IDE to USB connector.

rizla01

Hi, Just wondered.

I have a dead hard drive. It is an IBM deskstar with a clicking noise. Terminal I suspect but i must try to get info off it if at all possible so was thinking in investing £13 in one of these.

Has anyone had any experience of these things. Do they normally work ok and are they reliable?

Any better suggestions would be most welcome but I don't want to sling loads of money at a (probable) lost cause.


SATA 3.5" 2.5" IDE 3 in 1 to USB 2.0 Cable Adaptor UK

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Item Description
Product Attributes: Condition: New
Chipset Model: N/A
Colour: Blue
Retail Price: £39.99 (including shipping fee)
Warranty: 3 yearsFeatures:

• Quickly access SATA / IDE 3.5" (40-pin) / IDE 2.5" (44-pin) device by USB port
• Support hard drive, CR-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-RW
• Support 52x CD-ROM
• Compliant with SATA 1.0a Electrical Specifications
• Compliant with USB2.0 Electrical Specifications
• Compliant with Bulk-Only Transport Specifications
• Compliant with USB Mass Storage Class
• Support ATA/ATAI LBA 48bit addressing mode
• Support SATA spread-spectrum transmitter
• Support SATAI Asynchronous Notification (Hot Plug) feature
• Support 480Mbps High Speed and 12Mbps Full Speed USB operation
• Come with power supply adapter
• Power input: 100~240VAC, 50/60Hz, 2A
• Power output: 12V, 2A and 5V, 2A

System Requirements:

One available USB port
Microsoft® Windows® 98se/Me/2000/XP
64MB RAM (96MB recommended)
Package Contents:

• 1 x USB 2.0 to SATA / IDE Adapter Cable
• 1 x Driver CD
• 1 x Power Adapter (100~240VAC)
• 1 x Power Cord (UK 3 Pin Lead)
• 1 x SATA 50cm Data Cable
• 1 x SATA Power Adapter Cable
• 1 x English Menu

albertross_2

If it's clicking, it's probably a gonner. If it doesn't work on an ide connection, it won't work on usb either.

superscaper

Sounds like what happened to my last hard disk failure, probably broken head or something. Cut your losses, I opened mine up and wiped it with magnet, I'm still deciding on whether using it as a high capacity coaster.

Zagu

I agree, its probably had it.

It might be worth giving BartPE a go before you bin it, but its a long shot.

Avoriaz

I agree with Albert.

The USB connector is just a different method of accessing the disk. If the disk has failed that USB interface will not work.

I hope you have all your data backed up. If not it is a painful lesson about the importance of backups.

It is possible that a specialist company could recover some or all of your data but this is likely to be very expensive. £100s if not more. Google and get some estimates.

rizla01

Thanks for the input.

Yes, I acknowledge that imy drive is likely to be cream crackered but with these particular drives, having done some searching, they are prone to the arm holding the head, becoming out of alignment and it is remotely possible that holding hte drive at an angle/upside down or tapping it slightly MIGHT enable contents to be read.

my new machine (That has a large enuff drive to transfer info to, should I succeed) is a SATA machine and has no ATA/IDE connector so This is what the above gadget is for.

I suppose I may be able to make up an external back-up drive with it if all alse fails, so maybe it wont be total waste of money.

Idiophreak

as a (kinda) aside, has anyone ever actually used one of those adapters?
It looks handy to me...

Zagu

rizla01 wrote:

my new machine (That has a large enuff drive to transfer info to, should I succeed) is a SATA machine and has no ATA/IDE connector so This is what the above gadget is for.

If you havent got another machine to test the IDE drive on, Id take the BartPE route. It will run your old PC off the CD, so you'll be able to see if your old IDE drive has any life left in it, and save you a few quid and a couple of days. It looks a good gadget, but it wont tell you anything that BartPE wont tell you.

Im not doubting you, but in all honesty, I dont think Ive seen a motherboard without any IDE connections as they are usually used for CD/DVD. We live and learn.

odowdchr

You can try putting in the fridge for an hour or so? Then reconnect and it might spin for a while minutes so you can get your most important data off.

Avoriaz

odowdchr wrote:

You can try putting in the fridge for an hour or so? Then reconnect and it might spin for a while minutes so you can get your most important data off.

I thought that I was the only eccentric who tried things like that.:rotfl:

I usually try and fix something rather than throwing it away. Firstly I take it apart and look for obvious faults. Sometimes just taking it apart and reassembling it brings it back to life.

If that fails, I put electronic items in the freezer for a few days, carefully wrapped to prevent condensation affecting them. My logic is that the thermal contraction and expansion may cure a dry solder joint or poor connection.

A friend of mine had a faulty Sony digital camera. I took it apart and that did not work but after a few days in the freezer it has come back to life and is working fine again. £200 saved.

If all else has failed with the disk, you can’t make it worse than trying the freezer method. Don't try taking it apart as the slightest ingress of dust will render it useless.

Browntoa

I've got one of these adapters, well worth £13 even if you can't get the data off this one !!