Use an old IDE cable and save money
595697
I think an IDE hard drive cable will work just fine, wouldn't it?
1847130
Good connections for IDE and SATA drives to a USB port.  I use it to check old drives before disposing of them.
1338871
Have very old software and it's cheaper than a $7k Software upgrade and new computers on top of that.
136247
I needed to use floppies to transfer data to an old CNC machine.  Worked well without any drivers in Win7 x64

Update: well after about a year it stopped working... maybe I will take it apart and try to fix it... I assume there is no warranty on it...
450352
I had to buy AV cables, and I would have given it a 5 if the AV connectors were male.

I recorded my old home videos, and I'll likely never use this again. I still saved more than $300 bucks than what the store was charging for converting my tapes.
1639076
Plugged the converter to the back of an IDE CDROM drive.  Not detected under Windows 7.  Did not work for me and I gave up trying.
1976084
I had previously used a service tech to "steal" the hard drive off an old laptop.  They used this product and charged over a hundred dollars for the experience.  I was able to do the same thing for the cost of the product and saved myself quite a bit.  If there is an ounce of common sense in you then you should be able to do the same thing I did.  I am not a computer tech kind of guy...
3651706
I bought this because my old laptop decided that it didn't want to deal with it's charging port anymore and was therefore a brick when the battery died. I hadn't backed up my data in I don't know how long and I needed a current copy of everything on my hard drive. This product allowed me to plug in my old hard drive (easily removable from laptop by accessing its own panel and two screws on the bottom of my machine) directly to my new computer USB port and move all my files over as if the hard drive were any other storage device. This doesn't come with instructions so you'll just have to see what plugs fit where. The setup looks ridiculous and wrong, but just keep plugging in options until it works. The build quality is subpar and there are hot glue strings and gobs of glue attached to all the wire connections, but this is (hopefully) a one-time use product and was under $12.00 and it allowed me to save my files without shelling out hundreds for a professional. I'll call this a win.
4267289
Bought this to replace original cable for the older printer my mom has.
3993330
A customer had an older IBM Thinkpad with an IDE hard drive.  The laptop stopped working and was unrepairable.  The drive was not backed up, so we removed it an put it in this external case.  Windows 7 would not read the drive or load the drivers and gave errors.  The problem was the cord that was shipped with the enclosure.  It has a split end which is not only useless, it caused an error.  Using a male-to-male USB cord fixed the problem.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money on an obsolete IDE enclosure, so this one did the trick after adding a new USB cord.  I wouldn't depend on it for long term use.
1663171
Like everyone on here, I fell victim to the thought that any cable would work, as long as it plugged into both. The system does not recognize it as a hard drive, just a usb drive and wants to delete all of my save data to format it. Then what's the point? I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place, order straight rom microsoft. $25 is well worth the price to save all of my achievements, game saves, gamerscore, and everything else that I already have on the hard drive.
188396
I had to use it for parts to fix my old 8610 , as the new one had a bad port on it and my old one had a bad printer head ,so I used the new printer head on my old printer. not the way I was  planing
3752090
Attaches directly to the IDE port. Does exactly what it's intended to, with no chance of shorting from exposed connections. Accepts standard male 4-pin IDE power cables and jumps to a 4-pin IDE female. All cables included. The switch moved toward the power cable enables an IDE (PATA) HDD to operate from a SATA port. It's that simple.
387399
The problem i have is I cant load thu program. The scan tool seem to work o.k. just need a longer cable.
3722071
costom cable is a a thing during the past year. if you would do it your self you risk 1. messing up Ur stuff
2. stops you from spending more than $50 on just material(not including psu) 3. save your self from electrocution.
it works
1485129
I have had IDE and SATA hard-drive to USB converters before.  My last one ran USB 2.0 and was only moderately reliable.  It would work well enough for forty-five minutes or so, then it would start throwing errors.  I'd unplug it for twenty minutes and it would run fine again.  My guess is it had heat issues.  It was also slower than Death; copying an old 80GB hard drive (yeah, like a big thumb drive today) took almost two hours and two cool-down cycles.

I have to say, based on my prior experience, I had some trepidation buying the Inatek Universal USB 3.0 model.  Once I got it home, I plugged in a ten-year-old IDE drive and hooked up to my file server.  This old drive had almost 4 GB on it and the adapter copied it in less than three minutes -- pretty fast for an elderly drive.  The unit stayed cool as can be and a later compare shows the copy is flawless.

I am very favorably impressed with the Inateck Universal USB 3.0 to IDE/SATA Hard Drive Adapter.  Some folks claim they found the same model for under $2, but I suspect that may be a bogus clone.
269701
Get a hamberger helper instead.  This feels cheaper than easy mac.