Old IDE Drives

[Lee]

I have a couple of old IDE hard drives and would like to see what is on
them. Anyone able to tell me what to use to read them? I have an
external device I just slip a SATA HD into and I can read and transfer
files with no problem and no worrying about booting. This one I can see
the HD and it is in an upright position. Just slips in a HD and read it.

The old HDs have W98 and XP but still would like to check them out
before destroying or formatting. Would like it to be easy to insert and
remove hard drives.

[Ben Myers]

Post by Lee
I have a couple of old IDE hard drives and would like to see what is on
them. Anyone able to tell me what to use to read them? I have an
external device I just slip a SATA HD into and I can read and transfer
files with no problem and no worrying about booting. This one I can see
the HD and it is in an upright position. Just slips in a HD and read it.
The old HDs have W98 and XP but still would like to check them out
before destroying or formatting. Would like it to be easy to insert and
remove hard drives.

Lee,

You can still get either an external USB case for IDE drives or a naked
USB-IDE cable and power supply to read the old hard drives... Ben Myers

[Lee]

Hi Ben

Why is it that I knew you would be there to help? (grin) Glad to see
you are still here offering good and consistent advice. My Gateway is
still running and doing a great job. I just had some old IDE drives and
wanted to see what was on them before doing something with them as the
wife is in a cleaning spree. I am sure you understand that.

Again Thanks for your assistance.

Post by Ben Myers
USB-IDE cable and power supply

[SC Tom]

Post by Lee
Hi Ben
Why is it that I knew you would be there to help? (grin) Glad to see you
are still here offering good and consistent advice. My Gateway is still
running and doing a great job. I just had some old IDE drives and wanted
to see what was on them before doing something with them as the wife is in
a cleaning spree. I am sure you understand that.
Again Thanks for your assistance.

Post by Ben Myers
USB-IDE cable and power supply

--
Lee (in Florida)US Army Retired
Georgie Boy Cruise Master
Logitech VidCam & Skype lee.g.bray

Also, if your motherboard supports IDE, you can hook it up internally
temporarily just to peruse or copy the contents. Then format it and stick it
on a shelf, just in case (must be why I have 3 or 4 hanging around :-) ).

[Lee]

Hi Tom

I can put it in my Gateway w/Vista but then it tries to boot also and
my computer will only handle 4 gigs of memory and when it is in there it
tells me there is insufficient memory for it to continue as it (IDE)
tries to boot up with XP also. Needless to say I have limited knowledge
for computing and age is catching up also! (grin) I am one of those who
hate to throw something out if it still works even if I am not using it.
I would not want anyone to see all the stuff I have stored.

Post by SC Tom
Also, if your motherboard supports IDE, you can hook it up internally
temporarily just to peruse or copy the contents. Then format it and
stick it on a shelf, just in case (must be why I have 3 or 4 hanging
around :-) ).

[SC Tom]

You'd have to go into BIOS and change the primary boot drive to your current
drive. Then it should boot OK and the IDE will be a slave. Is your current
boot drive also IDE, or is it SATA? If it's an IDE, then you can check your
jumpers to make sure the drives are set to CS (Cable Select), then put the
current dive on the ribbon connector farthest from the motherboard and the
secondary drive on the other one.
--
SC Tom
-There's no such thing as TMI when asking for tech support.

Post by Lee
Hi Tom
I can put it in my Gateway w/Vista but then it tries to boot also and
my computer will only handle 4 gigs of memory and when it is in there it
tells me there is insufficient memory for it to continue as it (IDE) tries
to boot up with XP also. Needless to say I have limited knowledge for
computing and age is catching up also! (grin) I am one of those who hate
to throw something out if it still works even if I am not using it. I
would not want anyone to see all the stuff I have stored.

Post by SC Tom
Also, if your motherboard supports IDE, you can hook it up internally
temporarily just to peruse or copy the contents. Then format it and
stick it on a shelf, just in case (must be why I have 3 or 4 hanging
around :-) ).

--
Lee (in Florida)US Army Retired
Georgie Boy Cruise Master
Logitech VidCam & Skype lee.g.bray

[Lee]

Hi Tom, no the primary (boot)drive is SATA and drives I was talking
about are IDE.

Post by SC Tom
You'd have to go into BIOS and change the primary boot drive to your
current drive. Then it should boot OK and the IDE will be a slave. Is
your current boot drive also IDE, or is it SATA? If it's an IDE, then
you can check your jumpers to make sure the drives are set to CS (Cable
Select), then put the current dive on the ribbon connector farthest from
the motherboard and the secondary drive on the other one.

[SC Tom]

I know. I was just asking about your already-installed drives. You've
answered that, so now the thing to do to add the old IDE drive(s) to your
current setup is to hook it (them) up to an IDE connector, boot into BIOS,
then make sure under 'Boot Devices', 'Hard Drives' (or some similar wording)
that your SATA drive is listed first in the list of hard drives. Then it
should boot to your current operating system and not to the Win98 or XP
drive(s). Then you can take off what you want from them, then format them
and use them for backups, grandkids' pictures, etc. It's OK to have mixed
platform drives installed (I do on my PC), but if there is more than one
hard drive, then you have to tell the PC which one is the boot drive.
--
SC Tom

Hi Tom, no the primary (boot)drive is SATA and drives I was talking about
are IDE.

Post by SC Tom
You'd have to go into BIOS and change the primary boot drive to your
current drive. Then it should boot OK and the IDE will be a slave. Is
your current boot drive also IDE, or is it SATA? If it's an IDE, then
you can check your jumpers to make sure the drives are set to CS (Cable
Select), then put the current dive on the ribbon connector farthest from
the motherboard and the secondary drive on the other one.

--
Lee (in Florida)US Army Retired
Georgie Boy Cruise Master
Logitech VidCam & Skype lee.g.bray

[Ken Whiton]

*-* On Fri, 03 Sep 2010, at 08:45:07 -0400,
*-* In Article <q56go.8335$V%***@news.usenetserver.com>,
*-* Lee wrote
*-* About Old IDE Drives

Post by Lee
I have a couple of old IDE hard drives and would like to see what is
on them. Anyone able to tell me what to use to read them? I have
an external device I just slip a SATA HD into and I can read and
transfer files with no problem and no worrying about booting. This
one I can see the HD and it is in an upright position. Just slips
in a HD and read it.

I have a similar device (USB) that can handle both SATA and IDE
drives in both 3 1/2" and 2 1/2" sizes.

<http://www.amazon.com/SATA-UNIVERSAL-DRIVE-DOCKING-STATION/dp/B002UAR8JY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1283674047&sr=1-1>
(or <http://preview.tinyurl.com/2wtwtsu>)

Post by Lee
The old HDs have W98 and XP but still would like to check them out
before destroying or formatting. Would like it to be easy to insert
and remove hard drives.

Like yours, SATA drives plug into mine in an upright position.
IDE drives, however, connect externally via cables which are supplied
with the device. It's not ideal if you want it for long-term use, but
for temporary use, such as you want, it might be an acceptable option.

If you're interested, the manual can be downloaded from

<http://www.startech.com/Data/ProductManuals/unidock2u.pdf>

It's about a 1.5 MB .pdf file.

Ken Whiton