Multi-format HDD USB Adapter

Through a different thread I was advised to get a HDD enclosure to allow me to connect a laptop HDD via a USB cable to my PC. I recently canceled my order after discovering that multi-format versions exist, i.e. ones that work on IDE, SATA, 1.8", 2.5", etc etc.

As the family IT guy, I expect I'm going to see a lot of different HDDs of various types that people want me to test or extract files from. Rather than buy each kind of adapter as I need (store prices are high, and shipping times are slow), and rather than buy each different type of adapter, I'd really like to get one of the multi-format versions.

Here's A few examples:
http://www.cooldrives.com/saandidehadr.html
http://www.cablesunlimited.com/products/Prod_Individual3.aspx?groupcode=I3523
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817735001

I'm not too concerned about the data speed, but do want the device to be reliable, robust enough not to fail if a HDD has a bad block (apparently some are bad about this), oh and cheap!

Does anyone have any experiences with these devices and have any suggestions?

 

P.S. Couldn't find an edit option, but had one more thing to add. I saw some of the adapters support CD drives too, which would be hugely useful for me. If they can do floppy discs too I'll be in geek heaven!

Edit: ah ha! I found an edit option on this post, but I guess it's disabled for the first post?

 

So do those enclosures support only HDDs in those formats, or only CD/DVD Drives, or both HDDs AND CD/DVDs? There's one laptop I've worked on that had a very broken CD drive, and it would have been so handy to have a USB cd drive available.

 

Ah I may be using the wrong language then. By "enclosure" I probably mean "adapter". I'm happy for the CD/DVD/HD drive to sit on my desk, and simply to have a cable coming from it I can attach to my USB port. When I thought about the fact the IDE ports are the same from HDDs and CD drives, I started to think maybe all adapters that connect to IDEs are compatible with both?

I think http://www.cablesunlimited.com/products/Prod_Individual3.aspx?groupcode=I3523 is the closest to what I'm looking for, but it's really hard to tell from these smaller sites what exactly you're getting. Products from the larger sites (Tigerdirect, Newegg) seem to be less multi-functional, and more pretty and polished. This http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...?EdpNo=4938864&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs doesn't seem to support IDE, and this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817735001 seems to support SATA and IDE, but only covers HDDs... I think.

 

I know it's terrible to keep replying to your own thread, but for anyone else that finds themselves here wondering about such devices, I think I found a solution. This product here claims to support laptop IDE (aka 2.5"), desktop IDE (aka 3.5"), laptop SATA (I believe SATA I, II and III are forwards/backwards compatible, so will all work fine), desktop SATA, and all IDE and SATA CD/DVD/CD-RW/etc disk drive:
http://www.eforcity.com/pcabusbx0017.html?int=efsechtxtrigos-item

I found it for a few dollars less on Ebay, and frankly for that kind of price I almost have nothing to lose. I'll remind myself to post back later and say if it works.

 

I use that particular one, and , yes, its cheap, and works, but an enclosure is more 'static' reliable.
I also have small enclosures that will take ide, and sata 2.5", by dynamode.It's o.k, but a bit flimsy (aluminium)- these were only around £15 , or, so, but I have had them for a while.

 

So far I've used it to run an IDE desktop CD/DVD drive and HDD via USB on my laptop. This is my new funnest toy, I do recommend it!