Inateck USB 3.0 to IDE + SATA Converter Review ( Model UA2001 )

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free so that I could provide product feedback to the company and post a product review. I was not required to write a positive review and I do not rate products higher than they should have been. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's requirements.

I recently received an Inateck USB 3.0 to IDE + SATA Converter ( model UA2001 ) for a product review.  Once I unpacked everything, I started to try out different uses for it since I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to test it.

Converter with a few hard drives (IDE and SATA)

First, I connected it to a Windows 8 laptop, and used the laptop to wipe and format a 2.5" hard drive (IDE).  After that, I copied an ISO image (for Ubuntu) onto the hard drive and connected the drive to another system running Windows Vista so I could copy the ISO onto the Vista system and burn a DVD with Ubuntu for use later.

While I was on the Windows Vista system, I connected the adapter to a CD burner / DVD reader 5.25" IDE drive that was in another tower.  As you can see in the picture below (the drive is above the two hard drives on the right side), the adapter was actually small enough that I was able to keep the drive in the tower and just connect the adapter behind it.  Being able to connected to the CD/DVD drive, and even the internal hard drives, would be great for anyone who often provides tech support to others since they can easily connect to internal devices without even removing them.

Converter fit inside the tower with no problem

I decided to test running Ubuntu from a hard drive connected to the Inateck converter.  Once I booted up from the DVD, I was able to install Ubuntu on both the 2.5" drive and later on a 3.5" IDE drive and in both cases Ubuntu installed and worked fine.  I was able to boot two different computers from Ubuntu installed on an IDE hard drive (connected to the Inateck USB to IDE+SATA converter) without any problems.

The drive comes with software you can use to backup your files, and the adapter itself has a button that launches the software.  I played around with the software a little, it is easy to configure and does the job.  I liked the fact that the configuration setup seems to be stored on the drive itself, so you can actually have multiple configurations (one per drive) and when you press the button it will backup according to the drives specific configuration.  Power users may end up option for other software to do backups or full disc images, but either way this adapter opens up a range of options.

Converter w/ 3.5" SATA hard drive connected to an Xbox One

In addition to various IDE devices (hard drives and CD/DVD drive), I also tested two SATA hard drives ( one 2.5" and one 3.5" ) with no problems and was even able to use one IDE and one SATA device at the same time.  Using the 3.5" SATA drive, I connected it to my Xbox One to test the ability to copy games to it for additional storage space.  Every test I threw at the device it was able to pass.

Bottom line: I would highly recommend this drive, especially for anyone in the following situations:

- Have old / spare drives lying around that you need to pull data from
- Looking for an easy way to do backups to multiple external drives
- Looking for an easy way to add storage capability to your system / laptop / game console
- Often acts as tech support for family and friends

Product Page: http://www.inateck.com/inateck-ua2001-usb-3-0-to-ide-sata-adapter/