User Reviews
By: Adam J. on 2021-10-01
No problems from the product. Worked well once I figured it out.
By: OneGalsOpinion on 2021-07-27
I have no complaints about the adapter. I panicked when I saw that my old hard drive was not IDE or SATA but PATA and did not appear to fit the adapter. I did some googling and found that PATA is the same as IDE. The PATA drive does fit the IDE connector. There is a divider in the pin connector that automatically aligns every thing as its plugged in. There is a small space on either side but the pins are properly connected. I had an old PC with bulging caps in the power supply. I needed files from that hard drive. No one wanted to replace just those capacitors but the entire power supply. They wanted me to upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 before even considering removing the files from the hard drive. A friend told me I needed a hard drive adapter. I didn't even know there is such a thing. If I had known, I could have solved this problem years ago.
By: H. Hanford on 2021-07-08
I got this to transfer information off my old Hard Drive. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit my drive, and I tried ALL the settings and pins. The pins just wouldn't line up.I had to return it, but it seemed well made and I wish it would've worked. I'm sure it would've worked it I could've gotten it to fit my HD.
By: Greg D on 2021-06-25
Trying to clean up some old hard drives. This allowed me to connect PATA and SATA drives without installing in the computer.
By: FAHAD NAJI ALHOULI on 2021-02-01
Good Quality and Prices
By: Susan Phillips on 2020-09-01
Once I plugged it in with my laptop hard drive, it immediately began transferring all my files into my desk top. Worked very well and was so easy.
By: Doug Jorissen on 2020-08-31
Very easy to use and works on both SATA and PATA hard drives. Highly recommend. Good price.
By: MasterS on 2020-08-18
Ok as far as i used this it worked perfectly and accessed some very old drives, now here is the tricky part that many don't know.To get some of these old drives to work you need to set them them to different settings with jumpers, most the time cable select works, sometimes master works and i found one that had to be set as slave.So my point is you can probably get any drive to work that will plug into this it just has to be set right on the jumper.Note: that you will only encounter these problems if you are trying to access old drives.First try it fresh out of the computer then if it doesn't work unplug and try a different jumper setting on the drive.
By: sjprg on 2020-08-13
connector very easily falls out of drive
By: Amazon Customer on 2020-07-05
Great product, exactly what is advertised: just plug in your old hardrives! If they are in work condition, you can get your data off no problem.I do recommend getting a PATA/IDE male/female cable (as pictured) as the molex power port is blocked by this adapter on some older HDs
By: michael on 2020-05-01
Simply AWESOME!!
By: djibouti on 2020-01-24
Update: I found the support phone number online and the lady who helped me was actually knowledgable about the device. The instructions aren't 100% accurate--it told me not to plug in my SATA power for example, which it turned out was necessary. Of course the SATA drive itself warns not to do this... *shrug*I was ultimately able to get my data off the drives except for one which I suspect is damaged since it's not spinning up at all.
By: Robert Verrico on 2019-11-05
very easy to use basically just plug and play
By: East Texas Cooter on 2019-10-15
Needed a device to capture data on some ancient IDE HDDs removed from defunct PCs. This was just the ticket to solve that dilemma. Worked great. Easy to use -- everything you need to power up HDDs and link to an operating PC or laptop is included. Ad photo showed multiple HDDs attached at the same time, but instructions say to connect only one at a time.
By: Chuck C. on 2019-10-11
Quick & simple to use. No fancy enclosures to fiddle with. Have multiple hard drives and can easily disconnect/connect them to my PC.
By: Josh Yates on 2019-08-21
Of all purchases I have made over the past decade on Amazon, this little bitty adapter made a huge impact by rescuing possibly lost pictures within my life. This purchase is now in my top 3 purchases!I researched power cables, power adapters, and other methods on how I could regain access to my old external hard drives that were probably 15 years old. My old external hard drives were so old that they were not for sale anymore. Finally, I came across this gem by coolgear on Amazon. Although I was worried my hard drives would probably fail because of the careless physical nature the devices endured such as thrown into boxes and thrown into other boxes, smashed, etc., I was not completely hopeless and I purchased the adapter. The price and shipping was excellent! After I disassembled my external hard drive cases, I plugged in the coolgear adapter and all of my hard drives booted up successfully. The file transfer was also a success. Now, thanks to this gadget, I have pictures and videos that are no longer lost and saved on my local computer and cloud storage.
By: Steve on 2019-06-07
Plug it in and it works can’t get any easier
By: Carolyn Woisard on 2019-05-13
Does what it's supposed to
By: Tony Kelsey on 2019-02-09
It works but slow
By: BBG on 2019-01-01
The oem cable the powered my old external hard drive did not allow my computer to recognize the drive. My uncle who works in IT suggested this. I tried it and now I can access all my old files
By: Mike J. on 2018-12-16
Works well on every drive I had.
By: Amazon Customer on 2018-12-13
I bought one years ago and ended up leaving it at a TV transmitter site for their video server as a get-by setup (they're still using it after 3 years). I bought a 2nd one as it is a must-have item for us. It really helps to connect drives from old computers temporarily to the new computer to retrieve the data when a customer replaces their computer. I also use it to connect a Blu-Ray burner to my laptop to burn DVDs and Blu-Ray discs.
