> I got a cheap SATA to USB external adaptor and used it to look at a 500Gb [...] > Might I think that there is something amiss with the USB/SATA adapter > thing ?
In my experience, USB<->SATA adapters are not super-reliable (cheap or not), the main problem stemming from power delivery, so you might like to retry it on other USB ports, the more power it can deliver the better. [ Obviously, I presume that your adapter does not have its own power source. ] Stefan