USB To RS-232 (Serial) Adapters Now Back In Stock

May 24th, 2010

One of the most popular products we sell is the humble little USB to RS232 adapter so its somewhat embarrasing when we run out of stock of them. Unfortunately this was the position we found ourself in during the last couple of weeks but after a period of mild panic and frantic organisation we’ve now flown new stocks of them in.

So if you’re looking for a good quality USB to Serial Adatper then our popular VE229 and AUM-100’s are now both back in stock. These 2 cables and adatpers use the highly regarded FTDI chipset rather than the Prolific Chipset and thats

USB to Serial Adapter

USB to 9 Pin Male Serial Adapter

simply because we know they work and they work with pretty much anything and connected to anything. Our early experiences of the Prolific version were not as positive and whilst they might be cheaper it shows and for our Corporate clients reliability and performance was key and thats why we now only stock these two cables.

Both the VE229 and AUM-100 have been sold by us for around 5 years and they work – simple as that! Yes, we know you can buy cheaper versions that might “look” the same but we know to our cost that its the chipset thats all important.

If you have multiple devices that you need to connect to a single USB port then take a couple of minutes to check out our AUM-120, AUM-140 and AUM-180 USB to RS232 cables – these connect to 2, 4 or 8 RS-232 ports at the same time.

Spend over £30 with us and we’ll ship your order for free but if you can’t find a reason to spend £30 then carriage is only a tiny £1.95

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Jetting Off On Holiday – Take Your Pebble With You

May 24th, 2010

If you’re one of the lucky ones and you’re travel plans have not been thrown into chaos by the latest round of British Airways strikes then you might consider taking with you a portable charger for your iPod, your mobile phone, balckberry, PSP etc.

The Veho Pebble gives you up to X 4 full charges from its own batter store so you’ll have plenty of usage without the need to hunt down a charge point. These excellent and incredibly handy bits of kit are relatively inexpensive and are an absolute boon to the traveller.

Veho Pebble

Veho Pebble

Even if you’re not an avid user of technology yourself when you’re away from home for work or pleasure the Veho Pebble is brilliant if you’ve got children travelling with you and you need to keep the Nintedno DS topped up or their PSP going – after all its a small price to pay for your sanity!

The Veho Pebble is available from USBNow with free delivery and at only £39.99 its a bargain!

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Phew It’s Hot – Cool Down With A USB Fan

May 24th, 2010

I don’t know about you but in our office the temperature is rising and rising fast and its about know when you think that maybe it was a good idea to install Air Conditioning when we had the chance! – Hey ho….all a little too late now.

Still an option for us and for our customer is to distribute to the team a little USB fan – these great little products just plug into any spare USB port on your PC and away they go – you don’t need any batteries, you don’t need mains power and you don’t need to add them to the list of things that need PAT testing.  Nope, these cute little USB fans will generate a nice cooling breeze that will certainly help keep you cool and tempers in check. At only £3.45 each they are an absolute steal but if you’re buying them for the office there are packs of 5 USB fans available for only £17.99.

So if you’re feeling a little hot under the collar then either get yourself one of these USB fans or put the web page under the nose of your manager and just point out to them how much happier everyone would be with their own controllable fan!

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Why Use A Hard Drive Caddy

April 6th, 2010

Hard Drive Caddy’s (sometimes also referred to as HDD cases or enclosures) are growing in popularity all the time. Not surprising really given how easy they are to use and the relatively low cost of the caddies.

Hard drive enclosures tend to be used in two different situations:

  1. To recover data from a salvaged hard drive and then to reuse the hard drive in the caddy to create a back up solution.
  2. Used in conjunction with a new hard disk drive you can create your own back up solution cheaper than you would by buying a “packaged” solution from some of the leading brands.

If you’ve bought a new PC then you must either ensure the hard disk drive in your old PC is removed and destroyed before you take it to a re-cycling centre or alternatively take it out, pop it into a caddy, format the disk and create yourself a handy and inexpensive back up solution. Whilst the hard disk you’ve salvaged might only be small in comparison to your new PC a salvaged 120GB hard disk drive will hold up to 30,000 songs, 150 hours of video, or 25,000 photos. Given you’ve got to remove the hard drive anyway it seems a real shame not to make use of it!

If you do use an enclosure with a new hard disk then you could install say a 1.5TB hard disk into the caddy thus making yourself an inexpensive back up monster.

For many the true benefit of a HDD caddy is that it enables you recover data from a hard disk taken out of an old PC. When you are using a salvaged Hard Disk Drive then if you are using an IDE, ATA or PATA Hard Disk Drives then you need to make sure that the jumper settings on the hard disk drive are set to “master” and not “cable select” or “slave”. If you don’t get the jumper settings correct then the caddy won’t be recognised when connected to the PC.

Whilst you might expect the hard disk drives to be set to “master” as by default its not always the case so its definitely worth checking the disk before you use a caddy. If you need to change the jumper settings it’s easy to do and only takes a few seconds. Most Hard Disk Drive manufactures will have put a self explanatory label on top of the hard drive showing how the jumper needs to be set up to create the “master” “slave” and “cable select” options.

