[SOLVED] getting info from an old HDD

RothALD

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Try to make this short. How do I access an IDE drive with Windows XP on it on a new computer with SATA drives running 8.1? I have the interface device that allows for an IDE HDD to plug into a sata port on the MB. Neither BIOS nor Windows recognizes the XP drive. What am I doing wrong?
 
Solution
Three thoughts after reading through:
1. Regarding setting jumpers on the old IDE drive, I'm sure you should set it to Master (or, Master with No Slave Present, if that's an option). ANY IDE port MUST have a Master device on the port to work. The adapter you have creates an IDE port from a SATA port, so it must have a Master.
2. Power was mentioned. Any IDE HDD needs two connections to it: a 40-pin data connector and a 4-pin Molex power supply from the PSU. The adapter you got provides the data connection. But you must also provide the power connection. Maybe you are expected to provide it yourself by using a 4-pin Molex output from the PSU (it's about ¾" wide with four holes in a straight line), or maybe the adapter came with a small...

Dogsnake

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Many IDE drives had a set of jumpers that had to be set to the use of the drive (boot, slave, etc.). You may need to set this to slave. This is a guess. The other thought is that your IDE to SATA adapter is not doing the job. Have you checked the disk management section of the administrative tools? If the drive shows there it may require activation from there to be seen in windows.
 

RothALD

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Tried the jumper off (slave) and in the cable select positions with no luck. The drive doesn't show there either. This can't be so hard, I'll just try a USB connector...
Thanks for your help though!
 

RothALD

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I'm not sure what you're asking and I'm sorry. (I'm jumping from XP knowledge to 8.1 skipping the O.S.'s in between) Is drive formatting a state that the XP drive is in? I know it was done in the old format if that helps.
I'm not trying to format the HDD just yet, I just have some files to copy.
 
1) The format should not be an issue.

2) The SATA-to-IDE device is probably your problem.

Questions:
1) What is the model of the device?

2) Does this device require DRIVERS to function? (unlikely)

Other:
I'm not sure if it's idiot-proof, however there are IDE-to-SATA devices as well which obviously would not work. Technically it's PATA-to-SATA but the incorrect usage of "IDE" to replace "PATA" caught on.

Also, there are a lot of these devices that are very POOR QUALITY (see customer feedback).
 

RothALD

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Are you suggesting that I format the XP drive for 8.1 on another partition or that I format the working drive for XP? Or am I to format the computer's BIOS with whatever drivers it needs to recognize the older O.S.?
 

jgm7683

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There are three things I can think of that might be the problem....

1) Jumper setting. Someone suggested you set to be slave... you might need to set it to master, or single drive - you should look at the documentation that came with the interface.

2) IDE drives are not hot-swappable like SATA, and you might be seeing a problem with the computer accessing the device if it wasn't powered at boot. Make sure the drive is plugged in completely and restart again.

3) The drive might be coming up, but not showing up in the list of drives - you might need to open Disk Management (right-click on My Computer and choose "Manage", or run "DISKMGMT.MSC" from Run box or CMD prompt.)
If the drive shows up, you might need to assign the partition(s) a drive letter.

One other thought... are you sure the drive is working? If it died since you last used it, it won't show up. Do you hear it spin up when you power on? Does it make a clicking noise?

Good luck!
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
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Three thoughts after reading through:
1. Regarding setting jumpers on the old IDE drive, I'm sure you should set it to Master (or, Master with No Slave Present, if that's an option). ANY IDE port MUST have a Master device on the port to work. The adapter you have creates an IDE port from a SATA port, so it must have a Master.
2. Power was mentioned. Any IDE HDD needs two connections to it: a 40-pin data connector and a 4-pin Molex power supply from the PSU. The adapter you got provides the data connection. But you must also provide the power connection. Maybe you are expected to provide it yourself by using a 4-pin Molex output from the PSU (it's about ¾" wide with four holes in a straight line), or maybe the adapter came with a small cable to help do this. If you provide details of th adapter you're using we might advise further.
3. Formatting is NOT your problem. If you Format that old drive, you will lose ALL your data! Fortunately, you can't do that right now because your computer does not even "see" the drive, so Windows can't manipulate it. It would be possible in Disk Management to Format it or to Partition it, but either process will destroy old data, so don't do that! I have no doubt that Win 8.1 has a "built-in" driver for IDE (PATA) devices, AND that it knows how to read any such drive that was Partitioned using the old MBR system and Formatted with ANY of Windows' Format systems.

As has been suggested, maybe the adapter you have is faulty. Another possibility comes from the question: just how old is this HDD? Up to mid-to-late 1990's there were IDE drives that did NOT use the current LBA access system. To install and use them you had to set in BIOS Setup at least three parameters for the drive according to the label on it: Cylinders, Heads, and Sectors. Sometimes there also were Landing Zone and another. Does the label on the drive show this info? Can you post the exact maker name and model number of that old HDD?
 
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