Homemade USB to IDE adapter

[stantheman1976]

I've seen the IDE to USB adapter cables you can buy to hook a regular drive up externally for file transfers. Has anyone ever attempted to make one? I can figure out the power part easy enough. Take a connector from a 12V PC component, a power adapter that outputs 12V and connect them, right? Is there a way I can take a USB cable and rig it to work with a regualr IDE cable. The basic reasons I want to try this is because I like to tinker, I have the extra parts laying around, and why should I pay for something I can make myself?

My goal with this is to take an extra hard drive I have and 1-2 times a month hook it up and transfer photos and backup data for storage. I have no intention to use this as a full time device. Otherwise, I would invest in either an external drive or an external enclosure.

Edit:
Nevermind. I think I may have just messed up a hard drive trying it. The output of the adapter I hooked up was 1.25A and the hard drive only runs on 601mA max. I only had it hooked up for about 10 seconds and I smelled something funny. Now the drive smells a little weird. I'm just going to buy an enclosure. Luckily the drive was an older one that I didn't need.

[budz]

I've seen the IDE to USB cable under $12.50 at Computergeeks.com. In fact I was going to order one today but their website is down for maintenance. How odd that it's down during their GREEN LIGHT SALE.

[ROF]

While I've made my own round IDE cabling and floppy cabling with grand success I've not tried the IDE to USB thing. The cable is cheap enough that I haven't thought about doing this and most cables include a molex power adapter.

[redwudz]

I just ordered this IDE to USB 2.0 converter:

http://www.usbgeek.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=0190

A little more pricey at $35US, but it works with laptop drives also and has it's own power supply. I got it for diagnostic use and the occasional quick use of a external DVD drive or hard drive with my laptop.

[ROF]

You could have saved half that cost. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822998009

[redwudz]

I missed that one. Thanks, though.

[budz]

Here's the one from computergeeks.com for $10.90 during their sizzling sunday sale:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=USB2IDE-N

[smearbrick1]

This is something I rarely see. I see very few people ever try to create cables such as this. I've seen case mods and such out the ass, but never have seen anyone make homemade conversion cables. I realize they are cheap, but like the guy above, I like to tinker also. I think it would pretty sweet to push the 12 volt DC through the USB cable and eliminate the need for an external power source for the hard drive altogether. Even if you could have a USB cable run into the back of the drive enclosure, then split 12 volt supply from the USB cable to a molex connector and connect to the power input on the drive.

One wire to run everything...

[redwudz]

The only problem with powering a external device with USB is the power limitation of the format, which if I remember is 500MA per port. That is likely not enough to run a DVD burner or most IDE (PATA) hard drives. I run a 2.5 inch laptop type drive from my computer, but a regular PATA (IDE) drive won't run. Laptops may not be able to supply even that much power.

And I may be wrong here also, but a USB to IDE adapter may contain more than just wiring. If it has any active circuits, then it is not just a simple adapter that you can throw together.

Firewire (1394A) can supply more power, and is generally a better option for speed and power using external drives.

SATA external drives are even better. Much faster than Firewire or USB, and SATA drives don't generally need as much power as PATA (IDE) drives. Still likely no good with a laptop, though, unless you have an external power supply.

EDIT: USB supplies 5VDC, AFAIK, so you won't get 12VDC out of that, which would be needed for a regular IDE (PATA) drive. Laptop drives just need 5VDC.

If I'm wrong about any of this above, let me know. I'm always learning.

[smearbrick1]

Only 5v? Wow, nevermind. To boost that 5v to 12v you would have to build a power supply which would defeat the entire purpose of this idea. I guess I can take my USB enclosure apart and see how it connects to the IDE. It appears pretty simple.