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,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata
Customer Review: Multiple hard drive upgrades
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this after reading more than 10 reviews and sure, it worked as everybody claimed. It really speed up the cloning process when there is a power source for the USB. I have a USB to 2.5 (42 pins) adopter kit with no external power source, just used the power from the computer and the transfer of files during the cloning process took forever, like overnight. With the power supply to the USB adopter, the whole cloning of a 40 gigs hard drive only took little more than an hour. Besides, it also comes with a software for cloning. Otherwise, I have to use the True Image software, which cost $40 by itself.
Now, with the $10 mail in rebate, this whole gadget really worth the money. The only drawback for people who are not used to opening up a computer and take parts off, pulling out a hard drive and installing a new one (usually much bigger drive) seems to be a intimidating task. However, after you have done it once, everything seems to be much easier. The Apricorn Drivewire definitely worth every penny!
Customer Review: You fix computers? Why don't you have this yet?!
Summary: 5 Stars
This little device is the perfect solution for any computer tech or even a home user. If you know anything about computers and you need to get some data off of a hard drive this is the best thing. It's incredibly small and connects to the three major hard drive types. I had a client who needed their data off a dead laptop that was over 6 years old and used a weird SATA like plug called PATA. Since I only started working on laptops the last few years I thought all laptops used SATA drives. This device worked perfect.
Pros
- Small!
- Runs old laptop and PC drives
- Comes with power adapter
- USB compatible with any system
- Decent speed
- Great for cloning
- Uses 4 pin plug for power just like a PC power supply
(I have not tried plugging it into power supply for power but I think it would work)
Cons
- Unfortunately the power adapter isn't small
Customer Review: HUGE TIMESAVER!
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently received a warning from Windows 7 stating that my hard disk drive was very near failure and to backup everything immediately, which I did. The next thing I did while my PC was still functioning was to research the reason for this dire warning and discovered SMART HDD's track certain performance parameters and notify the user when one or more of those parameters near or exceed specific threshold values. SMART drives are meant to predict imminent failure before it's too late.
In any case, my new larger HDD arrived today along with the Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adaptor. It's a massive time saver!! If I was forced to format and reinstall all software and user settings, it would've taken at least a full day. Instead, I used the Apricorn Drivewire to "clone" my old drive to the new drive and was back up and running, start to finish, in less than an hour and a half. It's an amazing product.
Customer Review: Must have for any techie. Simple enough for the ambitious novice.
Summary: 5 Stars
A versatile hardware interface allows you to work on most serial or parallel ATA drives without cracking open your workstation. Drives will run natively in Windows Operating Systems - no drivers needed. USB 2.0 interface so it is not very fast - hope Apricorn makes a USB 3.0 version soon. Has it's own power supply so you won't over tax the USB.
The big surprise was the encluded duplication software: professional quality, stand-alone (your operating system doesn't need to be working - boot directly to the CD), and very intuitive. If you have enough skill (and courage) to replace your own hard drives, you will have no trouble cloning them with this package. I cloned my wifes laptop disk to a smaller Solid State Drive in just a few minutes. It scaled the partitions down automatically, copied the contents, slapped a Master Boot Record on, and done. Simple, minimal interaction, no superfluous fluff.
Customer Review: Must-have item for the DIY'er
Summary: 5 Stars
This unit has performed flawlessly on every drive I've tried it on including 2.5" SATA & IDE as well as 3.5" SATA & IDE hard drives. The included software is so simple to use I'm pretty sure a trained monkey could operate it!
Note however that the drive will still be spinning after you unmount it (or use the Safely Remove option from Windows), so to prevent disc damage I recommend unplugging the power source and letting the drive spin down before removing the Drivewire adapter from the drive.
The only thing which would make this product better would be the inclusion of a case to store it and the supplied cables in, but that would increase the price of course.
I didn't get mine within the window of one of the rebates but I still got good value for what I paid even at full price. Highly recommended for anyone who frequently is called upon to copy data from various hard drives.