Jumpers are just metal pins that have small black plastic sleeves that slot on them.

Hard disk drive caddy’s usually connect to your PC via a USB cable but there are options available that also support Firewire and e-SATA. For most USB 2.0 is all that’s needed not least because you’ll pay a premium for a caddy with a range of connection options.

When the caddy is connected to your PC via a USB cable it works in pretty much the same way that a USB flash drive works – a new drive letter is dynamically created and you can then copy, save, drag and drop data to the hard disk drive.

Note that the newer standards of SATA hard disk drives have no jumper setting to worry about

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What are the Options to Recover Data from a Salvaged Hard Disk Drive

April 6th, 2010

If you’ve got an old or salvaged IDE or SATA hard disk drive and you need to recover some data from it then there are several options open to you. They are all easy to use and are certainly worth considering before you pay huge sums of money to data recovery specialists.

Hard Drive Cases (also know as caddys or enclosures)

Hard Drive cases are a great solution because they provide physical protection to any hard disk drive that’s installed in the case as well as allowing you to connect to the hard drive and recover the data from the hard disk.

Hard drive cases as the name suggests are metal (normally aluminium) cases that completely encase the bare hard disk drive. Inside the case is either an IDE connector and ribbon interface or SATA connector (it will vary depending of the type of hard drive you have and whether you buy an IDE or SATA HDD case). The HDD case will typically connect to your PC via USB but cases with Firewire and e-SATA interfaces are also available.

Hard drive cases not only allow you to breath new life into any old hard disk drive but you can also you use them with new hard disk drives as well but remember to “allocate” and “format” them first!

All Hard Drive enclosures come with leads to connect the case to the PC. Smaller cases designed for use with hard disks from a laptop will be USB BUS powered but larger cases are all supplied with an external power supply.

The only real downside of the hard drive cases is that they are not designed for “popping” hard drives in and out quickly. Inside the case the hard disk drive will be held in place by four screws and then the case itself is usually secured with at least two more screws.  So, if you’re an engineer and you test lots of different hard drive cable kit solution or a hard disk docking station might be a better bet.

Disk Drive Docking Stations:

Hard Disk Drive Docking Stations are relatively new but they have already proven to be very popular technicians and engineers alike because they make testing multiple hard disk drives a piece of cake! The hard disk drives are simply pushed in to the docking station. There are no screws or connections to mess with so you can be recovering data or just checking that the hard drives work in a couple of seconds.

You do need to buy a docking station for either IDE/ATA hard disks OR SATA hard disks. There are no universal docking stations on the market that cover both interface types but they do work with different physical size versions of the same standard. So, an IDE docking station will work with 2.5” and 3.5” hard disk drives but not SATA and likewise a SATA docking station will work with 2.5” and 3.5” SATA hard disk drives but not IDE/ATA drives.

USB to IDE & SATA HDD Cable Kits:

One of the simplest and most popular products for recovering data from hard disks drives is a universal USB to IDE/SATA cable kit.

These kits are supplied with a range of USB and SATA cables plus a switching power supply unit that allows you to connect pretty much any hard disk drive to a PC via USB 2.0. The USB to IDE and SATA cable kit support hard drives from laptops (2.5″ HDD’s) and desktops (3.5″ HDD).  Its true flexibility is that it will also support IDE/ATA hard disk drives and the newer SATA (Serial-ATA) hard disk drives. Additionally these kits work on all the obvious operating systems including VISTA and Windows 7. So pretty much every flavour of hard drive, every size and every operating system is supported.

Whichever solution you use you will need to make sure if you’re using an IDE/ATA hard disk drive that its set to “master” on the jumper settings. When the hard disk is connected to your PC it will be allocated a new drive letter automatically and will then work pretty much like any USB flash drive.

Compared to the high cost of employing a professional data recovery expert these options are relatively inexpensive.

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Recovering Data From A SATA Hard Disk Drive

March 4th, 2010

If you’re PC has failed and you need to recover data stored on the hard drive then don’t panic. Whether you’ve got a laptop or desktop PC its a relatively easy task to take the hard drive out – just make sure the power is off and the find out where the Hard Disk Drive is being housed. it normally held in place by a couple of screws to the side of the disk. You’ll have to pull off the interface connector from the end of it and in the case of the larger 3.5″ hard drives from a desktop or tower you’ll need to pull off the power connector.

Once you’ve done this you should have a bare bones hard disk drive with nothing attached to it. There will be a manufacturers label on the top of it that will tell you the brand (e.g. IBM, Hitachi etc.) and also tell you the storage capacity of the drive and whether its IDE/ATA/PATA or the newer SATA type of hard drive.

The easiest way to recover the data from the disk is with a USB to IDE/SATA cable kit because these kits work with any Hard Disk drive irrespective of make, type, size. For this reason they are really popular with IT techies, IT support staff and IT engineers because one of these kits can be a life-saver.

The kits come with all you need to power up the hard disk drive and connect it to your PC using USB. Once connected the hard disk drive just shows up as a new drive letter (e.g. E:) and you can then read/write to and from the disk.

