[jb1654]

I'm sort of new to this sort of thing, but I'm not computer illiterate. I'm looking for a hard drive enclosure for this type of hard drive: ATA-100 - 7200 rpm. I'm just not sure which size of an enclosure to buy, I'm thinking it's 3.5 but I'm not sure of the connections.

It's from this computer: reviews.cnet.com/desktops/emachines-t2958/4507-3118_7-31006753.html?tag=sub

I realize it's not a great computer, but it's my mother's and it recently broke and I'm trying to work on finding her a notebook instead. We need a way to get her data from the old one and the hard drive is fine, she just doesn't want anyone to look at all the data. (Old school and worried about privacy)

Any light anyone could shed on the situation would be appreciated.

Thanks

[piyushsingh]

There are adapters (USB to IDE) that can connect any drive with IDE interface to a USB port. Separate data cable is for connecting the drive to the usb port and another adapter cable for powering the IDE drive .

Have a look here.

[jb1654]

All of these things on there look like enclosures, which is what i was looking for, but i dont know what size? I've seen 1", all those on the page you sent me seem to be 2.5" and there are 3.5", how do i know which enclosure to get?

[piyushsingh]

I didnt get you . The link i posted contains adapter and not enclosures. The disk will remain as it is , only you will be able to read and write data using a usb port. Just make sure you get a usb 2.0 to ide adapter rather than an old usb 1.1 adapter.

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1! !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

The image will clear it out. I think this is what you were looking for.

[techie4fun]

I am toothinking the size is going to be 3.5 - what we need to find is an external enclosure with a serial ATA connector.

[techie4fun]

What Piyush posted would work too, possibly the best way seeing all you need is to plug everything in ;)

[jb1654]

So would this be something that would work?



http://www.newegg.co...N82E16812246003

[techie4fun]

Yes it would!

[rgreen4]

Techie - USB not eSATA, he is wanting to connect to a laptop. I have never seen a laptop with eSATA.


jb1654 - if you had gone further down the page you would have seen the adapters, one of which had connections for the 40 pin IDE (3.5" drive), 44 pin IDE (2.5" drive) and SATA (3.5" and 2.5") to adapt to a USB port. This one was eleventh in the listing. These are slightly more expensive than the enclosures, but easier to use in a temporary situation as you don't have to disassemble and reassemble the enclosure each time.


If the current machine is a desktop, the drive should be 3.5". Look at the connection end and if you have a standard 4 pin molex power connector and 40 pins in the signal connector then it is IDE. If you have a 15 contact power connector and a 7 connector signal connector it is SATA. Only 5 contacts of the 15 are used on the power and only 4 of the 7 are used on the signal.


While you can get IDE to SATA conversions, they are for mounting the drive inside a desktop. You specifically stated you were going to replace the PC with a laptop which means you will most likely have to connect the external drive via USB. There aren't just a lot of other options out there unless you go Mac laptop and then you would have firewire available, but I don't know of any firewire connected drive enclosures or adapters.


I have a 3.5" IDE enclosure, a 3.5" SATA enclosure and a 2.5" IDE enclosure and have had reasonably good experiences with them. They are designed more for semi-permanent use and

[smax013]

rgreen4 said:

Techie - USB not eSATA, he is wanting to connect to a laptop. I have never seen a laptop with eSATA.

I have not run across a laptop with an included eSATA port either, but they can be added by way of PCcards or ExpressCards. I have debated on a couple occasions about adding an eSATA express card to my MacBook Pro.

rgreen4 said:

Techie -
While you can get IDE to SATA conversions, they are for mounting the drive inside a desktop. You specifically stated you were going to replace the PC with a laptop which means you will most likely have to connect the external drive via USB. There aren't just a lot of other options out there unless you go Mac laptop and then you would have firewire available, but I don't know of any firewire connected drive enclosures or adapters.

I will note that while Firewire ports are standard on all Macs (including Mac laptops) and not standard on Windoze PeeCee, you can find Firewire ports on Windoze PeeCees too...including Windoze laptops. Firewire ports that you usually find on Windoze laptops are usually the non-powered 4 pin ports (referred to as iEEE 1394a). Thus, they will not work with Firewire hard drives that ONLY are bus powered, but work just fine with Firewire drives that get power through a power brick.



And there are plenty of Firewire enclosures out there. As I tend to prefer Firewire to USB (Firewire is faster than USB), I only use Firewire drives with my Macs AND Windoze PeeCees. I have on drive that was pre-made drive (i.e. came as an external drive), but my second drive is an Firewire enclosure that I bought for use with a bare drive. I will note that usually most Firewire enclosures also support use with USB, so you can move back and forth.

[jb1654]

thanks rgreen4!

[rgreen4]

Update - last week I was ordering a case and power supply from Newegg - no special project, just to have on hand (a $140 Antec case with a $30 discount and $50 rebate is hard to turn down), and since they were going to have to put the PSU in a box, I took the opportunity to order some SATA cables, some connectors and a USB to SATA/IDE adapter.

The one I chose is this Rosewill device. When the package arrived Monday evening, I opened the box, put the cables away, set the PSU aside and opened the adaper box. I was impressed with the quality of the device. I have not had a chance to try it yet, but the one feature I like is that the USB cable separates from the device, so any USB cable with a mini-B end will work (such as the ones that come with cameras, hubs, etc) and of course any SATA cable will work on the other end. It also includes a 5 1/4" and a 3 1/2" rubber protector to use on the drives when attached this way. (Beats newspaper, CD containers, etc that I have used in the past).

Six months ago I had never really heard of Rosewill, but I have been impressed with all of their products I have purchased so far. (A drive enclosure and CPU cooler in addition to this adapter).