I use USB/IDE/SATA converters a lot and on the two that I have now, I sometimes get errors copying files to drives.

It only happens when I'm copying big files to the drive (big can mean as little as 100MB, I think it happens more often with bigger files - 300MB or more), and basically the copy will fail and I'll get one or more error messages about "Delayed write failed."

But if I disconnect the drive and re-connect it, I'll usually be able to continue. (The file that was being copied will be corrupt, but otherwise the drive is fine.)

I just noticed a new type of flakiness: the data transfer rate can vary widely. I copied one set of files (5x300MB files) and it took 10+minutes, then I copied another set (approx. the same sizes) and it took less than a minute.

I haven't done systematic testing, the other things I'm doing on my laptop at the same time might have some impact, and I haven't cross-checked the two adapters I have and the 3 hard drives I'm working with to see if there's a pattern. I'm more wondering if anyone else has seen anything like this.