Are either of the USB->IDE adapters ones with a second USB plug for more power? A long time ago I had issues using an adapter that didn't have a second plug as it wasn't supplying enough power to properly spin up the drive.
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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so the first adapter was a little smaller and had extra power for 3.5" drives but not 2.5". It still spun up fine though.
The next one I got is bigger, and has it's own little power supply for 2.5" drives as well as an extension for the molex on a 3.5" drive.
this is the one i use now: https://www.newegg.com/jansicotek-e02-usb-to-ide-sata/p/35G-00MX-00001?Item=9SIAD8FK4X1895
It still spins up the same. I'm not sure if it's just a linux issue but I find it weird since I've never had a peripheral that linux didn't at least acknowledge was there. I don't have a windows pc to really test it on either.
I have found that the new adapters you can buy are very unreliable. I ended up buying a 20 y/o USB 2.0 dock on eBay and that seems to work with every drive I throw at it.
Based on 
single 2.5” drives don’t use a jumper.
Oo yep that makes sense then.
Darn. I really hoped this would work. Im not sure how else to backup this drive, I mainly want to do that to keep the drivers intact
Maybe try and boot something like clonezilla to the laptop you took it from instead of messing with shoddy adapters?
How would I clone it on the laptop
Plug the destination drive into the new USB adapter you got?
The laptop is too old to read a usb device like that without drivers
OK something that old surely has a serial port on it? If so, look in to "sneakernet" (it's a technique, not a product) to connect to another computer. I've even done networking over a serial port with linux, but there also used to be software just for copying files. That wouldn't give you a drive image but it would at least back up the software.
That hard drive is probably multiple gigabytes, it would take days to weeks to transfer that over a serial port. If the computer has a PC card slot, I would look for an ethernet adapter that would work with it.
Heh I managed to jump directly from best-case to worst-case, but hey, that still leaves everything in between as options. :-)
Yeah, speed is everything and there are pcmcia ethernet cards for $10 or less on ebay if OP has that option.
Could also try just a flash drive, I imagine whatever drive in there is pretty small. What ide adapters do you have anyways
Boot a clonezilla or Linux CD, don't use your windows install. It should have proper USB support as long as you actually have USB ports.
Absolutely tangential but,
I first read this thread title as "Imagine having an IDE drive" and I couldn't stop thinking of some instance admin somewhere doing Mad Retro Science raising a lemmy instance on the power of i386 Void Linux and the spite of a pregraduate having to deal with a molex connector.
This is great hahah
I've also got a couple of older drives that my IDE to USB adapter refuses to work with. I never found a solution, but the drives work fine in a PC that has a real IDE interface.