Ide/usb External Adapter Works?

[crisaro]

I am planning to buy a CD/DVD IDE-USB external adapter. Then, iґll disconnect my IDE OPTICAL DVD BURNER from the PC and plug it on my adapter, once for all.

This way i wont have IDE OPTICAL DRIVES anymore on my PC. So, iґll have one HD, one adapted USB DVD BURNER and the DT4.0.3.

This is my question: when i want to play my backuped games, iґll turn off my new adapted IDE-USB DVD BURNER, mount the image on DT 4, install and play. That way, can i defeat sf3 and another protections?

This USB-IDE ADAPTER will work?

Please, help...

[pumpkinsoftruth]

From what I have read in the past....those ide/usb adapters have some pretty big compatibility issues with various drives. Be aware that it make not work with your drives. Other then that, try it out, there's not much of a chance that it will screw anything up.

[streetwolf]

I am currently using a USB2IDE adaptor on my Plextor PX708A DVD burner. The adaptor is USB2 High-Speed so it is supposed to run at 480mbps.

My drive is not seen by any StarForce protection that is currently included in games. I can keep the drive connected without it being blacklisted too. I suspect that the SF developers will find a way to blacklist this too given time.

The downside for me is that my burner speeds are really quite bad. My burner is rated at 40x for CDs and 8X for Dvds. CDs will burn at a max of around 28X. This is not to bad. However DVDs (I use +R) nets me a top speed of 2.2X. And the speed goes down as the DVD is burned. Quite the opposite if it was IDE connected. For some reason DVD+RWs rated at 4X burn at a little over 4X. Go figure.

I've read that other folks get near normal speeds with their adaptors. So it seems to boil down to the adaptor you choose and most probably the chipset it contains. Interesting enough if I hook up an IDE hard drive to this same adaptor I get normal speeds for a USB2 hard drive. Again, go figure.

I really don't burn all that much so I can wait the extra time to burn a DVD. Also I have an IDE attached DVD burner in my machine which is not connected in case I need to burn a few DVDs at one time.

So the bottom line is... Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware). Luckily USB2IDE adaptors are cheap.

[crisaro]

I am currently using a USB2IDE adaptor on my Plextor PX708A DVD (...)

Thanks for the answer! Both of you!