Does this unit come with a power adaptor?

Yes it comes with a separate power adapter. The power plug on the back of the unit is shaped 'like' an S-Video port.

are there any cheaper alternatives?

This was the cheapest alternative I found....and it serves my purposes...all I needed it for was cleaning off old IDE hard drives

I don't know why not. I had it plugged into an HP desktop and there were no issues with connecting to the files that I had on it.

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MASSCOOL UHB-330U Aluminum with mirror finish 3.5" IDE USB 2.0 External Enclosure

Out of Stock