Vantec CB-ISA225-U3 Manual

What this adapter can and cannot do

1. This adapter will allow you to connect a storage device like a IDE hard drive, SATA hard drive, or a SATA SSD to your system USB port.
2. Once connected with your drive, you can use it as a USB storage device to access the data on your drive.
3. Your drive must be in working condition for this adapter to work. If your physical drive is not functioning or will not spin up (hard drive), this adapter will not be able to read it.
4. If your drive is working, but the file system is corrupted, you will not be able to read it either.
5. If your drive is working, but there are errors with the file system as a result it is not accessible, you can try using this adapter to connect to your drive and use a data recovery software to help you recovery the data. We do not and cannot help with the recovery process because we do not provide the recovery software.
6. If your drive is working and was prep using Windows OS, it is best to connect your drive to a system using the same OS.
7. If your drive was prep or formatted differently, the system that it is connected to may not be able to recognize the drive correctly, it is not necessary the problem with this adapter.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will the CB-ISA225-U3 works with my Windows 8, 8.1, 10, 11, or Mac OS X (10.6 or newer)? Yes, it will work correctly.
2. Does this device require any drivers? No, this device will not need any drivers if you are using XP or newer OS. It is all built into the Operating System. All current Operating Systems (Windows XP,7,8, 8.1, 10, 11, OS X 10.6 or newer, and latest Linux) come with native USB Mass Storage drivers already built-in. You just have to power ON the unit and the system will detect a USB device connected and load the correct drivers for you.
3. Can I connect my CB-ISA225-U3 to my USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 port? Yes, the USB 3.0 connector is backward compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports, but it will run slower. It will work better with USB 3.0 ports.
4. Will this adapter help me see my hard drive data? This product allows the user to connect their SATA/IDE drive to your system USB port physically. How it functions is dependent on how the user's OS sees the drive (not our adapter related), if the user drive is in good working condition, user drive file system is not corrupted, it is very likely you will be able to see and read your hard drive data, of course sometime it could be other reasons it cannot see the data like if the drive is passworded or encrypted or the drive comes out of a computer that dies or not bootable, it may be caused by corrupted file system or virus or mechanical problems, Our adapter will not be helpful.
5. I took a hard drive out of an older notebook but the interface is different from what is available to connect the adapter, how can I get it to work? Some notebook manufacturer uses an adapter interface (see pictures) to connect the hard drive to the notebook. If you remove the adapter interface you will see the standard SATA or IDE pinout to connect to this CB-ISA225-U3 adapter.
   

6. How do I get power to the 2.5" IDE hard drive when there is no power connector? The 2.5" IDE hard drive gets its power from the USB 3.0 port. The power from the USB 3.0 port is sufficient to get the 2.5" IDE drive to work correctly.
7. If I do not have a USB 3.0 port, can I still use a 2.5" IDE hard drive with the CB-ISA225-U3? Yes, you can use a USB 2.0 powered HUB that will provide sufficient power to the 2.5" IDE hard drive to work correctly.
8. Can I use the CB-ISA225-U3 as a boot device? No, it will not work as a boot device.
9. I am not seeing my hard drive in the list of drives in the Window Explorer, but the drivers have been successfully installed. What am I doing wrong? You will have to go to your Disk Management (Windows) or go to Disk Utility (Mac). Once in there, you should be able to determine if the hard drive is readable.
10. Why is Windows Operating System asking me "Do you want to format this drive", I have important data on the drive that I want to retrieve? What can I do? If you have important data on the hard drive, do not format the drive. Windows OS tries to read the data and could not read it due to file corruption or unknown format; it will then ask if you want to format this drive. Please answer NO and use data recovery software to recover your data.
11. Can this CB-ISA225-U3 read other file systems formats? The CB-ISA225-U3 can read other file systems format IF the computer it is connected to can read the format of the drive. Example:
    1. If this hard drive was using Windows OS, the common file system is NTFS. If you connect this drive to a newer Windows OS system, it can read and write to it.
    2. If this hard drive was using Windows OS, the common file system is NTFS. If you connect this drive to a Mac OS X (10.8 and newer) system, it can only read but cannot write to it.
    3. If the drive was used in an OS X system, the common file system is HFS or HFS+ (extended Journal). If you connect this drive to a Windows system it will never read it because the Windows OS cannot read HFS or HFS+ file system.
12. My old computer cannot boot and I took the drive out. I then connect it to the CB-ISA225-U3 adapter and try to retrieve the data using my new computer and it is saying "access denied". What is wrong? Due to security reasons built into your new computer, you do not have rights to the data on the old computer. You can access the data by taking ownership of the data so that you can get your data back. Search online for help with "take ownership of files or folders". This has nothing to do with this CB-ISA225-U3 adapter, it tells me the adapter is working correctly.
13. Will the CB-ISA225-U3 work with Advanced Format (4Ksector) Drive? Yes, it will work correctly with Advanced Format (4K sector) Drives except for native 4K drive.
14. My computer crashed and I cannot boot Windows. Can I use this CB-ISA225-U3 to retrieve the data on the hard drive? It depends on the cause of the computer crash. If the crash is caused by other problems not related to the hard drive, you should be able to retrieve the data. This CB-ISA225-U3 can assist with the help of a DATA recovery program to recover the data. If it is caused by the hardware (physical damage) of the hard drive, you may NOT be able to retrieve any data using the CB-ISA225-U3.

