Topic: Some help converting an IDE to SATA hard drive

[nouseforaname]

My computer only takes SATA and my slave I had in an old computer is IDE. It's obviously 3.5". When I did some research I came across this USB to IDE cable here:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3012908&CatId=3770


I'm not sure about it any more because I don't want a fried hard drive. It has so much of my data on there I'd like to not lose it. This would be very useful as it can be used on other drive sizes but those ratings vary from great to poor.

Someone also told me to use a hard drive enclosure. The thing is that my hard drive is a Seagate and it's not old but it's not new so it's almost an inch thick.

And the last method someone mentioned was to use a PCIe card and connect it directly to that. My only concern about this is that the power supply doesn'th ave the power connector for the hard drive.

Can someone tell me the best, safest and useful method to connect this hard drive to my pc? I'd be using it to transfer my data to this current hard drive, not keeping it as a slave.

Mention some things as well. I'm looking to spend $20-$30.

[smokester]

I have one of those USB jobbies and they can be a little hit and miss.  It did fry one hard drive I tried to back up but the drive did have some physical errors anyhow.

I would have though a motherboard adaptor would be the best and most reliable solution if you had a spare port and couldn't be bothered bouncing all the data, and even if it you did just want to bounce the data across, you could install it using this and then remove it.

Here is a link to one so you can see hat it is but they are fairly common and you should shop around for a cheap one, maybe Ebay?

http://www.startech.com/item/SATA2ATA133-Serial-ATA-SATA-to-ATA-133-IDE-Adapter-Male-to-Female.aspx

[nouseforaname]

Those things were actually the very first things brought to mind. They connect directly to a IDE and convert it to SATA. I've read that some can be duds but nothing about them frying drives. I guess I'm skeptical. The ones at Tiger Direct look cheaply made. I really don't want to lose my data from that drive. It has so many things I really can't replace.

[smokester]

I guess you're right when you suggest there is some risk, but with the usb device you are surrendering it to the quality of the device itself and how well it configures.  The adaptor is physically changing the connection by a motherboard modification, so the computer is reading it like any other drive. 

If you wanted to be safe, you could always connect another, less valuable driver first, and if it reads that ok it shouldn't have problems with any IDE drive that isn't damaged.

[nouseforaname]

Well I'm obviously not caring about what it looks like, you know? The quality doesn't matter as long as it's held together, plus at the price I'm willing to pay, I'm getting what I pay for so I understand that much. I really don't know what to use. Have you used what you linked me?

That's what I'm planning on doing. I have two hard drives I don't mind testing out, and a lightscribe dvd burner. All are IDE so they are good test subjects. So what do you recommend, that IDE to SATA adapter?

[smokester]

I was thinking of doing it myself as my motherboard can host 4 sata drives and I only use 2 (and I have plenty of IDE drives knocking about), so it would be my choice.  I sometimes connect up a drive with my USB adaptor but I do say 3 hail Marys beforehand.  I am not putting it down really as it rarely fails, but sometimes I get little read and write problems when copy data back and forth.

As I have suggested though, it need not be destructive if you have drives to test first.

I have seen them as cheap is ?1.56 (that must be like $2) with free shipping on Ebay.

[dweez]

I haven't really thought about this too much.  Do you have an older computer you can throw it in and just transfer data across the network?  I think these adapters would come in handy if you worked on peoples' computers alot but for the regular joe at home, after one use, they're pretty much wasted.  I did find an external enclosure that supported both IDE (PATA) and SATA drives for $30 a couple years back though.

[nouseforaname]

I was thinking of doing it myself as my motherboard can host 4 sata drives and I only use 2 (and I have plenty of IDE drives knocking about), so it would be my choice.  I sometimes connect up a drive with my USB adaptor but I do say 3 hail Marys beforehand.  I am not putting it down really as it rarely fails, but sometimes I get little read and write problems when copy data back and forth.

As I have suggested though, it need not be destructive if you have drives to test first.

I have seen them as cheap is ?1.56 (that must be like $2) with free shipping on Ebay.

I'll probably buy it from Tiger Direct even though it'll be three times as much. If it fails, I can always go back and return it as most things from ebay like that come from China and don't accept returns. I'll give that adapter a go once I get a chance to go up there.

I haven't really thought about this too much.  Do you have an older computer you can throw it in and just transfer data across the network?  I think these adapters would come in handy if you worked on peoples' computers alot but for the regular joe at home, after one use, they're pretty much wasted.  I did find an external enclosure that supported both IDE (PATA) and SATA drives for $30 a couple years back though.

I was thinking about doing that but the thing is that this hard drive is 120gb and the other pc has a 20gb only so I'd have to go back and forth. Seems like a bother but it's free. My idea is to buy whatever that won't fry my drive and use it in the future because I do mess around with hard drives once in a while. And I'm not going to delete whatever is on the hard drive I want to transer all my data on. I'm going to keep everything on there as a back up drive. Then I'll buy a SATA slave for this pc since I don't have one yet. Probably going to get a Seagate again since mine hasn't failed once.

[smokester]

Then I'll buy a SATA slave for this pc since I don't have one yet.

In know what you mean by that but you know there is no master/slave with SATA.

[nouseforaname]

I don't know anything about SATA drives at all so this is all new to me. I've been using IDE for as long as I can remember. I just want two drives in my computer. I'm not one of those people that needs a 500gb "slave". 250gb or even 320 the most. Anything higher would make me afraid it'd get ruined.

[nouseforaname]

I ended up buying a USB to IDE cable from ebay. It came with a separate SATA to IDE adapter which is fine since I doubt I'll ever use it. I used the USB to IDE cable with two hard drives before I used it on my main one and it worked very well. I used it on a dvd burner which is broke but still burns cd-r's and that worked as well. It only cost me $15 shipped. Neat little thing. Very useful if anyone has this problem.