"While cheap, modern adapters usually only work with newer "LBA" type drives, ATAboy works all the way back to the earliest CHS only, PIO Mode 0, ATA disks."
So I guess this would work on some particularly ancient drives that a USB adapter wouldn't work with - not that I've ever encountered one. It is vibecoded, but sounds like it would work fine to get an image off of the drive, which won't be very large compared to even modest contemporary storage capacities.
alt Hacker News
From article:
"While cheap, modern adapters usually only work with newer "LBA" type drives, ATAboy works all the way back to the earliest CHS only, PIO Mode 0, ATA disks."
So I guess this would work on some particularly ancient drives that a USB adapter wouldn't work with - not that I've ever encountered one. It is vibecoded, but sounds like it would work fine to get an image off of the drive, which won't be very large compared to even modest contemporary storage capacities.