USB to SATA Adapter is one of the most required repair accessories. In this article, we shall talk about them only.
SATA is used on most internal drives for both desktop and laptop. And we can expect a USB port on every system now. These adapters are the help you can look forward to when your hard drive fails. If your internal drive encounters some problem, you can easily assume that your computer might not boot. You will have to replace the drive and take care of your data as well. For the partial fail, you can use a USB to SATA adapter to recover your files.
Well, hardware failure is not the only reason to use a USB to SATA adapter. You need it when you upgrade to a faster or larger SSD. You can use the adapter to easily copy all your old data back with only a little effort, and at a significantly less cost. For people upgrading their computers frequently, you can use these adapters to turn it into an external drive or access your old files without spending any money on a new external.
Nevertheless, all adapters are not built in the same fashion. While some use an old standard that will cripple your throughput, some are incompatible with newer drives.
In this article, let us take a look at the best USB to SATA adapters you can find in the market.
Anker USB 3.0 to SATA Converter Adapter Cable
Anker is known for its range of products to accessories and peripherals for computers. You get each accessory with positive reviews only. These products are not available in retail stores but are a white label supplier for many branded products making it available throughout the country.
DESIGN: This adapter has no irrelevant components and solely does its business. The solid rectangular design of the adapter makes it suitable for being ket on the table easily. You get two cables that can be plugged in for data transfer and use with higher power drives. This is a perfect choice for a professional environment.
COMPATIBILITY: This adapter has a hardware SATA controller which is standard and is well tested for many devices. This can work with any computer or drive that can physically connect to this adapter. It supports both sizes of drives, that is, 2.5″ and 3.5″ because of the included power adapter. You can use the adapter with hard drives, SSDs, Blu-Ray drives, DVD burners, and combo drives and also virtually on all operating systems, from Windows 98 up to Windows 10. Mac OS is supported while Linux is not.
PERFORMANCE: Performance-wise also, the adapter is good and gives you a speed up to 350 MB/s read and 254 MB/s write. While for the desktop you may expect a speed of around 120 MB/s read and 100 MB/s write.
FEATURES: The features are mostly simple and the operating system detects this as only a standard USB external drive. This makes the working of any backup software easy. Using this for any data recovery program or performing bit by bit imaging without any special drivers or configuration possible.
Inateck Universal USB 3.0 to IDE / SATA Converter
Inateck products are an affordable range that focuses on both consumer and professional product lines.
DESIGN: This adapter looks more like a swiss knife and features a one-touch button and three separate ports located on each face of the device. It has three plugs for input power, data communication, and an IDE power adapter. There is nothing fancy about the design but is keen on keeping your cables neat and tidy with the adapter as it remains firmly in place.
COMPATIBILITY: The convertor is largely compatible with almost all operating systems and drives. The presence of IDE drives separates this adapter from all others. The connection standard does a great job with laptop and desktop drives, CD, DVD, and even some floppy drives. The adapter works with OSX, and Windows XP through to Windows 10 however, some features are restricted to Windows 8 and above.
PERFORMANCE: The performance can be compared to any other USB to SATA adapter. You can expect throughput of around 350 MB/s read 250 MB/s write. When there are multiple drives, the bandwidth is split equally between them irrespective of the no of drives being accessed at a time. You can expect a speed of around 110 MB/s for each drive. However, this does not mean you will see a drop in performance.
FEATURES: The highlight feature of this adapter is the one-touch backup. Once you have it installed on your system you will be able to access the included “PC Clone EX Lite” software to perform backups. You can use the standard one-touch backup by setting up the software and choosing the drive you wish to back up. Just a press of a button further will enable the data to be copied from one drive to the other. On the other way, you can try copying the entire thing one bit at a time. The same is useful if you are installing a new internal drive or recover data from a damaged drive.
StarTech.com USB 3.0 to SATA/IDE Hard Drive Adapter
StarTech has everything such as adapters, cables, and converters. Their products are famous for being simple, compact, and efficient, and this adapter is also on par.
DESIGN: The adapter is so compact that you can carry it in your bag to work. These adapters are not only small but also have all the features you need. You get a permanenlty fixed cable to ensure you never wind up losing or damaging the included cable.
COMPATIBILITY: With this adapter, you can use IDE drives, standard SATA drives, as well as external drives that support eSATA-P. eSATA-P is a new standard that is a combination of both the data connection and the power into a single port. It is a female port that uses a cable to connect your devices and also determines which drives you can use. However, it can virtually function with all operating systems from OSX to Windows 7 and onwards. It does not require any drivers and hence you can make them work in safe mode as well. The one downside is it does not have any external power adapter. Hence, you can expect drives of 3.5″ to not work and be restricted to 2.5″ sizes only.
PERFORMANCE: You can use only one drive at a time with this adapter sp the performance is never compromised. This ensures you get the high performance you expect. You get a download speed of 350 MB/s with an SSD drive, and an upload speed of speedy 250 MB/s.
In this article, you came across the three best adapters available in the market. Each of them is designed for a specific purpose. You can look through the plenty of information provided here to select the best one as per your needs.
About Ankita Mohanty
Ankita Mohanty is a Software Engineer who has the passion for content creation, tech and travel. She believes in that there's nothing in this world that's unachievable when you work hard for it.