At one time or another, just about every solution provider out there encounters a dead system, in which the only recoverable components are the hard drives and the data in them. The typical course of action is to remove the hard drives and install them on another system back at the shop—a slow and costly process, for sure. But what if the data could be recovered instantly? The answer lies in a palm-size adapter from Poway, Calif.-based Apricorn Inc., called DriveWire. The DriveWire adapter connects IDE, SATA and Notebook IDE/PATA drives. Each side of the device hooks to a different hard drive. Power is supplied through a power adapter that provides the five volts needed to run the hard drives.

Collecting the data is easy. DriveWire supports USB 2.0, including USB 1.1, so drives are instantly detected on a Windows system and assigned a drive letter. After several tests with old drives, DriveWire performed well. Data transfer rates seen in the CRN Test Center were on par with the hard drives of all three types with no noticeable delays.

DriveWire comes with EZ Gig II cloning software, which supports FAT and NTFS file formats and can image entire drives and individual folders. Test Center reviewers tested EZ by imaging a drive right out of a DriveWire connection using high compression. The image was created right onto a DVD R/W disk. We didn't notice any corruption during the transfer, so the data was buffered correctly. EZ proved to be a good add-on to DriveWire. The software supports USB 1.1, so it's fully compatible with DriveWire and old PCs.

After several tests between Windows 2000 and XP, the adapter was able to recover data from old IDE drives without power or access speed problems. The two OSes are supported with Plug-n-Play, so during testing drivers were needed.

Have you ever wanted to get information off an old computer's internal hard drive? Have you wanted to be able to install a new larger hard drive in your notebook computer or desktop PC and do it quickly with all the drivers and software intact? Here is a cool device from Apricorn that makes it easy to plug in any new or used internal hard drive from a laptop or desktop (Mac or PC), to any external USB port on another Apple MAC or a Microsoft OS PC.

Apricorn includes both the DriveWire hard drive adapter hardware, with AC power adapter, cables, and USB cable, and software to be able to clone virtually any PATA/IDE or SATA, 2.5 or 3.5 inch, hard disk drives.

The DriveWire provides a hi-speed USB 2.0 interface to: SATA, 40 pin PATA/IDE, and 44 pin PATA/IDE.

DriveWire is bundled with Apricorn's "Upgrade Suite" which features the award winning "EZ Gig II" cloning software for Windows and "Shirt Pocket's SuperDuper!" for Mac

Five Star Recommendation ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I have used this universal hard drive plug-in adapter quite extensively myself for all types of applications. I have cloned Apple hard drives, tested old parallel IDE disk drives, used it to backup old computer systems, recovered files off a bad PC, and used it as an external connection for a spare hard drive for both PC and Mac computers. People have used it to quickly backup their system on an old hard drive and then placed that backup into a secure firesafe, not to be touched unless all else fails. The HD adapter has been a lifesaver for me. I don't like to touch a computer system unless I have a backup to begin with. You do not need to install any backup software or other special device drivers if you are just plugging in various hard drives. Simply plug in one hard drive at a time to the DriveWire adapter and plug the USB cable into your USB port, and it shows up on your "My Computer" on a PC, or your desktop on a Apple Mac. You can copy and retrieve information from an old HD drive. That is the beauty of this plug-in device. Fast, easy to use, reliable, and really really handy too.

This device is great for IT departments, techies, and even the ordinary person that simply wants to easily plug in a hard drive to see what is on it. Check out the video on how easy it is to use.

Cool Yule Tool Five Star Recommendation ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Anyone who has spent any time servicing or upgrading computers has undoubtedly run into the problem of just wanting to copy data off an internal drive that is no longer part of a functioning computer. Or you might just want to test the drive to see if it still works, but don't want to spend a lot of time installing the drive in a notebook or desktop PC.

That's where this handy little adapter from Apricorn comes in. The concept is simple – just plug it directly into any PATA or SATA drive, and plug the USB adapter into any PC. There are no drivers – if you are familiar with Windows administrative tools, you can have the drive ready to go in no time. The system also includes an AC adapter, in case your drive requires the use of separate, non-USB power.

The device really is a piece of cake. It's not the only product of this type on the market, but it is flexible, well-built, and a great stocking stuffer, for both professional PC repair types or home PC hobbyists. One quick thing – make sure you work in a grounded environment before trying the product – sitting in your pajamas under the tree is probably not the best locale for using the product.