15. When I plug a drive into the adapter, it lists as an unrecognized device or nothing happens, why is it happening?
    1. Try restarting your computer and wait until your system is ready and try again. This will reset your USB port. Also never plug and unplug USB devices quickly as this will confuse the computer USB ports.
    2. Check your connection SATA/IDE connection and make sure it is securely inserted.
16. My system USB is reporting a device is plugged in, but it is not showing in Windows Explorer why? This is often caused by the file system on the hard drive corruption, it is not the fault of the adapter. Look in the device manager to see if you can see the drive in the disk drive section and look in disk management to see if it can see the physical disk. It may explain why it is not showing in Windows Explorer.
17. System see the drive in device manager and disk management, but did not show in Windows Explorer, why? Look in disk management in the physical disk section, in the box show the physical disk number, make sure the disk is not offline and there is a drive letter assigned to it, if not, put it online and select a drive letter to the device.
18. Work with SATA drive, but not IDE, why? All 3.5" IDE drives require jumper settings to be set correctly, incorrect settings, the computer will not be able to read the drive correctly. Follow the steps below for further help on jumper settings with IDE drives.
19. I connected the Optical drive and it is not working, why? Please check the power requirement of the optical drive specifications, some optical drives use lots more power than a hard drive and the provided adapter may not be enough. If this is the cause, you will need to get a bigger ac adapter for your optical drive.
20. See my drive and cannot read the data, why? The design of this adapter is to help connect your SATA/IDE drive to your computer. if other causes result in the inability to read the data, it is not the fault of the adapter. For example, if you are using Windows OS to read other OS drives, or the drive is encrypted, or the drive has a password protected, or the drive was from another system under a different user name, and more.
21. Can see the drive but cannot see my data, where is my data is located? The adapter only helps with getting your hard drive connected to your system at the hardware level, it is not able to know where your data is located. Please google for help. Often for Windows 10, the data is located in the "user name" folder under the user's main folder. For Windows 7 or older, it is often under the "Document and Setting" folder.
22. It is not detecting my drive and why is the USB plug so loose or not fitting? We follow the USB specification to design the USB plug, we have not changed the plug size or specification since it was released for use. Please check your other USB ports to see if you have the same problem. Check the connection and the proper steps to connect listed below based on the type of drives you are connecting.

23. I have other questions that are not listed here, what can I do?
    You can email our support team at support@vantecusa.com

How to use this adapter

Make sure you have all the items needed to connect your drive. The complete kit consist of the AC adapter, Power adapter, Molex power connector, SATA power connector, SATA cable, IDE/SATA to USB adapter.

Know what type of drive you have and how to connect them.
There are 4 common drive interface, 2.5" IDE, 3.5" IDE, 2.5" SATA, 3.5" SATA

Below list how to connect and setup based on the type of drive that you have.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR CB-ISA225-U3 to connect to a SATA (2.5" or 3.5") drive:

FOR SATA (2.5" or 3.5") drive:

1. Have everything disconnected
2. Reboot the computer
3. IF your 2.5" SATA drive interface looks different, do not continue read Question #5 in the FAQ section. If you are still not sure, please write or call us for assistance.
4. Follow the picture Green color number connecting one at a time and make sure the hard drive is secure and properly connected to the device. Some of the plugs are keyed to prevent plugging the wrong way. Please look carefully and connected it the right way. The wrong connection may damage the drive and adapter kit.Do not connect the USB to the computer for now (#7); it will be mentioned in the next step.
   
