Customer Reviews

ADS Technologies DLX185 Dual Link Drive Kit

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this enclosure to house my 250 GB Hitachi HDD. The case is easy enough to assemble and disassemble, and performance meets my expectations. I like the fact that it has a seemingly robust power supply, with a fan to prevent components from frying themselves. I think it will probably last longer than my drive. Despite the fan, it runs reasonably quietly.

But what really made this product stand out in my mind was the support that I got from ADS. When I initially tried to install my drive in the enclosure, I was dismayed to find that the supplied IDE ribbon cable wasn't quite long enough to reach, if I wanted to secure the drive with the supplied screws. I submitted a help request (asking for a longer cable) through ADS's website, and received an email reply later that day. They gave me a phone number to call, and said that getting a replacement cable should be no problem. Sure enough, I called, and the ADS rep sent another (slightly longer) cable out to me right away, free of charge. The new cable was long enough, and now I'm happy. :)

Nice product - appears well constructed. I had no problems installing a 160gig Maxtor and getting it up and running real quickly.

Only problem was the outer covering material "slides" open to reveal the chassis - as it is supposed to. "Slides" - yes, but not easily! You've really got to tug pretty hard because of the close fit.

Also, note that in XP there is apparently a small bug in which it will not always recognize a removable drive in Explorer. Apprently will be fixed this summer in a maintenance release. You can go into computer management | Disk Management to see the new, removable drive and then Change the drive letter.

I was always able to see the drive in a CMD (DOS) box, too.

I just ordered a second unit of this Dual-Link

This thing is built like a tank (very solid) and runs very quietly. I initially bought it to house a DVD burner; installation of the drive into the case was quick and easy, as was installing the software on my Win98SE system. Absolutely no functional problems using either the USB link with that computer or the Firewire with an HP laptop running XP.
However, when I later wanted to install a Seagate HDD in place of the DVD, I found that the IDE cable was too short to plug into that drive if mounted to the bottom rails as instructed by the manual. Also, the manual had a confusing instruction to lay the drive "on top of" a supplied black cable. This made no sense to me. I emailed support and got a response from someone who didn't seem too bright or informed. He said that I can use the ribbon cable that is in my computer. I assume he means that I can obtain a standard IDE cable to use, but the length of such a cable could not possibly fit into the case. Even though I had asked for a correctly sized cable he didn't offer to send one. He also wrote that the black cable referred to is the LED cable, but didn't explain the goofy laying-on-top instruction.
Anyway, the HDD is now installed and working by mounting all the way to one side of the case, using only two screws. Not acceptable for anything other than temporary use, which this is. Be aware of this issue before you buy.

Update: I called and they are sending a longer cable at no charge. I'm told that a number of these were shipped from the factory with a short cable.

I'm using a Seagate 80 GB with this and it works as if its connected directly into the PC. Only problem is you may not be able to use just any CD drive with it because the drive may not fit if its too long.

This is a great product, easy to use, and works as advertised. More importantly, ADS Tech stands behind their product with excellent support (although a toll call away.)

Easy to install either a new hard drive or dvd/cd-rom player and connect it to either USB-2 or Firewire port on your PC or laptop. (No support for systems prior to Win98SE).

Highly recommended.

i purchased one of these a few months ago for a maxtor 250 gig hard drive. its a generally nice case, and installation was easy enough. its recently started throwing lots of i/o errors through, and i've ruled out the hard drive itself or the computer its attached to. meh, maybe it'll still be good for an optical drive or something. also, the fan is small and cheap, not quite up to the task of cooling a seriously used hard drive, and has gotten a bit noisier with age. anyway, my hard drive is in another (incidentally, better made and less expensive) case now, and much happier for it.

I have a Dell laptop with a 30 gig hdd. I wanted an external drive to allow me to back up my laptop's hdd and store extra media.

This looked like a great option since I was able to buy it and a Maxtor 80 gig internal hdd for less than an 80 gig external.

Installation couldn't have been easier. It took me all of 5 minutes to install the internal drive. The directions were straightforward and simple, and the hdd worked flawlessly.

Couldn't be more pleased.

Pros :

1. simple to install HD. Used Maxtor 160 Ultra. havent tried DVD-R but looks like it can handle OK.
2. usb 1.1/ firewire (fast!) interface works. drivers not needed in XP.
3. cool case
4. has fan + external power supply

Cons :

1. a bit bulky.
2. a bit noisy.
3. no power switch in front (it has this in back).
4. some random errors in usb1.1. not advisable to use unless no option. go w/ firewire/usb2

overall a recommended buy.

UPDATE:

tried USB2 and works great, though its slower than Firewire. But
much faster than regular USB.