive. I removed it and installed the cloned 500GB hard drive. Powered up my laptop and it took probably 3 minutes longer than normal to boot up. After the boot up was completed and the Vista desktop was displayed I proceded to check to see if all programs were working. Everything worked just like my 200GB hard drive. I was extremely happy because this saves a couple of days of all the hassel of a clean install and the updates that go along with it. Now this gave me a spare 200GB hard drive that could be installed at any time in my computer as a backup hard drive.
I have since used the software that came with the Apricorn adapter. I was reluctant to use the Apricon software because of reviews that I had read on the internet about how difficult it was to use. I did not find that true and in fact it is very easy to use, almost a not brainer. This is a GREAT PRODUCT and every computer user should have one nearby to use. It is not just for cloning it can also be used to retrieve files from good working hard drives that have been removed from failed computers.
No computer user should be with out Review: BEWARE
Summary: 1 Stars These people must not be very proud of their product, as this is singularly the WORST/WEIRDEST company interaction I have ever had. (I'm 53.) You might be surprised by this, but the IRS is waaay better than these guys at customer service and support. Not Kidding.
This seems like a slick device, and I wanted it to work. (I wish it worked.) (It may work.) I purchased it to clone the hard drive on my PC so I could upgrade. I followed the instructions closely, and it appeared as though the cloning was successful, however I was unable to get it to boot properly. I invested a great deal of time re-reading their material (lame) and re-trying to make it work, but no luck. So after giving it about 8 hours total time I made my first call for support, and decided to follow up with an email. That was over 1 week ago. Since then I have called over 30 times. I got through to the "operator" approximately 6 times and even when I asked for a human, and explained that I have not had a response of any kind in 5 days at that point, she would still simply forward my call to Tech Support which apparently is just an outgoing message followed by a beep. I even tried going into the voice mail menu and leaving a message on the mailbox of someone in sales asking for help as no humans besides the operator ever picked up the phone. (Must not want to answer it.) They were not dodging a surly customer, as I was always pleasant, I really wanted the thing to work, and desired their help. No one from the company ever responded. Period.
I will be returning the device to Amazon. I would rather have had the help.
FYI, this is the first negative review I have ever posted anywhere. Big deal to me, but earned it they did. You have to put in effort to avoid assisting a customer to this degree.
Customer Review: Laptop Replacement Successful with Ultra 100 ATA EIDE Drive
Summary: 5 Stars
I used the 'Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata' to upgrade a 40gb Dell 9300 laptop hard drive. Very easy to do. The instructions were great. The replacement drive was bought here on Amazon, Western Digital 320 GB Scorpio Blue PATA 5400 RPM 8 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Notebook Hard Drive WD3200BEVE [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]. Perfect clone. I am glad I bought both.
NOTE: The Dell hard drive had an adapter that had to be removed from old drive and put on new drive. See Apricorn's website for a picture of that adapter. [...].
UPDATE: 12/21/09
I upgraded my Lenovo Z61m. Another easy cheap laptop hard drive upgrade with the 'Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata'. This time with a Western Digital 320 GB Scorpio Black SATA 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Notebook Hard Drive WD3200BEKT [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging].
Again, Apricorn's website gave specific directions for the two items that needed to be Disabled in the BIOS(accessed by hitting F1 key while powering up computer). Other difference w/Lenovo Z61m was pulling out old hard drive and placing new one inside laptop, then starting clone software at boot. Just reversing drives before starting clone procedures. I didn't even have to select the drives to clone, software selected drives for me, and started cloning automatically. Very pleased. This took maybe an hour after software starting cloning.