A way to read these old HDDs?

[weestuarty]

I had the exact same issue about a month ago, found a load of old hdds i had "kept incase" and had no idea what was on them now. i ordered these two parts:

USB to Sata adapter including power (only required with 3.5 drives (desktop))

IDE to Sata adapter:

I liked this option as it was "clean" and allows me to read both formats, sata just plug and play and IDE plug adapter in and connect one additional wire from board to power then just plug into sata. no mass of wires and no confusion.

Plus bonus it comes in a sturdy little box which houses everything perfect for me to store for use again

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

I had the exact same issue about a month ago, found a load of old hdds i had "kept incase" and had no idea what was on them now. i ordered these two parts:

USB to Sata adapter including power (only required with 3.5 drives (desktop))

IDE to Sata adapter:

I liked this option as it was "clean" and allows me to read both formats, sata just plug and play and IDE plug adapter in and connect one additional wire from board to power then just plug into sata. no mass of wires and no confusion.

Plus bonus it comes in a sturdy little box which houses everything perfect for me to store for use again

Your pictures won't load for me for some reason, but I just checked the codes and found them on amazon anyway thanks ahaha

So THIS converts the IDE into a Sata connection? Plug it right straight into the Data connectors of the IDE drive, and the power for the drive is also supplied from that little circuit board?

Then THIS is a SATA to USB connection, with a 12V input from the wall, which supplies the IDE/ Sata board with the power for the drive and gives the data connection to the laptop via USB?

If that's how it works, then that makes sense. The only issue that I'd have had is giving the IDE drive that 12V of power, since I don't have any molex 4 pins or ways to give them a supply even


EDIT I've just found this on Amazon and it looks even easier and less cabled solution to the problem! What do we think? It looks like exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for but don't want to purchase without a little feedback to know if it's a legit purchase for the purpose I need it for ahaha!

Amazon IDE to USB Adapter

 

[weestuarty]

Your thoughts are bang on except that the power included supplies the power from the sata to ide the 4 pin comes off the board to the ide and the sata connection provides both power and data when its powered with the included plug.

The one you linked will also work as its essentially the same, i just went for the one i linked because the majority of drives i use (every single one except the ones i found) are sata so once ive recovered the data i dont really need the IDE part so its just cleaner after that.

My recommendation would be if you are happy with the one you found then it will do what you need so just go for it. Everyone has thier own preference for setup but at the end of the day they all do the same thing the biggest thing to make sure its usb3.0 as ive used a 2.0 before and its slllllooooooooow.

 

[duwen]

You might want to remove the jumper (what you reference as 'the link') as in it's current position it's set to 'master'. Removing it will set it to 'slave'... might be fine as-is when connected via a IDE2USB adapter, but if not just pull the jumper out.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

The one you linked will also work as its essentially the same, i just went for the one i linked because the majority of drives i use (every single one except the ones i found) are sata so once ive recovered the data i dont really need the IDE part so its just cleaner after that.

Great, thanks! What do you mean by you don't need the IDE part? After extracting to a SATA drive you don't need to connect the little power cable you mean? I feel so uneducated right now ahaha.

Once I've looked at/ extracted any data I need from the drives I'll probably never use them again honestly. There's more than enough modern style storage in the house to accomodate all of the stuff on them (the 3 drives add up to less than 300GB I think).

You might want to remove the jumper (what you reference as 'the link') as in it's current position it's set to 'master'. Removing it will set it to 'slave'... might be fine as-is when connected via a IDE2USB adapter, but if not just pull the jumper out.

Okay, that's what I was asking! Cheers. There is a diagram of the jumper location on the front of the HDD in the first image, up in the top left. I guess that's just something that makes the PC interpret it as the boot drive/ primary drive?

 

[weestuarty]

All I meant was i still can use the sata adapter for my current spare drives without extra ports or wires built into the adapter for things im not using. Just using the Sata adapter as a sata adapter and not having a multi adapter when going forward i only need one type

 

[Deleted member 301661]

Great, thanks! What do you mean by you don't need the IDE part? After extracting to a SATA drive you don't need to connect the little power cable you mean? I feel so uneducated right now ahaha.

Once I've looked at/ extracted any data I need from the drives I'll probably never use them again honestly. There's more than enough modern style storage in the house to accomodate all of the stuff on them (the 3 drives add up to less than 300GB I think).


Okay, that's what I was asking! Cheers. There is a diagram of the jumper location on the front of the HDD in the first image, up in the top left. I guess that's just something that makes the PC interpret it as the boot drive/ primary drive?

the jumper on an IDE drive is master/slave primair/secondair... for most usb converters it's dismissed information, just bios needs it set, then for really old drives it could be you'll need to set tracks and heads manually (if it's from before Plug and Pray era) this information should be found on the label of the HDD.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

All I meant was i still can use the sata adapter for my current spare drives without extra ports or wires built into the adapter for things im not using. Just using the Sata adapter as a sata adapter and not having a multi adapter when going forward i only need one type

Understood! I will have a use for the sata to USB too, as I've just purchased a sata SSD to replace the slow sata SSHD which is currently fitted in my laptop so, that's good news.

the jumper on an IDE drive is master/slave primair/secondair... for most usb converters it's dismissed information, just bios needs it set, then for really old drives it could be you'll need to set tracks and heads manually (if it's from before Plug and Pray era) this information should be found on the label of the HDD.

Okay, then that has no significance to me. Thanks for the info

Will purchase the gear shortly and see how I get on. Thanks to everyone for the attention this recieved!

 

[Hayato213]

Im curious what you going to do with an IDE drive?

 

[Deleted member 301661]

Maybe there is an old monochrome text adventure that fills the 750Kb HDD, who knowes?

 

[AncientBoi]

Maybe there is an old monochrome text adventure that fills the 750Kb HDD, who knowes?

Monochrome? Sounds like something from my era. LoL

 

[impeeza]

I always keep this box laying arround:

The yellow ones are SATA <-> IDE adaptors (WORKS IN BOOTH WAYS! so I was able to use a new SATA SSD drive on a very old computer.)
The Orange is a three devices to USB 2, you can connect to the same time a SATA, a IDE 80 pins and a IDE small pins device(portatil), and the computer see them at same time.
The Green one is IDE/SATA to USB 3 adaptor.

they all works fine and you can connect old (and new) Optical units or Hard drives to new computers.

also have a lots of pins adapters and cables, come of the adapters use they own power units.

 

[AncientBoi]

I always keep this box laying arround:
View attachment 336653

The yellow ones are SATA <-> IDE adaptors (WORKS IN BOOTH WAYS! so I was able to use a new SATA SSD drive on a very old computer.)
The Orange is a three devices to USB 2, you can connect to the same time a SATA, a IDE 80 pins and a IDE small pins device(portatil), and the computer see them at same time.
The Green one is IDE/SATA to USB 3 adaptor.

they all works fine and you can connect old (and new) Optical units or Hard drives to new computers.

also have a lots of pins adapters and cables, come of the adapters use they own power units.

you never know when you need them.

 

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

Im curious what you going to do with an IDE drive?

I'm not using them for storage if that's what you mean? I'm just taking data from it that's been on there for 16/17 years that I haven't seen in probably over... 10 years?

Be interesting to see what's on there from my school days. Countless pictures taken on some of the first camera phones, of my school days I think! ahaha