Advice for IDE Pata HD enclosure/connector to usb

[manus35]

I just salvaged a hard drive from an old Fujitsu Siemens desktop. There are some old photos on this drive that I would love to recover,

The drive is a seagate baracuda 7200.7, st3160021a,

specs are here:

http://


Could anyone please advise what kind of caddy/enclosure I could use to connect it to usb on my laptop as I am unfamiliar with this kind of drive,

I have some pics of the drive which may help:

http://


Thanks

 

[Paperdoc]

This unit by Rosewill will accept the 3½" IDE HDD and connect it to your laptop via a USB2 system.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182153&cm_re=external_drive_enclosure-_-17-182-153-_-Product

It comes with its own power supply module you must use and a USB2 cable. You open it, mount the HDD inside, close up securely and it is a closed stable box. If you choose you can re-open and change things any time you want.

Here is a different option.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE6HC3506&cm_re=HDD_dock-_-1DN-0012-00001-_-Product

It is not used for semi-permanent mounting; it is a docking station in which you can place one HDD to use for a while. It has separate slots for SATA and 3½" IDE HDD units. It can use the faster USB3 interface for communication with your laptop, but that USB3 feature ONLY works if your laptop has a USB3 port - otherwise it will be USB2 performance. I comes with its own power supply module you must use, and a USB3 cable for connection. So it is more versatile and MAY perform faster (depends on the USB port on your laptop) but does not provide a semi-permanent protective case for that IDE drive.

 

[manus35]

This unit by Rosewill will accept the 3½" IDE HDD and connect it to your laptop via a USB2 system.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182153&cm_re=external_drive_enclosure-_-17-182-153-_-Product

It comes with its own power supply module you must use and a USB2 cable. You open it, mount the HDD inside, close up securely and it is a closed stable box. If you choose you can re-open and change things any time you want.

Here is a different option.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE6HC3506&cm_re=HDD_dock-_-1DN-0012-00001-_-Product

It is not used for semi-permanent mounting; it is a docking station in which you can place one HDD to use for a while. It has separate slots for SATA and 3½" IDE HDD units. It can use the faster USB3 interface for communication with your laptop, but that USB3 feature ONLY works if your laptop has a USB3 port - otherwise it will be USB2 performance. I comes with its own power supply module you must use, and a USB3 cable for connection. So it is more versatile and MAY perform faster (depends on the USB port on your laptop) but does not provide a semi-permanent protective case for that IDE drive.

Thanks for this, Didn't know these existed.
Just ordering one on ebay now similar to ones you identified as Im in Ireland

 

[Paperdoc]

Good luck, and thanks for Best Solution.

Just a small note for clarification. With either an enclosure or the docking station, there are some that come with USB3 capability and a suitable cable and appear to imply that they run entirely off the host computer's USB3 port with no need for a separate power supply module. In most cases that is NOT true. The USB3 port is able to prove a 5 VDC source up to 0.9 A to an attached device, but ONLY the small low-power "laptop hard drives" can actually operate on that limit supply. Some smaller 2½" drives, and ALL full-sized 3½" drives (IDE or SATA) require more that 0.9 A to work, so the power supply module must be used. Further, the IDE drives need a 12 VDC supply also. For that reason you do need an enclosure or dock that comes with that matching module.

 

[manus35]

Good luck, and thanks for Best Solution.

Just a small note for clarification. With either an enclosure or the docking station, there are some that come with USB3 capability and a suitable cable and appear to imply that they run entirely off the host computer's USB3 port with no need for a separate power supply module. In most cases that is NOT true. The USB3 port is able to prove a 5 VDC source up to 0.9 A to an attached device, but ONLY the small low-power "laptop hard drives" can actually operate on that limit supply. Some smaller 2½" drives, and ALL full-sized 3½" drives (IDE or SATA) require more that 0.9 A to work, so the power supply module must be used. Further, the IDE drives need a 12 VDC supply also. For that reason you do need an enclosure or dock that comes with that matching module.

