All in One HDD Docking IDE Not Working

Working in IT, I had many drives I could test. The majority of the ones I used were old and smaller capacity, however they seemed to work fine. Almost all drive manufacturers follow the same design standards, consequently the IDE and power sockets are usually in the same place, and fit properly with their respective plug counterparts on the docking station.

I had some very old Western Digital drives from the year 2000 and one drive gave me problems; however, I doubt anyone will be using a drive as old as that today.

Although some of the sellers are describing the operation of this docking station as "plug and play hot-swappable", it is better to power down the drive and docking station before changing it, otherwise you could end up inflicting serious damage to the drive electronics.

How well this docking station performs and its reliability very much depends upon the IDE connection and the reliability of the socket. If the pins within the socket become bent, or loose, then all sorts of problems can manifest. I was very careful when changing the drives, and I did not experience any problems.

Four Jumper Pins – Good, Five Jumper Pins – Bad

As a rule of thumb, if your drive has five × 2 rows of jumper pins, then the hard drive may not work. There are some drives such as the Western Digital WD800JB, which will not work. I did not have any of those drives for testing, but I am sure I might come across one in the future.

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