The problem is that USB is software driven, it uses the operating system and drivers instead of the system BIOS.
For best results you always want a direct BIOS connection so it can provide the accurate drive translation.
Some systems use different geometry for the hard drive and USB cannot replicate that geometry because it doesn't have a direct low level connection to the drive.
If you have another old IDE system that would be better than using USB. I would save USB for a last resort.
I would also consider making an image and restoring that image onto the replacement drive rather than a drive copy.
For image\restore you only need to deal with one drive at a time and you can save the image file should you need it again or in case it didn't work properly the first time.
I actually have a POS system that runs some terminals for a retail business.
They use posiflex terminals that only allow one IDE connection at a time.
Years ago I pulled one of the hard drives and put it in an old IDE desktop I had laying around.
Just make sure it doesn't "boot" in the other system or you will end up with a mess.
Then I imaged it to create an image file and I have that image as a backup should I ever need it for one of the terminals.
That image will still work for me since all the other data gets pulled down from the server each morning.
I can also use it on any terminal because they are all the same except the network address and terminal names.
Dave
