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IDE to USB cable reliability questions.

A

Amaron

Member
I recently acquired some USB 2.0 hubs for free and I had the idea to toss a bunch of random hard drives into an old case and hook them up to the PSU then slap IDE to USB cables on them all.

Upon looking at newegg though and reading through a lot of reviews I got the impression that a lot of these IDE to USB cables are pretty shoddy. I saw a larger amount of people than I expected complaining about permanently damaged drives and what not as well. I don't mind some RMA's but I don't want to mess up any drives or have reliability go down the tube after I've got it all working.

So I thought I'd come here and ask if anyone has extensive experience with these types of cables? Does anyone know of ones to avoid and ones that are good? Or any other comments on the topic are welcome. Basically I just want useful info about this before I spend cash on several cables.
 
The cables are basically the electronic guts from an external drive enclosure but without the enclosure. If the external enclosures work then the cables should work also. But if you buy cheap generic adapter cables then you may be risking your drive. I have a cheap adapter cable that I reviewed here: http://www.techimo.com/reviews/ but I've only used it a few times so far. So far, so good. Most of the cheap generics say on the package that they are not designed for continuous use. I think that most external enclosures will come with the same caveat.
. I would not suggest implementing your plan without using a self-powered hub. Remember, USB bandwidth is shared and can barely deal with the output from one HD. To hook up a bunch of external drives for 24/7 use, I would suggest SCSI. One card, one cable, up to 15 drives... You can get adapters for PATA hard drives to hook to SCSI - see http://www.acard.com.tw .

.bh.
 
Originally posted by: Zepper
Most of the cheap generics say on the package that they are not designed for continuous use. I think that most external enclosures will come with the same caveat.
Click to expand...

Well that was the biggest problem I ran into. I couldn't find ANY non cheap ones. I know all about the limitations but the hubs are self powered and the drives Im thinking of plugging in would not be used for anything requiring speed and it would be rare to use more than one at a time.

HD. To hook up a bunch of external drives for 24/7 use, I would suggest SCSI. One card, one cable, up to 15 drives... You can get adapters for PATA hard drives to hook to SCSI - see http://www.acard.com.tw .

.bh.
Click to expand...

Hmm I hadn't considered hooking up pata to a scsi chain. Thanks for the info I'll check out that option too.
 
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