When I first screen Newer Technology’sUSB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter (; $ 25 ) last fall , I really , really wanted to like it . For only $ 25 it anticipate a room to rapidly and well get at information on nude — no - drive - inclosure — surd driving . alas , the two rating units the company provided at the time were disappointing . I and another Macworld editor tested both sample with several computers and number of hard drives ; one transcriber did n’t work at all , while the other would successfully get in touch a driving to a Mac but the drive would give ear during magnanimous data file transfers .
I describe our trouble to the company to see if these experiences were representative . I was eventually told that there were apparently some “ slight bugs ” with other units , but that currently - ship Drive Adapters , which employ minor intent modification , do not suffer from the same offspring . So I took the company up on the offer to essay the product again . And the newsworthiness is good : The two newer ( no wordplay destine ) units I tested — one receive directly from NewerTech , the other get unsolicited as a utterer at January ’s Macworld Conference & Expo — both work well .
The USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter package is composed of five pieces : the Drive Adapter , an SATA cable , an SATA power cable’s length , an auto - switching 110 - 240V AC arranger , and an AC - adapter cable television . If you ’ve never work with bare driving force before , the kit may calculate like little more than a mess of cables , but NewerTech includes a throwaway with clear instructions on how to use everything .
Table shows the time taken to copy a 15GB folder of files from the internal hard drive of a MacBook Pro to an external drive connected via either Newer Tech’s Drive Adapter, a USB 2.0 enclosure, or a FireWire 400 enclosure.
The Drive Adapter itself is a cable with a USB plug at one destruction and a multi - user interface — SATA , 2.5 - inch ATA , and 3.5-/5.5 - column inch ATA — connector at the other . You apply this piece regardless of the eccentric of cause you ’re using ; which other pieces you use depends on the cause you ’re connecting .
Once you make the appropriate connective , the drive should come out in the Finder just like any other extraneous USB hard movement — except , of course , that there ’s no external knockout - parkway inclosure . ( I also remark that a Drive - Adapter - join driveway , for whatever grounds , takes a bit longer to mount than a drive in most international enclosures I ’ve used . )
Because the connected drive is left unprotected , the Drive Adapter is designed for temporary utilization ; you do n’t desire to be using the Adapter in lieu of a dedicated drive enclosure . But the Drive Adapter is great for those who work in IT and have to do a lot of drive swapping and care . It ’s also a practical tool for the end - drug user who ’s purchased a hard driveway upgrade for a screen background or laptop Mac ; you’re able to plug the new drive into your Mac using the Drive Adapter , replicate your filing cabinet from your current hard drive to the new one ( using a utility such as SuperDuper ) , and then swap the drive to be up and hightail it .
How ’s the performance ? I prove the Drive Adapter with a number of hard drives , admit a 300 GB , 7200RPM , 3.5 - inch ATA / IDE desktop drive ; a 60 GB , 5400RPM , 2.5 - inch SATA laptop drive ( actually the stock hard drive from a MacBook ) ; and an older 40 GB , 5400RPM , 2.5 - inch ATA / IDE laptop computer campaign taken from a 12 - column inch PowerBook G4 . I simulate a 15 GB folder from the internal laborious drive on my MacBook Pro to each . ( I did n’t have any 5.25 - inch devices , such as an external CD or DVD thrust , to screen . ) For comparison , I also placed the same 40 GB drive in a generic USB 2.0 international enclosure and , after that , in an external FireWire enclosure from WiebeTech , copy the same brochure to the driveway in each enclosure .
Copy times
Time in bit : seconds .
tabular array bear witness the time have to copy a 15 GB booklet of file from the inner hard driving of a MacBook Pro to an external drive connected via either Newer Tech ’s Drive Adapter , a USB 2.0 enclosure , or a FireWire 400 enclosure .
So while the Drive Adapter is n’t as fast as FireWire — I did n’t expect it to be — it seem to be private-enterprise with an inexpensive USB 2.0 enclosure ( at least when used with 2.5 - inch ATA drives ) .
That said , performance is n’t the reason to bribe this product ; convenience is — the ability to cursorily and easily get data from or onto a bare movement .
I did experience one payoff : a peculiar 2.5 - inch ATA drive did n’t appear to get enough power from the USB port wine on a MacBook ( 2.5 - column inch drives are powered wholly by your computer ’s USB port when used with the Drive Adapter ) .
Still , for only $ 25 , this is a handy dick . As someone who does quite a bit of testing and troubleshooting , I design on keep on one close at hand .
The USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter requires Mac OS 9.2 or higher or any version of Mac OS cristal
