RIGHT SO
All of the issues I've been having with optical drives over USB have been thanks to this dinky little unbranded "USB3.0 TO IDE/SATA" box I got off Amazon or something like 5 years ago.
I think a majority of the issue probably stems from the generic power supply that I imagine was not providing very good power for the drives connected to it.
So I have two options from here. Either buy a better power supply for this adapter box, assuming it simply passes through whatever power it gets, so a UL-listed, certified power supply would make it start working better... Or just scrap the whole set and buy a better, more reliable kit. Does anyone have any recommendations for which course I should take, and which power supply/new USB to IDE/SATA kit I should get?