Introduction:

Ever have one of those times where you needed to get data off a hard drive but didn’t feel like opening up your case to connect it? If so, then NewerTech has your solution! NewerTech’s USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter is USB device that allows the user to connect any ATA device without the need to open up a case. This means that you can easily connect any 2.5”, 3.5”, or 5.25” hard drive or a 5.25” optical drive (sorry, no means to connect a laptop optical drive) to your computer to transfer data, perform an install, or whatever your needs may be.

Whether you are full time tech support, or just the weekend repair guru, NewerTech's Universal Drive Adapter is an essential item to have in your toolbox when working on computers.

For those not familiar with NewerTech, here is a little information on the company.

Since 1984, Newer Technology, Inc (NewerTech) has been recognized as the leading developer of performance upgrade for PowerBooks®, desktop Macintosh computers, Intel Macs, iMacs®, iPods and Mac OS® compatibles. NewerTech is headquartered in Woodstock, Illinois.

Manufacturer's Features and Specifications:

Features:

* Universal to USB2 Adapter
* ATA/IDE/SATA/ATAPI
* Compatible with any 2.5”, 3.5”, 5.25” IDE or SATA device
* Supports IDE & enhanced IDE 3.5” internal IDE hard disk
* Supports ATA/ATAPI-6 specification 1.0
* Supports SATA I and SATA II
* USB 2.0 up to 480Mbps transfer speed
* Backwards compatible with USB 1.1
* Convenient LEDs inform of an accurate device connection
* Plug and Play
* Instruction Manual
* Clean, ample powered UL listed 2.0 amp external AC adapter provides drive power
* 1 year warranty

Compatible Drives:

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.

*Compatible with full height 5.25" optical drives only. Not compatible with slimline optical drives such as those used in a laptop.

Includes:

* USB UDA adapter
* Heavy Duty 2.0 Amp AC Power Adapter
* Power Cable
* ATA extension cable
* SATA 2.5" Power Adapter Cable
* USB 2.0 Connecting Cable
* SATA-SATA Connecting Cable

Packaging and Accessories:

The packaging is a standard flip-top cardboard box with a plastic insert to hard all the parts in their place during shipment. The box clearly labels what devices it supports and OS compatability.

A short IDE cable is provided, along with a short SATA cable. There’s a small SATA power adapter for use when connecting to SATA drives. The DC jack plugs into the main USB drive adapter.

The adapter itself is tiny, only about 2.5” x 1” x 0.5”. (HxWxD) A single AA battery is shown for size comparison only (it doesn't use batteries).

One unfortunate aspect of this adapter set is the sheer size of the power brick at 5” x 2” x 1”. The power brick is 8x the size of the drive adapter in terms of comparing their overall volume. Although it is large, there is one saving grace, it’s connector is a standard 4-pin Molex connecter which means this power brick can be used with any device that uses a Molex connecter for power.

Newertech USB 2.0 UDA Operation:

There are 3 different configurations that are used; the type of device being used determines which one is used.

3.5” IDE / 5.25” ATAPI Drive Use

1. Ensure the drive is in cable select, master, or single drive mode (this may require adjusting jumpers on the drive, check your hard drive documentation for instructions)
2. Plug the small IDE cable into the adapter and drive. You can also plug the drive directly into the adapter, but the cable makes it easier.
3. Plug the power connecter into the drive.
4. Last, plug the USB cable into the adapter.

2.5” IDE Drive Use

1. Plug the small power plug into the top of the adapter.
2. Plug the hard drive directly into the adapter.
3. Plug the power connector into the small power cable.
4. Last, plug the USB cable into the adapter.

3.5”/ 2.5” SATA Drive Use

1. Plug the small SATA cable into the drive and the adapter.
2. Plug the power connector into the SATA power adapter and then plug the SATA power connector into the drive.
3. Last, plug the USB cable into the adapter.

Once the drive is connected properly, the drive should appear in the operating system in less than 30 seconds. In the four different drives I tried, all appeared without issues, although the DVD drive took approximately 30 seconds to appear. NewerTech states that if the device doesn’t register, try rebooting the computer with the device attached and powered on.

Test Setup & Benchmarks:

Test System
Motherboard: ASUS P5W64 WS Pro
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (Conroe)
Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700 LED
Video Card: eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
Power Supply: Meridian XClio GreatPower 700W
Primary Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB
Operating System: Windows Vista Business 32-bit

Drives Tested:
3.5" SATA: Western Digital WD3200KS 320GB 7200rpm
3.5" IDE: Western Digital WD2000JB 200GB 7200rpm
2.5" IDE: IBM Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7200rpm
5.25" IDE: Toshiba SD-M1202 DVD Drive

Performance will vary based on the hard drive or optical drive being used, and the system it is connected. Our main goal in this review is to ensure that all interfaces work as advertised, and to give a rough comparison of the performance one can expect.

For our testing procedure, we used Sandra XII 2008 SP2 and averaged the results from three trial runs. The benchmark being used in this test is the Physical Disks benchmark. This is a synthetic test, but it gives a good indication of expected performance. Only the read performance will be measured as the hard drives being tested contained data and the write benchmark must be performed on an empty disk.

Sandra has the option to disable Windows’ write caching, and during the test, write caching was disabled.

Product Summary & Final Conclusions:

I was quite surprised by how small the adapter actually was, but as I said previously the power brick makes up for that in its size. The Newertech adapter is easy and intuitive to use. NewerTech states in their documentation and that I will reiterate here, this is to be used as a temporary solution as it does not provide any type of protection (or cooling) for the drive that an external enclosure would provide.

The speeds seem to be max out around 30MB/s, which is reasonable for a USB 2.0 interface.

Many of these types of devices are a one trick pony converting only one type of disk interface to USB, whereas the Newertech adapter is universal and works for all types of hard drives and even optical drives. There have been several times for me personally where this device would have come in very handy, but alas I did not have one back then. And for those of us who worry about cheap power bricks, you don’t have to worry about this one, both the 5V and 12V line voltages were within the expected 5% (5.20V and 12.26V).

My only real gripe was that the provided USB cable was only about 2.5 feet long, but that’s not a big deal as it’s a standard USB cable.

Overall, this product performed exactly as expected with no hiccups or troubles, it is a great little tool to have. For the price it is definitely something worth investing in, because you never know when you might need it.