* NewTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter
What do you do when a PC dies? I’m sure that your users’ laptops and desktops keel over from hardware failure regularly. Perhaps not often, but often enough to cause a few headaches. And sometimes replacing the dead component is just not a cost effective solution – it’s easier just to replace the entire unit. But then what do you do about the data on the user’s local drives?
Oh sure, it’s easy enough to remind the user that they should have been backing it up – but even if it was backed up, do you want to restore the drivers, files (and registry) from a Windows 2000 machine to one sporting Windows XP? Reinstallation sounds like it would be faster, but doesn’t allow for recovering the user’s personal files.
Well now there’s a solution, and it’s very cost effective – less than $25 in fact.
Newer Technology has introduced the NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter, a device which implements a bridge between one USB port and one ATA, Serial ATA, or ATAPI based mass storage device port. The USB 2.0 to IDE Drive Adapter turns any ATA or SATA drive into a convenient external drive so you can easily transfer files from computer or notebook, backup files – or store large file archives on hard drives. The high-speed USB interface provides for easy installation with its Plug and Play design.
The NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter has been tested with:
* 2.5″ laptop drives – All brands.
* 3.5″ desktop drives – Works with all brands, including Maxtor, Seagate, IBM, Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital, etc.
* 5.25″ drives – The adapter supports all existing IDE/ATAPI devices such as CD-ROM, CD-RW, and DVD-ROM drives.
* Removable media drives such as Iomega Zip.
If you only use it for dead laptop drives it would repay the investment the first time you use it.
Besides dead computers, though, I can envision other uses such as distributing new machines to remote offices or users. No need to ship the whole unit to your HQ then ship back, just pop out the drive and load it up then send it out. A big saving in shipping costs. You could also keep multiple drives in your test lab, each configured with a different operating system and pop them in and out as needed quickly – no need to open up the box, and no need to timeslice the CPU with a virtualized (e.g., VMware) solution.
All of this for $24.95? You should buy one for all of your techs!
