A Dussera + Diwali + Thanksgiving + Christmas Gift ...

And that would be a USB to SATA/IDE cable ... hee hee. About three months back I purchased an external 250 GB SATA hard disk. But as I wanted to use it for backup purposes I did not want to fix it inside the cabinet but keep it outside and access it via USB. For this purpose, I purchased an external SATA to USB enclosure from CTC, Parklane, Secunderabad and started using it. But soon I realized that it was hanging intermittently and the only way to access the hard disk again was switching off and switching on the USB enclosure. A similar drive brought by someone I know had corrupted his entire hard disk. What is worse is that these cheap quality USB enclosures available in CTC do not come with any warranty.

This is when I decided I would order one from US. And my friend Sagar offered to buy me one. There are many USB to SATA/IDE cables available for ordering online. The one I got was from Granite Digital. Though this was a bit costly, I decided to go for it as it exclusively mentions support for linux. Another such cable which has got good reviews is the one from Vantec. Be sure to check out the reviews on the Internet before you buy any such cable / enclosure as a low quality one might corrupt your hard disk and cause data loss.

And as to why it is a Dussersa + Diwali + Thanksgiving + Christmas gift, is because I had almost waited for 3 months for someone to get this to India from the US and during this period, all those festivals passed by. Thanks Sagar for this gift. It is a life savior.