The kits are on offer at the moment at only £15.95 and in 2009 they were the best selling product in the USBNow store

USB 2.0 IDE & SATA Cable (with Power Supply) USB 2.0 IDE & SATA Cable (with Power Supply)
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Add SATA to your Laptop quickly and easily

March 4th, 2010

If you’ve got a new laptop then its most likely going to have a express card slot on it to allow you upgrade the laptop after you’ve purchased it. Express card slots have replaced the old PCMCIA standard and come in two different sizes: 34mm and 54mm. If you’ve got the 54mm slot then any 34mm card will also work.

If you have got an express card slot and want to add SATA capabilities to your laptop then we have a couple of solutions for you. SATA is the new superfast interface and standard that gives data trasnsfer speeds of up to 3GB per second. Lots of new external data solutions are now using SATA becuase we’re all saving much larger files (movies, games etc) that need to be pushed around at faster speeds.

Apiotek Extreme eSATAII Express Card Adapter Apiotek Extreme eSATAII Express Card Adapter

These cards are manufactured by Apiotek and support PC and MAC.
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4 Bay SATA Hard Drive Enclosure – 8TB!

March 4th, 2010

Wow – this thing is huge and if you are a serious horder for data then how about 8Tb – thats right you can slot up to 4 x 2TB SATA Hard Disk Drives in this little beast and you’ll have more data storage than a small country!

Its a serious piece of kit designed very much for the business sector or hard core enthusiast. Very well designed and put together. Available as a RAID or Non-RAID option with the RAID option giving excellent back up and mirroring options to protect and secure your data.

The RAID version also support USB, Firewire and eSATA so you are spoilt for data transfer options with eSATA supporting transfer speeds of 3 GB per second!!

All are fine for PC and or Mac with all the latest and greatest operating systems fully supported.

Hotway Probox 4-Bay 3.5" SATA I/II Enclosure Hotway Probox 4-Bay 3.5″ SATA I/II Enclosure

Hotway Probox 4-Bay RAID 3.5" SATA I/II Enclosure Hotway Probox 4-Bay RAID 3.5″ SATA I/II

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Add an RS232 connector (serial port) using an Express Card Slot

March 1st, 2010

If you’ve just purchased a new laptop and you were hoping to plug your old RS-232 9 Pin serial cables into it them you might be in for nasty suprise. Very few new laptops ship with any RS232 or Serial Port capability. This is partly because of cost, partly because the laptop manufacturers are trying to keep the entry price and weights down and partly because less and less people are using peripherals that connect via RS-232.

Don’t despair though unless you’ve bought one of the very small notepads that are really designed for web browsing and not much else your new laptop should have an Express Card Slot on the side of it. These new express card slots come in two different sizes (34mm and 54mm widths) but the standard seems to be settling around the smaller 34mm version. The slots are basically ways in which you can add new capabilities to your laptop after you’ve purchased it.  You don’t have to worry about unscrewing the laptop or fitting things inside it you simply buy an express card with the capability you need and slide the card into the slot on your latop – that’s it. Simple.

Express cards are now available for all sorts of things including adding Firewire (ieee1394a) which is a popular way of transferring video and movie footage from your Camcorder, adding integral card readers (for things like CF cards, SD cards, xd Card etc.) adding ethernet cabaiity and of course adding a 9 Pin Serial Port (RS-232).

Even if you’ve got a 54mm express card slot any 34mm card will still fit and work because the inteface on the 54mm cards is only 34mm (its an “L” shaped card) andthe 54mm standard was designed to work with all 34mm cards.

Apiotek Classic Serial Port Express Card Adapter Apiotek Classic Serial Port Express Card Adapter

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New 5.25″ SATA Enclosures Now in Stock

March 1st, 2010

We’ve finally managed to get some SATA (Serial-ATA) versions of the ever popular 5.25″ Hard Drive cases and enclosures we sell. These 5.25″ cases are popular because they are ideal not only for hard disk drives but other peripherals with a standard SATA interface such as DVD burners, CD players etc.

If you haven’t got enough room to pop a DVD player inside your PC case then you could pop one inside one of these 5.25″ cases and simply connect it to your PC via the USB lead that’s supplied with it. Extremely easy to set up and use and a real bargain at the price we’re selling them at. We know there are cheaper versions you can pick up on ebay but frankly they’re not worth it – these units from Hotway are all RoHS compliant, they meet all the EU specs and have properly fused UK plugs (not something you can be sure of when you buy cheap and cheerful units off of ebay)

We’ve tested these case up to 1Tb becasuse thats the largest HDD we have to use for testing but we’re pretty confident they are fine up to 1.5Tb which is an absolutely whopping amount of data!

The cases as you’ll have gathered all come with UK power supply units, and a USB lead to connect them to your PC.

As an alternative you could also consider one of our ever popular USB to IDE/SATA kits – these work with all hard disk drives irrespective of their physical size, storage capacity or interface. No wonder they were our best selling product in 2009 and look on course to repeat this in 2010.

Rock 5.25" USB 2.0 Enclosure Rock 5.25″ USB 2.0 Enclosure

USB 2.0 IDE & SATA Cable (with Power Supply) USB 2.0 IDE & SATA Cable (with Power Supply)

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