By: Amazon Customer on 2018-10-18
I have an old PATA drive and it was the only device I saw that said it would support it - worked great.
By: Aceman on 2018-08-03
Works just fine and all my hard drives fit on the adapter perfectly. It does what is says it does.
By: Amazon Customer on 2018-08-03
Moved data from older small capacity hard disks to a larger capacity SSD drive
By: Dennis Hunter on 2018-08-03
Moved data from older small capacity hard disks to a larger capacity SSD drive
By: EBC on 2018-05-28
Absolutely awesome device! Was able to recover irreplaceable baby pics and other data from a 10 year old IDE drive. Fortunately my molex power port was at the opposite end of the drive interface from the data leads so this device fit perfectly. I can see per a previous review where the device wouldn't work if your molex power was in the middle of the interface end. The device is powered by an AC adapter which is much more reliable than a USB powered device. This device is great and I'm so grateful I was able to recover my data!
By: Amazon Customer on 2018-05-02
Should come with cloning software
By: Kevin Mckay on 2018-04-23
Works well. I had all sorts of old drives--and was able to pull the data off all of them with this.
By: Mof5 on 2018-03-29
Worked as expected
By: Eric cohen on 2018-03-10
I'm a first time user of this product, and I'm gonna have to say even though m not the most computer savvy person the instructions it came with made it very easy to use and understand. Great prosuct!
By: Acy Jones on 2018-02-23
I have an old PATA drive, just plugged in the USB, turned it on and wammo, hard drive accessed.
By: lawman on 2018-01-03
Works great
By: VJB on 2017-12-17
Versatile
By: Robert Nilsen on 2017-10-10
Unit works very well. I had and still use the USB-2 version, now I have a USB-3 version.
By: Thomas E. Smith on 2017-09-05
IT WORKS FOR ME.
By: BETSY SAWYERS on 2017-08-22
This was a great purchase and saved me at least $100 because it enabled me to do some diagnostic work on my computer's hard drive myself and get data off of some older drives I thought I'd lost forever. It is very easy to use and I wish I had bought it sooner.
By: A. on 2017-04-18
works great.one time i had a problem with the drivers automatically installing on my laptop, but that may have been the laptops fault.Great product that I haven't had any other problems with.
By: Mel B on 2017-04-08
This interface worked great for me. I was able to access 3 of my old tower drives and retrieved all of the data. The only thing it didn't have a connector for was an old technology laptop drive.
By: Darryl Lee on 2017-03-18
Life saver. Cleaning off old (various) hard drives. Highly recommend
By: Kevin V. on 2017-03-15
One of the best devices for PC to hard drive interfaces i ever bought. A few years ago my computer broke and i had no means of reading my hard drives at the time so i found this. I have used it for my hard drives ever since. Runs on household current it could read and process your hard drives directly into the PC using the USB cables provided. For those with 3.5 hard drives it comes with a 8 pin power adapter for you downloading needs. The price? Affordable to everyone who has too many hard drives but not know whats on them. In this, you can find what you lost, gain what you have, or start over again with the Cool Gear USB hard drive reading system.
By: Fred Thornburg on 2017-03-03
Did the job with no problems.
By: Some Hick on 2017-01-31
Works beautifully. It's great to be able to work with loose hard drives, check drive contents before sending devices out to be repaired, clone drive content to a different style of drive, etc. A very handy adaptor for anyone with several devices kicking around. Also a good way to get some use out of old or obsolete machines by using their hard drives for backup, portability, and such.
By: Technut on 2017-01-12
CoolGear® USB 3.0 to IDE and SATA Hard Drive Adapter Universal 2.5/3.5/5.25 DrivesThe drives I used it on did not require an additional cable as the unit was small enough to attach right to the drives without blocking the power port as described in other posts. The power supply was 12v DC @ 3Amps strong enough to power any harddrive made without over heating the drive. Works on all harddrives made as far as I can see.
By: Technut on 2017-01-12
CoolGear
By: Erik Diaz Pagan on 2016-12-05
Was extremely handy one day and glad I have it!
By: Erik Diaz Pagan on 2016-12-05
Was extremely handy one day and glad I have it!
By: SM on 2016-09-19
It easy to operate, but it could not salvage my HD when disc failed to spin at all. Thanks.
By: SM on 2016-09-19
It easy to operate, but it could not salvage my HD when disc failed to spin at all. Thanks.
By: Patrick on 2016-08-24
Works great. Helped me with a 4TB external drive that couldn't be read by my older adapter.
By: Patrick on 2016-08-24
Works great. Helped me with a 4TB external drive that couldn't be read by my older adapter.
By: Amazon Customer on 2016-08-19
Worked amazing getting old information out of my old computer hard drive.
By: Amazon Customer on 2016-08-19
Worked amazing getting old information out of my old computer hard drive.
By: Levon on 2016-08-17
This is amazing, if another reader won't read some drive, I use this and it works!
Mounting the 3" drives are fun too, using the power and its extra wire makes it look cool while recovering data.
By: Levon on 2016-08-17
This is amazing, if another reader won't read some drive, I use this and it works!Mounting the 3" drives are fun too, using the power and its extra wire makes it look cool while recovering data.
By: Fernando A Fernandez on 2016-08-16
Great product
By: Fernando A Fernandez on 2016-08-16
Great product
By: Glenn J Mentel on 2016-07-28
I've successfully tested every port except the 2.5" IDE. These were light tests, no major load, but it seems to work just fine.
