I have one of those really cheap IDE to USB cables, but it's a big pain to use. It doesn't have a dedicated power supply, so I have to fish out an ATX PSU & jump the power-on wires every time I want to use it, and I find it's completely hit-and-miss with drives under 20GB or so. Sometimes they need to be jumpered as master, sometimes as cable select, sometimes you need to hot-plug the IDE cable, sometimes you need to start with everything (including the PC) powered off, sometimes it just plain won't read a drive no matter what you do, etc.

I'm looking for one that's a little more reliable. I have a 2-bay SATA dock that's great; the type you insert drives in from the top like cartridges. I'd love one like that for IDE, but I need that compatibility with old drives.

Any suggestions?