Thanks for the advice. I got myself a Sisun all in one dock today off amazon uk :

http://

It has a power cable and seems to work okay, but tried putting the drive in and starting my pc and Im getting nothing. Nothing in properties or file explorer, tried a few Hard disk applications and they read nothing,

The dock has space for the power connection and 40 pin socket, but what is the connection to the right of the 4 pin power on my drive:

http://


Im worried this drive might be screwed or do I need extra connections, software or drivers ?


Any advice would be greatly appreciated

thanks

 

[Paperdoc]

Between the 4-pin Molex power input and the 40-pin data cable connectors, that set of 8 pins (2 x 4) is where the jumper is positioned to establish whether the unit acts as a Master or Slave device for the IDE port. There will be a diagram on the HDD label showing how to place a jumper on the pins. Set it to the Master setting, since this is the only drive on the IDE interface. In some cases that setting actually is NO jumper installed, so for that setting just remove and store what might be there. In your photo it looks like there is a jumper set on one pair of pins.

Remember that you must install on your machine the device driver software for this dock in order to use it. Also check something. One description I saw indicates there is a small sliding switch on the bottom of the dock that is linked to how it should be set up for certain IDE drives. Read your manual on that - the description I saw did not provide details. It MIGHT be related to the different ways that desktop (3½") and laptop (2½") IDE drives are connected. I note this dock uses the same slot for those two types of drives, but has different connectors in the base of that slot.

 

[manus35]

Between the 4-pin Molex power input and the 40-pin data cable connectors, that set of 8 pins (2 x 4) is where the jumper is positioned to establish whether the unit acts as a Master or Slave device for the IDE port. There will be a diagram on the HDD label showing how to place a jumper on the pins. Set it to the Master setting, since this is the only drive on the IDE interface. In some cases that setting actually is NO jumper installed, so for that setting just remove and store what might be there. In your photo it looks like there is a jumper set on one pair of pins.

Remember that you must install on your machine the device driver software for this dock in order to use it. Also check something. One description I saw indicates there is a small sliding switch on the bottom of the dock that is linked to how it should be set up for certain IDE drives. Read your manual on that - the description I saw did not provide details. It MIGHT be related to the different ways that desktop (3½") and laptop (2½") IDE drives are connected. I note this dock uses the same slot for those two types of drives, but has different connectors in the base of that slot.

Thanks once again for the advice, I set the jumper to master via the diagram and have been trying to get something working for the last hour with no joy, the dock didn't come with any drivers, no cd and they claim it should be plug and play, I have even tried looking for the Seagate drivers for the actual drive but nothing,

Many reviewers claim they got it working without software or drivers, the sliding switch on the bottom adjusts
the 4 pin power socket left and right to accommodate different drives with different power socket location,


Im pretty sure I have it correctly in, the drive is making noise like an electrical buzz noise. I fear the drive might be doomed because the pc I had it in packed in about 10 years ago and perhaps the drive might have been the cause,


Anyway, thanks for your advice, but Im ready to give up on it almost no, don't know where to go from here

 

[manus35]

So I had one more go at it just after writing my previous reply and got it working, think a little more force was required to get it in properly, anyway the drive was recognised as corrupted under windows, but other applications could detect it. I used easeus data recovery to recover about 82gb of image/video which do not work, Ive tried file repair software to no avail on these files also, so am considering my next move, I might take an image of the drive and see what forensics tools I can use to try salvage something

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, an image might work for you. Even without doing that, there are several other data recovery tools like EaseUS, although that one is reported to be very good. Most of them have one important common characteristic. They do NOT write anything to the troubled drive. They only will READ from that drive. Thus, all of them need a second drive on which to store the data they have been able to read. The major benefit of this is that, if one tool fails, you can try another because the drive is still unchanged. So, look around for a few other data recovery tools that might work. some is free, some is not. Here's a review of several.

https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/353756/the-best-data-recovery-software

Among the ones you pay for, many have a version of "try before you buy". For some, you get to use a version limited to only a small number of recovered files to prove it works. Some others will attempt to find everything it can, even allowing you to see all of the files and examine individual files to see their contents, but will not actually recover them and write to the second drive until you pay.

Thanks for Best Solution.