By: Dennis L Elrod Jr on 2016-07-19
It works well for me.
By: Dennis L Elrod Jr on 2016-07-19
It works well for me.
By: PCERC on 2016-06-23
Way better than the old 2.0 version. The Power supply is designed much better as well.
By: DWM26 on 2016-06-23
A little slow connecting but when it did it read the drives properly and help save some data for customer. Like the compact size as compared to the old case styles. Used on IDE and SATA drives without an issue.
By: DWM26 on 2016-06-23
A little slow connecting but when it did it read the drives properly and help save some data for customer. Like the compact size as compared to the old case styles. Used on IDE and SATA drives without an issue.
By: Bob Zag on 2016-06-14
I used this device to retrieve hundreds of jpegs from two old hard drives. One hard drive was from 2002, the other from 2005. The product worked flawlessly and I was very pleased with the results. Both hard drives were Maxtor ATA's, one 60GB and the other 80GB. The whole process was easy. I am no computer expert.... I would describe my level of computer experience as beginner/intermediate.
By: Bob Zag on 2016-06-14
I used this device to retrieve hundreds of jpegs from two old hard drives. One hard drive was from 2002, the other from 2005. The product worked flawlessly and I was very pleased with the results. Both hard drives were Maxtor ATA's, one 60GB and the other 80GB. The whole process was easy. I am no computer expert.... I would describe my level of computer experience as beginner/intermediate.
By: Amazon User on 2016-06-04
Saved my data from my external terabyte. Excellent!!!
By: Amazon User on 2016-06-04
Saved my data from my external terabyte. Excellent!!!
By: ladanya on 2016-06-01
okay product.
By: tizpar on 2016-06-01
okay product.
By: Ed Hawley on 2016-05-16
We were trying to resurrect an old PC and this device was a life saver. We were able to clone the old 18GB HDD and move the it to a newer SSD. It was easy to use and worked as designed with no issues. Great product.
By: Ed Hawley on 2016-05-16
We were trying to resurrect an old PC and this device was a life saver. We were able to clone the old 18GB HDD and move the it to a newer SSD. It was easy to use and worked as designed with no issues. Great product.
By: wmello on 2016-05-03
Works great, fast and portable.
By: wmello on 2016-05-03
Works great, fast and portable.
By: MICHAEL GROGAN on 2016-05-02
does what I need. load old and new drives to PC for clean up or trash !
By: MICHAEL GROGAN on 2016-05-02
does what I need. load old and new drives to PC for clean up or trash !
By: John T on 2016-03-27
Great product
By: John T on 2016-03-27
Great product
By: V. SImmons on 2016-02-21
Gift
By: V Simmons on 2016-02-21
Gift
By: V Simmons on 2016-02-21
Gift
By: Amazon Customer on 2016-01-05
I was able to use this on my old hard drive rescued many memories.
By: Amazon Customer on 2016-01-05
I was able to use this on my old hard drive rescued many memories.
By: hvac38 on 2016-01-01
This worked extremely well, and is easy to setup and use.
By: hvac38 on 2016-01-01
This worked extremely well, and is easy to setup and use.
By: Gomez on 2015-12-08
Awesome! It helped me to recover all my data from a dead hard drive!!!
By: Gomez on 2015-12-08
Awesome! It helped me to recover all my data from a dead hard drive!!!
By: Amazon Customer on 2015-11-25
Needed item at a good price delivered in a timely manner
By: Amazon devotee on 2015-11-25
Needed item at a good price delivered in a timely manner
By: Amazon devotee on 2015-11-25
Needed item at a good price delivered in a timely manner
By: robert on 2015-11-24
worked great no issue was delivered in a timely manner. I used it to test 20 hard drive at my mew job with out issue all but two worked thanks for a great product.
By: robert on 2015-11-24
worked great no issue was delivered in a timely manner. I used it to test 20 hard drive at my mew job with out issue all but two worked thanks for a great product.
By: Chris on 2015-11-03
Fantastic product. Well made, no strange instructions either.... acts exactly like an external drive as the manufacturer stated. I recently purchased a similar product that was $10 cheaper and was a total piece of garbage. Returned it, purchased this one and am very happy. Worked easily with both my 2/5 IDE and SATA drives. Ensure you set your jumpers (if applicable) to "master" and it'll work fine. Love it.
By: Chris on 2015-11-03
Fantastic product. Well made, no strange instructions either.... acts exactly like an external drive as the manufacturer stated. I recently purchased a similar product that was $10 cheaper and was a total piece of garbage. Returned it, purchased this one and am very happy. Worked easily with both my 2/5 IDE and SATA drives. Ensure you set your jumpers (if applicable) to "master" and it'll work fine. Love it.
By: JoeinWA on 2015-10-30
Works great, no problems at all, and worked on all my old drives, even the Western Digital ones that many of these devices won't recognize.
By: JoeinWA on 2015-10-30
Works great, no problems at all, and worked on all my old drives, even the Western Digital ones that many of these devices won't recognize.
By: Kent Shaffer on 2015-10-24
Works as advertised
By: Kent Shaffer on 2015-10-24
Works as advertised
By: Electron on 2015-10-21
It works exactly as described.
