Feeder

It sounds like you're looking for something like this. Perhaps you don't need the USB to IDE cable, but the included power supply will get the job you described done. https://www.amazon.com/Generic-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B002OV1VJW/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3G1724W1KK397&keywords=SATA+PATA+IDE+Drive+to+USB&qid=1643817982&sprefix=sata+pata+ide+drive+to+usb+%2Caps%2C335&sr=8-2 I mean, I have a ton of old junk around the garage too, but what's your time worth? Anyhow, I found this image on the web that matches the one I have.

I attached the photo for clarity on the ones that work for me, but go with the one suggested by phrunt if you prefer. The important part from my earlier post was to select 'Model A' on the link I provided, it has the master/slave jumper. 'Model B does not, and model B is the first photo that shows when you click on the link. I suspect it's my Scottish heritage that leads me to the lower priced one... Anyhow, I have a stack of 3 of the ones in the photo and they all tested as working. I went through my orders history for the link. I'm fairly certain on this. However, I don't have a link to the same product on Amazon as I didn't place my order with them.

To answer the adapter question. I ordered a bunch of these from AliExpress. Looking at the ones I received they all match model A. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32894868236.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dfDxTLL

I guess that all these years I've been too lazy to TSOP or Chip mod an xbox. I completed a few soft mods for friends and family over the years. I recently extracted an SSD (ADATA SU750 1TB) from one of the machines unlocked it to reformat and put into a PC. For what I wanted available I downgraded to a new cheaper SSD drive (ADATA SU630 480GB) this past weekend. Zero issue. I used Rocky's latest softmodding tools. (https://github.com/Rocky5/Xbox-Softmodding-Tool) All the documentation to do this is out there. I never thought I would need to treat the SSD any differently. Perhaps the secret is in the drive I selected? I did this on a version 1.2 xbox. Hey, why not use SSD drives? They're cheap, readily available, and even on the old disk interface they remove seek times and give a slight performance boost when loading games.