Okay, here's the deal:
I bought a IDE to USB adapter this week, inspired in this product I saw on newegg. (Sabrent USB 2.0 TO IDE CABLE). I saw a fairly similar product in a local store and bought it.

Now, when I plug it in, XP says that a new USB device has been detected: Mass usb storage. It seems to be going fine until the little balloon popup says there's been a problem installing the drivers and that it might not work correctly. The thing is... It doesn't work at all.
I tried installing the drivers that came with it, but there's just so many folders and stuff it's hard to know what to install! There's a little note in the box that says: "Driver Win98: 3.5 HDD\GL811". And when I run the setup.exe that is in that location a messagebox says "File copy error."
I've attached a few pictures, hoping that someone can help me with this.

Parts and box
Back of the box
Side of the box
Driver CD Folder Structure

If you look at the pics on newegg and the ones i've posted, you'll note that the 2 products are very similar, should i try sabrent drivers?

what are you trying to conect?

the problem my not the de cable, but the device.

try instaling a driver for teh hdd, CD, DVD or what ever it is you are trying to conect.

its an old HD drive...

i'll take your advice and try and connect something else.

You want one of the ones under 3.5 HDD drivers, it should work.

also make sure you have SP1 at least...

oh, an HDD??
then make sure that it has a partition on it.

I tried connecting the HDD normally (i mean to the PSU and MoBo) and it worked fine. It has a partition and files on it.
The thing is.. it's a really old HDD. It's (don't laugh) 340 MB big. lol, ok you can laugh!

I tried using my IDE to USB adapter with my samsung CDRW drive afterwards and it worked like a charm. automatically detected it and identified it. i could use the drive normally.

i guess it's an issue with the old HDD, right? i still find it weird that after connecting it and having XP recognize and install the drivers for it, it still wouldn't work with the adapter.

any ideas?