By: Active Shooter on 2015-10-12
This is so easy to use. I used to keep a tower PC handy so that I could swap drives in and out of it. Now I can recover and backup data from various hard drives on my laptop.
If people come to you to fix their computer problems, you need one of these adapters.
If you have a stack of old hard drives that you'd like to "go through" one day, you need one of these adapters.
By: Amazon Customer on 2015-10-12
Worked beautifully!
By: Active Shooter on 2015-10-12
This is so easy to use. I used to keep a tower PC handy so that I could swap drives in and out of it. Now I can recover and backup data from various hard drives on my laptop.If people come to you to fix their computer problems, you need one of these adapters.If you have a stack of old hard drives that you'd like to "go through" one day, you need one of these adapters.
By: Amazon Customer on 2015-10-12
Worked beautifully!
By: df1898 on 2015-10-08
Until I did a little research, I was unaware such a product existed. I was able to access and transfer files from the hard drive in my dead laptop to my new laptop with little problem. I was prepared to take the old hard drive to a computer expert, who probably would have charged me an arm and a leg. This is a great product.
By: df1898 on 2015-10-08
Until I did a little research, I was unaware such a product existed. I was able to access and transfer files from the hard drive in my dead laptop to my new laptop with little problem. I was prepared to take the old hard drive to a computer expert, who probably would have charged me an arm and a leg. This is a great product.
By: Keenen on 2015-10-03
Item came exactly as described. I would have given it 5 stars if it included a bag/case to hold all the parts in. The device itself works great.
By: KM on 2015-10-03
Item came exactly as described. I would have given it 5 stars if it included a bag/case to hold all the parts in. The device itself works great.
By: Mark Evans on 2015-09-29
Works fine. Only issue is the switch slider fell off right away. Easily placed back on, but it's small and if you don't notice it falling off you will have fun searching for it. Probably can be glued on easily enough. Otherwise seems well made and is recognized by the system immediately with any drive I attach. Good unit.
By: Mark Evans on 2015-09-29
Works fine. Only issue is the switch slider fell off right away. Easily placed back on, but it's small and if you don't notice it falling off you will have fun searching for it. Probably can be glued on easily enough. Otherwise seems well made and is recognized by the system immediately with any drive I attach. Good unit.
By: Ted M on 2015-09-28
Very, very handy little tool for getting data to or from most sizes of drive. Works as avertised
By: Ted M on 2015-09-28
Very, very handy little tool for getting data to or from most sizes of drive. Works as avertised
By: Caitlin on 2015-08-25
Love it!
By: Caitlin on 2015-08-25
Love it!
By: Nina on 2015-08-17
Works great!
By: JG on 2015-06-22
Works just fine. I was able to hook up an old 2.5" PATA drive without any problems.
By: David Francisco on 2015-06-21
I've only tried the adapter on 2 old 3.5" IDE drives. It worked, but by trial and error I discovered that my computer (an ASUS Laptop running Windows 7 Pro) would only detect the external HD using this adapter if the computer was powered up AFTER connecting and powering up the adapter and external HD. Otherwise, everything has worked fine. I haven't tried formatting any drives yet.
By: Joe P. on 2015-06-19
All your filez is mine, lol.
By: manu on 2015-06-08
Works perfect
By: Pony on 2015-06-05
No complaints. Does what it needs to do. Just wish the power cords it came with were longer.
By: Isaiah Trotter-Brooks on 2015-06-03
Great product. Easy to assemble and great reliable back up to fix broken hard drives.
By: Kristin M. on 2015-03-19
Very kewel geer. Works well with no problems. Excellent transfer rate. Compact, well designed easy to use, and versatile.
By: Doug Potter on 2015-03-02
Exceptional product, great value
By: RTurbo1 on 2015-02-26
Instructions that came with unit leave a lot to be desired. After about an hour, I got it to read an IDE and SATA drive. Worked like a champ. Tried three more IDE drives and could not get desktop to recognize them. Directions no help. Could be bad drives? Or is it Windows 8? Will never know I guess......
Also had problem hooking up SATA drive. Came in conflict with power cable hookup. Looking on CoolGear website there appears to be a newer version tat eliminates this design flaw. I would recommend that unit even if it costs more.......
By: R. Patel on 2015-02-25
Total life saver. Great way to take drives out of old machines and erasing them before putting them back and donating the machine. Works perfectly even with OLD drives although on some old drives you may need to restart the drive a few times to get it to show up on your desktop.
By: Zed on 2015-02-21
Works great, super handy
By: John P. White on 2015-01-18
have not used it yet. Also did not realize it does not have a cooling cover for the drive.
By: John on 2015-01-18
have not used it yet. Also did not realize it does not have a cooling cover for the drive.
By: Quay G. Finefrock on 2015-01-15
Wouldn't be without it. Perfect for working with failed computers.
By: Quay on 2015-01-15
Wouldn't be without it. Perfect for working with failed computers.
By: rachel on 2015-01-09
It worked!
By: Manuel on 2015-01-07
This is a must have item, it came in a nicely packaged box and easy to install and works great.
By: N Masters on 2014-12-30
Love this thing. I found all my old laptops and netbooks and used this to recover all of the photographs and documents we thought were gone forever without paying someone way too much money to restore for us. If you have old laptops that died before you were able to backup your pictures and documents, this is a must have item.
