I have a device that interfaces SATA (and a few other formats) to USB. A few of my friends have been very happy to borrow it, so it's definitely a tool I'm going to hang to. With no moving parts, it should last a while.
I have one as well, and it even does IDE too. I do computer repair in my spare time, so I'm not exactly the typical user, but I've gotten a lot more use out of mine then I would have expected as well.
For those looking to buy one, I would personally recommend just going for a simple one that has an external AC adapter. I've found a lot of the ones that attempt to power the drive straight from USB ports can unexpectedly have the drive power-off due to the USB ports not being able to supply enough power, which is obviously a huge issue (Even my eSATA with a Y-cable has this issue with some drives, making it basically unusable). Powering it externally is a lot more reliable.
