Summary: Newer Tech's USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter is a true innovation in connectivity at a budget price. This adapter is, as it's name implies, universal, supporting SATA and older ATA hard drives in both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors.
Manufacturer: Newer Technology (http://www.newertech.com)
Platform: Mac OS X and Windows
Price: $24.95
Users: Notebook users and those who need quick and easy access to spare drives
Recommendation: Strong Buy

I'm up to my knees in internal hard drives that no longer have a home--some 2.5-inch, some 3.5-inch, some SATA, some PATA. Some are old, some new. And in all cases, I occasionally need to access these drives for the data stored on them. Problem: With all the mixed formats, there's really not a single drive enclosure system that will work for me. And with the ridiculous prices of even the most junky single-drive external enclosures, it's not practical to house them all individually. If only there were a better way....

Well, in case you hadn't already guessed it, there actually is a better way. It' the USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter from Newer Technology. And it's truly an innovation in low-cost data connectivity.

Features
The USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter is a device that lives up to it name. Offering support for four major hard drive interface types, it connects you to virtually any (except SCI) unenclosed hard drives you might have sitting around. The concept is a simple one. The Universal Drive Adapter consists of a USB cable the has a triple-purpose connector on the other end: one for ATA drives, one for 3.5-inch ATA drives and one for the smaller 2.5-inch ATA drives.

The USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter's base cable

It also includes an external power supply, an adapter for connecting power to the drives and a Serial ATA cable.

Components included with the USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter

To use it, you simply connect the power and data cables to the drive, then plug the USB connector into your USB 2.0 port. That's it. There is no enclosure. You just connect the drive, copy over whatever data you might need to access at any given time, and then disconnect it. It's that simple.

Now, I happen to be the ideal custom for this particular device in that have have one or more of each type of drive it supports, and each one of these drives is currently without a host computer or enclosure. So, as a reviewer, I had the advantage of being able to test out each one of them. How did the Universal Drive Adapter fare?

Perfectly.