By: D. Ringer on 2014-12-05
Everyone should have one! It's well made, and handles IDE drives of ALL types and sizes. I use old drives as dedicated storage for large projects and backups. Yes, you can use flash drives for those purposes, but if you have a box full of old drives . . ..
Also, everything runs cool if you elevate the drive a little bit to let air flow under it.
By: Jharris on 2014-11-28
Works as advertised does a good job of allowing you to get data off of older drives as well as drives you have removed from machines to work with the drive. I only wish it had a switch to turn off writing to drives it is connected to. Then it would be perfect for forensic analysis of drive data.
By: M. Thompson on 2014-11-17
Works well.
By: Mr. Chuck on 2014-11-10
Works as advertised, all drives I have connected to this adapter has worked flawlessly so far.
By: adeoluresearch on 2014-11-09
V good
By: Carl E. Meece III on 2014-11-04
An excellent USB 3 to SATA/IDE adapter. I tested this with an SSD and a 2.5 inch laptop hard drive and both worked perfectly. The power switch on top of the adapter is a nice touch, as you can get all the cables attached before powering up the drive.
You'll need an IDE cable if you want to use this adapter with IDE drives. Attaching an IDE drive directly to this adapter will not leave any room for attaching the power cable to the back of the drive.
By: Holly Woodward on 2014-11-02
I do love it , it fixed my external drive
By: sam carter on 2014-10-21
it did everything I wanted it to do.
By: T. Frank on 2014-09-29
I bought this to try to recover documents and photos from old PATA IDE 3.5" hard drives. The drives were old (Two computer generations) and I tried to recover them by hooking the up to my last computer via ribbon cable. The results were not good. I was talking to a friend who reccommended a Pata to USB hookup. I found this one on Amazon. I thought the main HD on my old computer had crashed, but apparently, it was the motherboard. After connecting the CoolGear, I found both hard drives from my old, old computer were alive and well. This Coolgear product worked perfectly and I was able to recover all that I needed from both HDD's. It saved me tons of money as Hard Drive recovery people wanted a minimum of $700.00 to pull anything off the disk. THANKS Coolgear!!!
By: George H. on 2014-09-18
Had no problem in transferring date from one disk to the other. Worked as advertised
By: Keith on 2014-09-18
Exactly as described, came in a timely fashion, and competively priced.
By: Thomas H. Fields on 2014-09-16
This product may work on some hard drives, but not all. It's a crap shoot.
By: Michael Alberts on 2014-09-08
Worked
By: Mark Manring on 2014-08-28
Behaves exactly like a hard drive mounted in your computer; formatting, data transfer, exactly the same. The USB 3.0 is really fast as well. I highly recommend it.
By: Jeff on 2014-08-26
Seems to work. The problem lies in if you have questions or issues. There is nowhere to go to ask. There is no clue in the user manual as to who you can contact, nor is Google of any help. So basically this thing either works, or it doesn't work, but you have no recourse for assistance if it doesn't. For the record, it worked for me, but I have a couple of HDDs that cause the device to summarily disappear from the device manager if they are hooked up. I have nowhere to turn to for help with that issue.
By: J.W. Green on 2014-08-23
Works as described. (Win 8.1, 64-bit, retrieved data from some laptop drives and a SATA desktop drive)
By: Jane E. on 2014-08-07
As a previous reviewer mentioned, this adapter will not plug into 3.5" IDE drives with the power and IDE ports situated next to each other. This affects 5% of hard drives and 100% of CD (IDE) drives that I've seen. If you're looking to transfer data from/to an IDE hard drive, you probably won't run into this problem. However, if you're looking to use this adapter with a CD drive, definitely check for the positioning of the power and IDE ports before purchasing.
To me this is a design problem that should never have passed QC--hence the low rating.
By: Brian on 2014-08-05
It works!
By: R. A. Schultz on 2014-06-18
Pros: (Easily stated...)
1. Well built (for a plastic unit). Not fragile; actually pretty solid.
2. The in-cable on/off switch previously criticized is now on the disk interface. Again solid.
3. IDE disks previously formatted for the Mac OS appeared seemlessly on the Mac Desktop. (10.9.3)
4. IDE disks previously formatted for NTFS appear seamlessly on the Mac or Win7 Desktop/Computer window.
5. The on/off switch on the disk interface allows "Quasi" hot-swapping of drives.
(Drag the disk to the trash though before you turn the switch to off.)
Cons: (Searched for these...)
1. IDE disks previously formatted for the Mac OS are not readable in Win7.
(The disk is present in Computer Management but requires an NTFS/FAT format before useable.)
2. The disks - outside of an enclosure that usually have fans blowing on the disks - get quite warm.
(I wouldn't use the 'CoolGear' adapter as a full-time replacement for an external drive.)
3. No storage or carry case is included/offered.
It's worth the extra $$$
By: Thomas on 2014-05-18
This is definitely a 5 star item. It's a must have for anyone that owns a computer. This device allows you transfers files from a SATA or IDE hard drive that is about to or have crashed. This device allows you to get access to those files that you once thought were lost for good.
By: R. Musgrove on 2014-05-18
I was hoping it would help me retrieve data on a crashed external drive, but that didn't happen. I guess the problem is too severe to be fixed with this adapter.
