The new adapter cable has already proven its worth. Before my mother left for Hawaii I traded her my old 500 MHz IBM ThinkPad (iSeries 1400) for her desktop system, which was the first system I used as a Web server. While attempting to make a wireless network card work in her notebook the system froze up and would not reboot. At first I thought the hard drive might crash but it’s an old system so one of the components simply might have worked loose. Rather than attempt to get it on the network to transfer her files to a newer computer I’ve given her (which once was the second computer I used as Web server) I decided to save time and use the USB to IDE adapter cable.

By connecting the drive to the cable and transferring the files directly to the computer via USB I knew I would be able to save a considerable amount of time. Remove the drive from the notebook was easy once I remembered the only component I needed to remove was the front CD/volume controls on the Thinkpad. The transfer was relatively quick and now all of her important files are on the newer system. The notebook had a 6 or 8 GB drive while the new system has an 80 GB drive. It’s also about three times faster and has twice the amount of RAM as the notebook in addition to several other features.