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An essential hard disk accessory
If a notebook or desktop PC fails completely, data can often be recovered from the hard disk.
After removing it from the broken computer, it can be plugged into a device such as the Maplin USB 2 Combo Adapter and then plugged into a USB port on any computer, where it will appear in Windows Explorer.
It's true that external hard disk enclosures do the same thing and can be bought for half the price.
The disk is put into the enclosure and connects, again, over USB, but these normally only one of the two types of hard disk.
This combo adapter, however, supports both, as well as both physical sizes of hard disk, making it much more versatile.
What's more, it even accepts two disks at once, one of each type. We tested it with a Blu-ray optical drive and notebook hard disk at the same time and its performance was excellent.
It does leave the disk and data and power wires exposed in an ungainly manner. You also have to contend with its external mains power supply.
The 20cm USB cable supplied is too short for most scenarios, so an extension cable is required, but other than that it's very impressive.
Read more reviews
Overall: More expensive than a hard disk enclosure, but it can cope with two disks at once
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drivers for win 98SE ?
User's manual states "windows 98SE users need to download the driver from the website" BIG problem is that the 'user's manual' is totally useless in this respect as NOWHERE does it provide any details of the manufacturer. Maplin website is also useless for finding the driver.
Posted by N Damus, 02 May 2009
maplin usb 2.0 to sata/ide combo adapter
Can it be used on laptop hard drives.
Posted by michael lovell, 28 Nov 2009
Works well when it works!
I have experienced exactly the same problems as Mr.Damus! Some hard drives will not work due to the correct drivers not being present on the PC within Windows XP. The Device Manager displays yellow warning symbols against "USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge". Windows can never find suitable drivers on the Internet when it searches and I cannot identify the manufacturer to get them from the WebSite.
Posted by N.Joannou, 14 Jan 2010
drivers for win 98 SE
The download link for Win 98 SE drivers is on the Maplin site, just look up the page for the device istelf, link is at the bottom - it is http://www.maplin.co.uk/media/ZIP/A35FQ%2098SEdriver.zip. I have used this and it is a real godsend - when you need one, you really need one! Dave 1TB of data from internal drive when PC did a nose-dive into the ground...
Posted by JLeslie, 27 Oct 2011