By: R. James Higman on 2014-05-14
I came home to find my fire alarm blaring and an electrical smell in my computer room; something had burnt out in my computer. This little device saved the day. My hard drive was ok and I installed this device in minutes and was able to retrieve my all my data. I'm using the old drive as a back up drive. I highly recommend this product.
By: Omar Molina on 2014-05-12
Everyone should have this in their home or office! Try this device FIRST before you send your hard drive to a store or your manufacturer! It saves you money and time. It's very easy to use.
By: J.W.A. on 2014-04-23
Had a bunch of photo files on an old Dell computer with a IDE hard drive that wouldn't boot anymore (bad video card or who knows) Took the hard drive out plugged it into this baby, and in to my Mac pro through the USB connector, and it worked like a charm, had access to all the photo files and folders. For 35 bucks small price to pay.
By: Fred D'Angelo on 2014-04-19
It's easy to use, and it works well. I plugged my hard drive into the adapter, connected the adapter to its power supply, connected the adapter to a USB port on my PC then turned on the adapter's power. The hard drive began spinning, the computer recognized it, and windows loaded its directory data into the file system.
By: Fred D'Angelo on 2014-04-19
It's easy to use, and it works well. I plugged my hard drive into the adapter, connected the adapter to its power supply, connected the adapter to a USB port on my PC then turned on the adapter's power. The hard drive began spinning, the computer recognized it, and windows loaded its directory data into the file system.
By: Fred D'Angelo on 2014-04-19
It's easy to use, and it works well. I plugged my hard drive into the adapter, connected the adapter to its power supply, connected the adapter to a USB port on my PC then turned on the adapter's power. The hard drive began spinning, the computer recognized it, and windows loaded its directory data into the file system.
By: J. Kelly on 2014-04-09
I got this to use for testing older drives with new hardware to see if they are still good drives. Works great if you don't want to own several different drive type adapters.
By: Randall Petrik on 2014-04-04
Use old hard drives for off site storage or back-up or get at the files on that old computer you thought were lost forever.
By: Jose Concepcion on 2014-03-05
I was able to access my IDE hard drive with this thing. The only part I had a tough time with was accessing my files. I had to make the IDE Hard Drive recognize my new computer as the owner via the security section when you click on properties. I also had to make all the files share-able.
My gripes with this thing is that it will not recognize or read a Standard SATA Hard Drive nor a 2.5 IDE Hard Drive. The switch button easily slips off. I say buys something better and more reliable.
By: Salt Creek Jim on 2014-02-08
I needed to transfer files from old hard drives to a new computer with installing the old drives into the actual computer.
The CoolGear adapter worked perfectly for this task.
By: anthonyg on 2014-02-06
It's unobtrusive and easy to setup, even thought you have a couple cables hanging out.
But it's easy to get a HD quickly connected so you can check it/ recover/ delete it. Whatever you need.
Sturdy construction. Recommended.
By: FredZarguna on 2014-01-25
So far I've had no issues with this from a data transfer or reliability perspective.
I will note two mechanical problems that keep me from giving it all five stars. If you can live with them in your physical configuration, it's a five star item.
1) The SATA connection is built a bit too close to the thinner side of the plastic shell. This tends to make larger drives lift the shell off the table top [or whatever] surface, which can potentially interrupt the connection. I would recommend sitting the drive on edge [front edge/right/or left edge down on the surface instead of the flat top or bottom of the drive] to avoid this issue.
2) The supplied cable works well for me, however, I can see situations where the cable would be too short if your only access is to the back of the PC. A six foot cable would be a huge improvement, and since it's a proprietary USB 3.0 connection to PC, good luck finding a longer cable on your own.
By: Kristi Scherer on 2013-12-21
This is a great product. A must for all computer users. I have used other products, but this one is the best.
By: Rocky on 2013-12-13
It does not consistently read the hard drives and their has
already been a piece break / fall off device.
By: Cameron on 2013-12-04
I'm furious at the fact that this device only came with a 2 foot USB 3.0 cable and that now I have to purchase an extension or a longer cable in general. Who the heck came up with the brilliant idea that it would be ok to only put a tiny USB 3.0 cable in the box? As for the device itself yes it works great but I may never order a CoolGear device again because of the length of cable they saw fit to include. If you decide to buy this make sure you purchase an extension for USB 3.0 if you need something longer than a couple feet. As stated though the device itself works just fine I'm just on here to vent because it's late and I just unboxed it and wanting to put it on top of my desk but it won't reach and lay flat as it needs to so I had to put it just on top of my tower for now which isn't where I'd like it to be.
By: Matthew Holmes on 2013-11-30
WARNING: Older IDE drives that have the IDE port and Power port flush next to each other - you can see from the product image that the CoolGear IDE plug will block where the power plug should go, so you will not be able to use this for IDE drives that have the power port directly next to the IDE port.
Aside from that, works great like all CoolGear products - highly recommended with that one caveat!
By: William on 2013-11-30
This product was exactly as described and worked perfectly. I ordered another brand before this one an ended up returning it. DO yourself a favor and save yourself some time by buying this one first!
By: Pilgrim on 2013-11-24
Item worked just great. Would recommend to my friends or if needed I would buy again. I was not able to get it to work with an XP computer.
By: Sonny on 2013-11-24
Great adapter which gives you the ability to connect to many different drives and includes power for 3.5 inch drives.
