On Mon, 26 Aug 2013 13:54:18 -0400, Nil
wrote:

should the adapter pilot LED light up whether the drive is good or
bad? Would Windows detect the adapter if no drive was attached?

I've an all-in-1 USB Kingston adaptor for all sorts of micro-memory
cards. Pretty fancy. Plugged in alone, I end up with half a dozen
drive letter -assignments- whether slotted, populated with a memory
card or not. So, yes, that is a possibility with USB although not
necessarily an eventuality.

As for the rest sounds like you've you're hands full with 1.8"
drives;- can't say -- as I'm a full-factor, LCD, most-common-parts PC
builder these days -- it's to the point to where I don't even like
laptops anymore. Rather, I'm better not going there. (Got a *hunch*
those drives may not be bad ... ooops, it slipped out.)