RTVPatch with a Win7 laptop?

I'm cleaning-out my basement, and I have an old tower system with Windows XP that I haven't used in years. The only reason I keep it is for if/when I need to replace another Replay drive.

My question is, can I use a current Windows 7 laptop to Patch a drive if I use a USB to IDE converter like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812232002 ?

Also, what are the chances I'll be able to actually find a hard drive to put into the Replay?

It's getting tougher to know if its worth hanging on to the Replay lifestyle, or when the next drive goes should I take it as the sign to move on to another technology

Thanks for your thoughts on this...

Thanks for the feedback on Win 7. I'm going to go ahead and purchase the USB adapter and one of these refurbished drives and see if they work. I'll report back in a few weeks.

Drive:
http://serversupply.com/HARD%20DRIVE...3160215ACE.htm

I’m very pleased to report that the USB IDE adapter & the ServerSupply 160GB Seagate drive appear to work with RTVPatch & Replay.
Here are the details....

Both the Newegg USB IDE adapter & the Seagate DB35 drive shipped with free shipping, and arrived within a few days. The USB adapter worked as advertised. I connected the "new" (the listing indicates its a refurbished drive) Seagate drive. Per SeaTools for Windows, the drive has firmware 3.ACH and Power-On Hours of "0". It has a date code of 10166 (mfg end of October 2010).

I was able to use the USB adapter to backup both of my Replay drives. It was nice to be able to bring the laptop to the Reply! For one of the units, I performed the backup with the videos cables still connected to the back, and the drive still screwed in place to the chassis.

I restored one of the images to the new160GB Seagate drive, and then put this drive into the Replay. The Replay booted OK, and all of the settings were OK (I didn’t attempt to copy the shows, but the channel guide was correct, and the Replay Guide had all of the scheduled recordings present). I only ran the Replay for a minute or two before I shut it down and put the old drive back in. So, I don’t know for sure that the new drive will perform well in the long term with recordings, or not rebooting.

In summary, I spent about $50 and I now have a drive ready to go if/when one of the Replay drives fail. With the USB adapter, I have a means to patch drives with the laptop. So, I am proceeding with cleaning out the basement and recycling all of my old PCs (and old PS/2 keyboards I kept around from the days of the Linux Replay Patch boot disks). I will be keeping an eye on the Ceton Q as a potential long-term replacement. But, for now I figure I’m set for another year or so with the Replays.