By: Amazon Customer on 2013-11-14
Plug it in and it works, just how I like it. It doesn't need any more to be a review.
By: Karma Monkey on 2013-10-26
This thing is great! I had a Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive (STBX1000101) that stopped working. (It was less than a year old, BTW.) I consulted with a few different data recovery companies online and they all wanted several hundred dollars. I knew the problem was not with the hard drive but with the power or USB connection, so I didn't want to pay that kind of money for what I knew would be a quick fix, if only I knew how. I hate businesses that prey on people's technical ignorance. Anyway, I kept researching the issue and found a video on YouTube of a guy who had a similar problem and used this adapter kit to get his data back.
I ordered it, followed the hook-up instructions (I didn't need to install any of the drivers included in the kit.) and - presto! - I had access to my data. I've ordered a replacement HD enclosure and will continue to use the drive.
This adapter won't work in every HD failure situation, but it's well worth the money to give it a try and see if you can do it yourself before getting ripped off by greedy, dishonest jerks.
By: John on 2013-10-25
Had to jumper some stuff on the hard drive itself but other than that it worked great for a laptop hard drive.
By: Kris M. on 2013-10-05
This adapter allowed me to recover documents and pictures from my sister's hard drive after it crashed/would not start in her computer.
By: Adam Wiethoff on 2013-10-04
Very cool! Works smooth and easy. Great connections and simple. USB 3.0 is a much needed feature for working with drives
By: Sherri M. Kinsella on 2013-10-02
Fast service and great product. I've never used this brand, but it has performed well and I am glad for the purchase.
By: Wooly Bull on 2013-10-02
Having this device makes it convenient to connect any HDD to my testbed for diagnostics/data recovery/backup. Should have done this years ago.
By: Vincent Tracey on 2013-09-24
The device is super easy to connect and with the on/off switch is a breeze to disconnect the HDD's to my computer.
I recommend this for anyone who needs to transfer data when the computer system has failed and you have no other way to save the data on the drive.
By: John Mayfield on 2013-09-22
Product is well built and expect will outlast me. It is of a more "finished" appearance than many alternatives. There are competitors that offer a product that looks more make-shift, home made, barebones than the CoolGear® Adapter.
I had multiple old laptops and PC of the family, which for varuous reasons were no longer functioning well enough to access data on their drives. Due to potential identity theft and other privacy concerns, I couldn't trust selling, giving away or even recycling these old systems until I was sure I had all data I needed from them and had wiped beyond recovery all data on them. I have been "planning" to pull the drives for some time. I had one of the more course style hard drive adapter which I had used many years ago. But I found it was limited to IDE drives and some of the drives I needed to purge were ATA. The CoolGear® Adapter handled every different drive I had from my oldest defunct desktop to my most recent but unreliable laptop.
The only issue I can raise as a caution (and it really isn't a serious problem) is how some drives are housed within supporting structures which can block connection with the CoolGear® Adapter, because of it's more refined form. The more rough and unrefined designs might fit with less trouble. However, in my case, I found that each such complication was easily addressed by either removing the housing with screwdriver and/or spanner or by just bending the light metal used on such structures to get easy access to connectors and then just re-straighten the mounting when finished.
I now have 2 old desktops still usable as servers for a home or small business network and 2 laptops that only need power plug connectors replaced and new batteries, which I can sell at a garage sale. I have already given the 3rd laptop to a relative to salvage parts (including the hard drive) for his identical model so that his old system now works perfectly again.
I have no regrets with this purchase of the The CoolGear® Hard Drive Adapter from Amazon. In fact it has become a budding new hobby or perhaps even a business as I am now looking for opportunities to use it again.
By: Jane E. on 2013-09-07
Works great for hard drives. The connections don't work for CD or DVD drive (at least mine) without using a cable extender due to obstruction of the power plug, the connections are too close to use the coolgear by itself. Worked great on a hard drive. Noticeable difference in speed between CoolGear® USB 3.0 to SATA and IDE Hard Drive Adapter Universal 2.5/3.5/5.25 Drives the 3.0 and 2.0 connection, both worked. Using on a linux box so don't know how the windows drivers or the backup software works.
By: Sweet_Guy on 2013-09-07
i used it to clone my windows 8 machine from a normal hard drive to a samsung SSD. worked a charm had no problems with it at all.
im not a tech guy but this thing feels quality and is good value for money
By: Kjartan Valdimarsson on 2013-08-30
Using Windows 7, I used the CoolGear USB 3.0 adapter for retrieving files from broken down old computers 2.5" SATA and 3.5" IDE hard drives. The adapter worked exactly as expected.
By: Bradley A. Woodruff on 2013-08-30
My ThinkPad laptop promptly recognized a 3.5 inch 1 TB SATA harddrive from my old NAS box. I wiped it clean and reformatted it, and it's ready to sell. This adapter costs a bit more than some of the other products listed on Amazon which are meant to do the same thing, but it's definitely worth it. No fires, no sparks, no malfunctions. If you ever have occasion to connect any internal harddrive to another computer (without actually installing it), this is the tool to use.
By: XiMiX on 2013-07-12
There are a lot of USB 2.0 adapters, but they are too slow to be practical for today's larger drives. USB 3.0 is a much quicker way for backup purpose and this adapter is one of the few that are easy to use and works with both SATA and IDE.
