Home > Consumer Reviews > ADS Technology USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Kit (USBX-804)

USB 2.0 can now reach transfer rates up to 480 Mbps and is backward-compatible with USB 1.1 devices.

I bought the ADS Tech USB 2.0 Drive Kit to achieve 3 main goals: a) Bigger, b) Faster, and c) Cheaper external storage. After researching several other products, ADS Tech's was the EASY winner in all three categories. And even though *Easier* wasn't a requirement, it was a snap to set up (about 20 minutes).

After my computer detected the Drive Kit and HDD, I was able to use FDISK to create a partition then format it just like any HDD. It was VERY FAST and VERY QUIET. Of course, to get the best performance, you must install a USB 2.0 port adapter in your computer. For desktop systems, you can buy a PCI-to-USB 2.0...(they're no harder to install than say...an internal modem). PC Cards are available for laptops.

I first tested my USB Drive Kit on a PC running Windows ME w/built-in USB 1.1 ports. It worked great (faster than moving data across a 10Mb LAN) Then I plugged it into a computer with USB 2.0 ports and it was FANTASTIC. I copied about 50 gigs of MP3 files to it without any problems. I even defragged it as quickly as any other local drive. After using the Drive Kit over an entire weekend, I was confident enough to delete the 50 gigs of data I still had on my internal HDD. The next day, I just turned the Drive Kit off & left my computer running while I was at work. Can't do that with my internal drives.

I didn't like other USB hard drives like those from Maxtor, etc., since they're more expensive and come with built-in HDD's that don't support swapping with other bigger or better drives. ADS Tech did it right. Put in whatever HDD you want. This is a fast, reliablle, & flexible solution for a GREAT price. I bought a USB 2.0 Drive Kit, a 60GB HDD, and a PCI-to-USB 2.0 Port Adapter...

Even though I can put different drives in the kit, I'm going to buy another one... GREAT PRODUCT. I recommend it for anyone who wants an inexpensive, external, transportable, storage solution.

I bought this product to store extra media files and was not disappointed. The installation was as easy as installing an internal drive, and using the included instructions, I was able to format and use the drive immediately. Not only does this kit free up space and resources inside your computer, it is portable, and it can be turned off and on without restarting the computer. Also, it is very quiet, I often cannot hear it over the sound of my computer. Best of all, you can put any size hard drive or even a cdrom drive in it, and unlike other external hard drives, you can easily swap your hard drive for a bigger one at a later time. This is a great product, and I will soon buy another one!

I bought this to store invoices and customer information.
I followed the easy direction for plugging a 60 Gig. Maxtor hard drive. The whole thing cost less than buying a comparable sized external har drive.

It was very easy to install. My 98SE system recognized it immediately and I found myself easily moving huge amount of
data from my internal drive to the ADS and Maxtor drive.

It works like a dream. Now I can unplug the ADS and lock it in my fireproof safe and safely store all my business records.

I'm immediately ordering a second one for image, site and video storage. I love this thing.

Extremely simple to setup and use. Set any EIDE hardrive to master,plug into a USB port, plug in the power supply and run the installation software. Windows 98 recognized it immediately. I used a Western Digital 13G drive I had that already had a primary and extended DOS partition. I opened a DOS prompt, ran fdisk to remove the partitions and logical drives and created an extended DOS partition. Then from explorer I simply right clicked on the drive letter and clicked format.

The entire process from beginning of installation to usable drive was about 10 minutes. I use it to back up my primary operating system and store sensitive data. Magic Folders can even be used to hide data on the drive when it is activated. For security, simply turn the drive off after safely removing it. (click on the icon and then click on "safely remove" and then turn it off when promted) It can then be disconected and stored in a safe place. When you want to use it again just plug in the data cable and power supply, switch it on and open Windows Explorer and there it is.

I highly recommend this as a secure external and easy to use storage device.

I've only had this drive kit a few days, but I'm very pleased with it. I would like to agree with the other reviewers below. A few other details:

I like the power cord and USB cable included with the kit.They feel like the materials are very high quality. The power cord has a transformer block in the middle of the cord, which saves you from having to find a surge protector with a free transformer block plug. So, just plug the cord into a regular surge protector plug. That's very considerate of the user.

I think the drive mounting screws are a bit small, in fact they seem flimsy, but plenty of screws are provided and they do the job. The 2 large screws are for securing the black plastic outer shell of the adapter kit. I experimented and tried using one screw taken from the screws that Maxtor provides with their hard drive kits, and even though the rounded screw head created a slight bump, the plastic shell of the adapter still fit over it okay. But all the other screws I used came with this kit.

I found it difficult to push my Western Digital 80 Gb drive far enough up so that the screw holes on the bottom of the drive (on either side of the circuit board) would line up with the drive mounting bracket screw holes on the bottom of the adapter. There was a lot of resistance from the internal ribbon cable and power connector.

But these are very small nits. I was able to assemble the drive in about 20 minutes or so.

Under Red Hat Linux, a hard drive installed in this adapter will be recognized as a USB mass storage device. Because SCSI emulation is done on USB devices, the drive is recognized as an SCSI device /dev/sdx where x is the letter of the mass storage device: a for the first SCSI device, b for the second, and so on. When I plugged this adapter into my Red Hat Linux 7.3 machine, it was immediately recognized and became /dev/sda. I didn't need to install any drivers from a CD first. Since the drive already had my wife's old Microsoft Windows partitions on it, I decided to poke around in them for fun and mounted it like so:

mount /dev/sda1 -t vfat /mnt/vfat

And this worked just lovely.

It also works fine in Windows XP. You need to install the driver from the CD first and then plug the device in when it is turned on. Because the Windows XP driver hasn't been digitally signed, Windows will give you a couple scary messages, but the driver really does work fine when you click "continue" and install it. Once you plug the USB cable in after installing the driver Windows XP gives you a very friendly message that it found the drive.

This drive should work just great as the rescue device/drive imaging device that I intend it for. My only problem is finding a big enough hard drive so that I can rescue both Windows partitions and Linux partitions as needed.

4 stars for the quality and convenience. 1 star off for making me work too hard to secure the drive to the bottom mounting bracket. I would recommend this device to anyone. It is wonderful.