5. After you have plugged the power adapter into the wall, Turn ON the power switch and let the hard drive spin up for about 20-25 seconds. (You should be able to hear the hard drive spin up).
6. Make sure it is spin up to speed before you connect the USB to the computer (#7). Once connected to your computer, the Blue LED (2) on the adapter will be ON.
7. Wait while the computer detects the device and automatically install USB drivers. (Sometimes older drives may take as long as 45 seconds to be detected)
8. Once the drivers are installed, the computer should see the hard drive in Windows Explorer. (for Mac [OS X], you should see a USB icon on the drive on the desktop)
9. If the drive did not show in Windows Explorer or My Computer, look into the Disk Management to see if the physical drive is there. (For Mac, if the drive does not show on the desktop with a USB icon, look into the Disk Utility to see if it is there). If the physical disk shows in disk management or disk utility, this adapter kit is working correctly, it may be your drive's file system that was corrupted as a result you cannot read the drive in Windows Explorer.

FOR IDE (3.5"ONLY) drive:

1. Have everything disconnected
2. Reboot the computer
3. For the 3.5" IDE drive, there are jumpers on the drive that may need to change for it to work correctly. Check the instruction on the label of the drive, it should show the jumper setting for a different setup like Master, Slave, CS (Cable Select) setting. Make sure the hard drive is set into MASTER Drive Mode only. Sometimes in very rare cases, using MASTER Drive Mode is still not working correctly; you should try Slave only or Cable Select Mode.
4. Follow the picture and make sure the hard drive is secure and properly connected to the device.Do not connect the USB to the computer for now (#7); it will be mentioned in the next step.
   
5. After you have plugged the power adapter into the wall, turn ON the power switch and let the hard drive spin up for about 30-45 seconds. (You should be able to hear the hard drive spin up, older drive takes longer to spin up).
6. Make sure it is spin up to speed before you connect the USB to the computer (#7). Once connected to your computer, the Blue LED (2) on the adapter will be ON.
7. Wait while the computer detects the device and automatically install USB drivers. (Sometimes older drives may take as long as 45 seconds to be detected)
8. Once the drivers are installed, the computer should see the hard drive in Windows Explorer. (for Mac [OS X], you should see a USB icon on the drive on the desktop)
9. If the drive did not show in Windows Explorer or My Computer, look into the Disk Management to see if the physical drive is there. (For Mac, if the drive does not show on the desktop with a USB icon, look into the Disk Utility to see if it is there). If the physical disk shows in disk management or disk utility, this adapter kit is working correctly, it may be your drive's file system that was corrupted as a result you cannot read the drive in Windows Explorer.

FOR IDE (2.5" ONLY, be extra careful) drive:

1. Have everything disconnected
2. Reboot the computer
3. IF your 2.5" IDE drive interface looks different, do not continue read Question #5 in the FAQ section. If you are still not sure, please write or call us for assistance.
4. For a 2.5" IDE drive, connecting it right is VERY IMPORTANT because the power pin is part of the 44 pin connection. The wrong connection will damage the disk instantly once plugin. Please be very careful. The picture below shows the interface of the drive and adapter. There are two sets of pins, a 4 pin and a 44 pin. The CBISA225-U3 adapter uses only the 44 pin. The 4 pins are NOT USED. On the CB-ISA225-U3 adapter, the interface of the 44 holes, one of the holes is plugged that is keyed to avoid wrong connection. On the drive side, there are 44 pins with one missing pin. Make sure the plugged hole is aligned with the missing pin. If you are still not sure, please write or call us for assistance.
   
5. Follow the picture and make sure the hard drive is secure and properly connected to the device.Do not connect the USB to the computer.
6. Since the 2.5" IDE drive is using power from the USB port, you do not need to connect the power adapter, but please use the USB port that can provide the most power to the drive.
   A USB 3.0 port should have sufficient power for your drive, but if you are using a USB 2.0 port, a good way is to connect to a powered USB HUB if you have one. If not connect to the USB on the back of a desktop or tower system (avoid the front USB port).
7. Now connect the USB to the computer, once connected to the USB port the drive should spin up and the Blue LED (2) on the adapter will be ON.
8. Wait while the computer detects the device and automatically install USB drivers. (Sometimes older drives may take as long as 45 seconds to a whole minute to be detected)
9. Once the drivers are installed, the computer should see the hard drive in My Computers. (for Mac, see a USB icon of the drive on the desktop)
10. If the drive did not show on explorer or My Computer, look into the Disk Management to see if the physical drive is there. (For Mac, if the drive does not show on the desktop with a USB icon, look into the Disk Utility to see if it is there). If the physical disk shows in disk management or disk utility, this adapter kit is working correctly, it may be your drive's file system that was corrupted as a result you cannot read the drive in Windows Explorer.