By: AJ/X0 on 2013-07-12
There are a lot of USB 2.0 adapters, but they are too slow to be practical for today's larger drives. USB 3.0 is a much quicker way for backup purpose and this adapter is one of the few that are easy to use and works with both SATA and IDE.
By: Scott on 2013-07-08
I looked at many of these on Amazon and was a little worried by the reviews, but it did the job just fine. Its a fragile little device, I can think of many ways to break it. I wouldnt leave it laying around, but for supervised usage its ok. The connectors aren't exactly a tight fit and it really doesn't work that great on a flat surface unless you match the drive height with the device using some foam or whatever under the drive you are working with. Not to be moved when transferring data!
It didn't use drivers on win8, just plugged it in. There was a mini-disk in the box but I didn't look at it. My first test was a Velociraptor SATA drive through to the USB3 on my laptop (fast). Worked great! I have done a laptop drive and a few other SATA's since.
Now I will use it to make money by retrieving data of broken computers from all the people who know I work in IT and bug me all the time for data retrieval off a healthy drive.
I give it four stars because it works, but only four because I can see where it could be made better and stronger.
By: hershel on 2013-06-25
worked like a charm
saved data
transferred from an old crashed windows computer to a macbook pro
save hundreds of $ compared to a data recovery service
By: RET-USMC on 2013-06-23
Liked The Product & Reviews To Date, Will Edit This Review Upon Arrival and
Usage On IDE & SATA, Purchased To Connect SATA To My IDE PC w/NAV360, Friends
SATA HD, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, Dell Optiplex 760 Intel Dual Core Desktop.
The Dell Will Not Boot To Desktop, Shows Windows Logo w/Loading Bar Always
Moving, He Is Using AVG For Antivirus, This Should Be a Good Troubleshooting Tool.
Have Alot Of Older Win-98/SE IDE HDs, My PC Is Win-XP Pro Media SP3, Laptop Win-7,
Have No Win-8 OS Yet, Like The 3.0 USB & Backwards To 2.0 & 1.1
Update: 29Jun13, Received Yesterday, Did Not Install CD Yet(Cloning), Installed
The SATA Drive, Perfect Snug Fit, Ran It For Aprox 20Hrs Straight, Had Muffin Fan
Cooling HDD & This Unit, My PC USB is 2.0, Scanned Using CCleaner, NAV360+TuneUp,
Windows Defender (+1Millon Files), SpyBot & SpyBot Deep Root Scan.
Liked The Activity LED. Will Try On Wifes Laptop Win-7 64 USB 3.0 Next Time.
ONLY Thing I Did Not Like, The ON/Off Button Finger Slide, Slips Over The
Internal Switch Itself, Since The Switch Is Recessed Into The Case, You
Cannot Finger It On or Off, The Button Finger Slide Keeps Comming Off,
Corrective Action: Alittle Dap Of Caulk, Press Finger Slide Back Onto Switch
Stub, Which Is Pretty Durable, Should Never Loose The Button Finger Slide.
Using This On 1 Of My IDE HDD Will Have To Use a IDE Ribbon Cable To Extend
The Universal Adapter Away From IDE HDD To Allow Room For HDD Power Adapter Provided.
Will Try a Desktop Ribbon That Supports Master/Slave, Maybe I Will
Not Have To Mess w/HDD Jumpers, Just Plug Into Other IDE Ribon Connector. So Far I'am Very Pleased w/Construction & All Cable/Plug In Firm/Snug Connections, I Used It On a Flat Surface (Glass), Making Sure This Universal Adapter Is Level w/HDD Evenly When All Connected Together, All My Repairs Are Bench Repairs.
Will Update This Review After More Hands On Experience Is Gained.
By: C. Ware on 2013-06-23
The unit worked great and let me clone a failing hard drive to a new replacement drive. I have had no problems with it.
By: diyguy on 2013-04-19
Only used it for some old laptop SATA drives. It has worked like a charm on these. I have another adapter that I have been using on IDE drives. I'll give this one a try and update if I have any issues. Only negative comment would be that the connection seems a little fragile. I think this is a lot about the connection type. I don't think any other device would be much different. If I want something robust to move around I'll buy an external HD. This is just to access HD's pulled from old machines, I only use these drive to archive at this point. Adapter works great for this function.
By: Mom on 2013-03-05
Product works as stated. This was very simple to use (I really know little about computers) and I had no problems using it.
By: Bill on 2013-02-20
The device arrived very fast and was well packaged - both shipping carton and the products box.
Easy setup. Easy to use. Follow the directions (minimal but enough to let you know what to do) and you will get done what is needed. Works as if you have inserted a "USB Thumb Drive". Data transfer is fast as it supports USB 3.0.
Power switch in this device is integral to body of device so there is no power switch added somewhere along the power cord. Several issues in other product reviews pointed to problems with inline power cord mounted on/off switches. Reading reviews of these cheaper products alerted me to electrical issues including melting, switch failure, etc. so I decided to spend more money feeling you get what you pay for - and so far I am not disappointed. Both device and power transformer run cool, even after extended use (over four hours continuous duty).
If I needed a second one, I would buy this again.
By: RAUL CASTRO CONDE A. on 2012-12-06
Too bad it requires the adaptor for 3.5 SATA drive. No other accesories or cables are needed, execept for the ATA drive.