IDE to USB connector.

Gahddenbooi

At the risk of sounding weird, try popping it in the freezer for an hour or so.

The contraction and expansion might just pop the components into place, just long enough so you can get the critical data off.

It's a long shot, I've only had about 40% success using it, but I can safely assume that the situation is fairly desperate?

marble

rizla01 wrote:

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.

Yeah, if it is the same series of IBM Deskstar drive which I had (the one infamous for the 'click of death' and also a class action lawsuit in the US for their unreliability) then the angle thing might work. The two I had both died, and with both I could recover the data by standing them on their side (90 degrees I guess).

Personally, I'm amazed they have lasted this long!

Al

rizla01

Thank you all very much for the suggestions.

Unfortunately Bart wont be any use cos the old machine is running but now has a 4Gig HD installed so even using bart and connecting suspect drive as a slave, I would have nowhere to dump the files if they were to exceed 2 gig (cant remember but loads of photos and quite a lot of Mp3s) so I have gone for one of these. If ol' Browntoe's got one then they can't be bad.:)

Connected to my new machine at least I'll have somewhere to chuck the files, provided that I am lucky enough to get them off.

I have heard about the freezer trick and will also try that if all else fails.

I suppose if no joy then this gadget would enable me to put a cheap external together though, external ones don't seem to be any more than internal ones - often cheaper, these days.

Will let you know if I succeed.

rizla01

Zagu wrote:

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.

The newbie is a Dell Dimension E520.

I guess it does have IDE connection but not of the 40 pin variety ((36 I believe) and I wouldn't know which pins to connect to what. There is probably an adaptor available but I doubt if it would be much cheaper than £13.00 delivered, if there was.

Also the spare power connectors don't have a lot of travel in them so would make it a little difficult to move the HD around (which might be necessary) without extending them.

thefirs

rizla01 wrote:

I guess it does have IDE connection but not of the 40 pin variety ((36 I believe) and I wouldn't know which pins to connect to what. There is probably an adaptor available but I doubt if it would be much cheaper than £13.00 delivered, if there was.

This adapter is €9.99 delivered, less than £7. It has the standard 40-pin and a set of finer 44-pins on the reverse.