HDD as storage device.
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Peteaud
Veteran
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ian turner
Guru
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- Leicestershire
how old is this drive and what is it's capacity ?
MrJamie
Oaf on a Bike
If you want to use it to transfer between devices and take it on the move with your laptop, flash drives have got pretty big now, 32gb+ are cheap. If you want a bigger mobile storage, a hard disk enclosure would work well. If you just want storage at home for all your computers to share then a NAS would be ideal. Depending on what it is you want to store, it's worth thinking about a way of keeping a backup copy on a different disk/device. 
Firestorm
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StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
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[QUOTE 2386411, member: 9609"]struggling with the terminology - sata ide 3.5" 4.5"
I have 3 of them and would like to use them as storage devices. One of the drives still has stuff on it from my last computer that died, i don't thing the hard drive failed, so would I be able to retrieve a few files?
what is this ?
[/quote]
That's Parallel ATA (hence PATA at the top of the label). Formerly and still commonly known just as ATA, also known as IDE. If you can hook it up to your system (and if the drive works, you'll have no bother) it'll work & transfer just fine. Many solutions- though PATA is largely dead in new systems, replaced by the faster Serial ATA standards, there are still a lot of components in use & therefore still a demand for adaptors etc. Whether you buy a permanent case or a docking station (where you can just plug the bare drive in), just make sure it's for PATA hard drives (3.5"- 5.25" is for CD/DVD units etc) and you'll be fine.
I have 3 of them and would like to use them as storage devices. One of the drives still has stuff on it from my last computer that died, i don't thing the hard drive failed, so would I be able to retrieve a few files?
what is this ?
That's Parallel ATA (hence PATA at the top of the label). Formerly and still commonly known just as ATA, also known as IDE. If you can hook it up to your system (and if the drive works, you'll have no bother) it'll work & transfer just fine. Many solutions- though PATA is largely dead in new systems, replaced by the faster Serial ATA standards, there are still a lot of components in use & therefore still a demand for adaptors etc. Whether you buy a permanent case or a docking station (where you can just plug the bare drive in), just make sure it's for PATA hard drives (3.5"- 5.25" is for CD/DVD units etc) and you'll be fine.
Custom24
Über Member
- Location
- Oxfordshire
If you just want to retrieve a few files from that, and you have access to a desktop machine, you may not need to buy anything.
You can mount a HDD like that as a secondary drive in a desktop machine by plugging it into the ribbon-like IDE cable which is already inside the computer. It means opening up the computer to attach it, but when you boot up, it should just work automatically. As well as the IDE cable, there will also be a power cable to plug into it.
You can mount a HDD like that as a secondary drive in a desktop machine by plugging it into the ribbon-like IDE cable which is already inside the computer. It means opening up the computer to attach it, but when you boot up, it should just work automatically. As well as the IDE cable, there will also be a power cable to plug into it.
Peteaud
Veteran
- Location
- South Somerset
MrJamie
Oaf on a Bike
I'm not usually one to waste old things, but keep in mind you could buy a new purpose built portable 1000GB hard drive for about £60 and less for a smaller one. That wouldn't exclude you from fitting the old hdds in a desktop PC (if you still have one) and copying the files off those disks either.
ian turner
Guru
- Location
- Leicestershire
Hmm
I'd go with the suggestions of buying an external drive, preferably a portable one as they're less likely to be damaged when dropped and can be powered from a usb port without requiring a separate power supply or dual usb connector.
That assumes that the desktop is sufficiently old to still have an ide cable and the OP mentioned a laptop .
I'd go with the suggestions of buying an external drive, preferably a portable one as they're less likely to be damaged when dropped and can be powered from a usb port without requiring a separate power supply or dual usb connector.
