USB 3.0 to SATA or IDE Hard Drive Adapter / Converter

Note: For more information on how to detect an IDE hard drive, visit http://www.startech.com/faq/hard_drive_accessories_ide_detection.

Older IDE drives are not supported by current StarTech.com products. Typically, these drives were made earlier than the mid-to-late 1990s and are smaller than 1 Gigabyte in size.

There are a number of reasons that older IDE drives may not be detected, including the following:

• The drive uses PIO (Programmed Input/Output) mode and not DMA (Direct Memory Access).

• The drive is non-ATA or is using an ATA mode that predates the chipset's compatibility (usually older than ATA-4).

• The sector size is not 512 bytes.

Unfortunately there is no workaround in these situations. An older system or an older IDE controller card must be used to access older IDE drives.

This device supports the ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) protocol. ATAPI is required for optical drives, including CD-ROM drives, DVD-ROM drives, and Blu-ray players. Because this device supports ATAPI, optical drives are also supported.

When you troubleshoot issues with the USB3SSATAIDE, there are some quick tests that you can complete to rule out potential problems. You can test to make sure that the following components are working correctly and are not the source of the issue:

• Disk drive(s)

• USB port

• SATA cable (if required)

Note: Optical disk drives (ODD) are not compatible with this adapter.

To test your setup components, try the following:

• Use the disk drive(s) and SATA cable in another setup to see if the problem is with the components or the setup.

• Test the USB port with a different USB peripheral.

• Use a different disk drive(s), SATA cable, and USB port in your setup to see if the problem persists. Ideally, you should test a component that you know works in another setup.

When you test your hard drive, make sure that the IDE drive(s) have the jumpers set correctly, and that a partition (for example, NTFS or FAT32) exists on the drive(s).

Note: An independent IDE drive must be set to master.

If you are using multiple drives when you are testing, test each drive independently on the adapter.

Use drives that you know work and complete the following when you configure the jumpers on the IDE drives:

• If you are using two IDE drives concurrently, make sure that one of the drives is set to master and the other drive is set to slave.

• If you are using an IDE drive with a SATA drive, you must set the IDE drive to slave.

For more information about the jumper configuration, see the IDE HDD technical specifications.

If the USB device does not work after your computer has been in extended hibernation, it is likely that Windows has automatically turned off the USB Root hub to save power. 

The steps below outline how to configure the USB root hub to stay on during hibernation, to prevent this from happening.
 

Windows 10 / 8

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key + X and select Control Panel.
2. Click Hardware and Sound, then click Power Options.
3. Click Change plan settings for the plan you want to change.
4. Click Change advanced power settings.
5. Click the plus sign (+) next to “USB settings” and “USB selective suspend setting” to expand the options and change the setting to Disabled.
6. Click OK to apply the setting.

Note: You may need to disconnect and re-connect your USB device after applying these settings to re-establish the connection.

Windows 7 / Vista

1. Click the Start button and select Control Panel.
2. Click Hardware and Sound, then click Power Options.
3. Click Change plan settings for the plan you want to change.
4. Click Change advanced power settings.
5. Click the plus sign (+) next to “USB settings” and “USB selective suspend setting” to expand the options and change the setting to Disabled.
6. Click OK to apply the setting.

Note: You may need to disconnect and re-connect your USB device after applying these settings to re-establish the connection.

Windows XP

1. On your desktop, right-click the My Computer icon and select Properties.
2. Click the Device Manager tab.
3. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers by clicking the arrow to the left of it.
4. Right-click the first USB Root Hub device and select Properties.
5. Click the Power Management tab.
6. Clear the box next to Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
7. Click OK to apply the setting.
8. Repeat steps 4-7 for any remaining devices in the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section with “Root Hub” in the name.

Note: You may need to disconnect and re-connect your USB device after applying these settings to re-establish the connection.