Question Is my hard disk is in good condition?

[Shivam541141]

I have a hard disk so old which is about 10 year old and I have lost its PATA cable. I searched in my nearby stores but couldnot find that cable.
I am bit confused that is it OK or not?
These are the pics of my HDD
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rAL1pxzozcn5MA3k6yboBrN-vT0zOTRE?usp=sharing
Please tell me it looks in good condition or not?
Is there anyway so that I can check is it working or not without the SATA cable because those cableas are available on amazon.in
but I am confused should I take risk and try it!
Please help me otherwise I had to buy a new one.

 

[AllanGH]

You have no way of knowing except to try the hard drive in a proper installation. If you need the data from the drive, you might as well install it to a system that has IDE/ATA headers and test it out.

 

[Shivam541141]

Does it looks good considering the pictures?

You have no way of knowing except to try the hard drive in a proper installation. If you need the data from the drive, you might as well install it to a system that has IDE/ATA headers and test it out.

 

[AllanGH]

Photographs don't support making that kind of judgment. I have hard drives that function flawlessly that look worse than what your photographs depict, so no conclusion can be drawn from the appearance of the drive other than to say that the PC board does not appear to be damaged.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Old 80GB PATA drive, cracked connectors, looks like couple of pins in PATA connector are bent.
Just throw it out. Why would you want to use it?

Anyway - a modern pc will not support it without additional hardwware. You'll need PATA PCIE adapter for it.

 

[Shivam541141]

Photographs don't support making that kind of judgment. I have hard drives that function flawlessly that look worse than what your photographs depict, so no conclusion can be drawn from the appearance of the drive other than to say that the PC board does not appear to be damaged.

So in any case I had to buy a new cable to check it?
Another thing, I also have a very old PC but not sure that adapter is present there or not.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Your "very old pc" may have necessary connectors for PATA drive.

BTW - that drive is more like at least 12 years old.

 

[Shivam541141]

Many if the connectors are lost because the case was left as it was for atleast 10 years. Now you can help me to find the necessary connectors required for it on the amazon.in

Your "very old pc" may have necessary connectors for PATA drive.

BTW - that drive is more like at least 12 years old.

 

[AllanGH]

It is your determination whether or not it's worth the trouble to recover any data that may be on the drive.

Personally-speaking, a cable is an inconsequential expense and, in fact, such a cable is easily made from ribbon cable and appropriate connectors.
Whether or not the system you have will support an IDE/ATA connection is a decision you need to make after evaluating the system board.
There also remains the question of whether or not that system even functions reliably--again, your determination.

The only way to know if you can access the information on that drive, if it can be accessed, is to make the attempt.

Cable is here:
https://www.amazon.in/techBerri-IDE-Cable-Transfer-Motherboard/dp/B010FLDCL2

If you only have a system that has SATA connectors, use this, instead:
https://www.amazon.in/NF-Serial-Parallel-Adapter-Switch/dp/B07CWP1XDZ
or this:
https://www.amazon.in/JX2-Bidirectional-Interaction-Converter-Adapter/dp/B07FQNL9ZG

[EDIT] Link corrections
https://www.amazon.in/SATA-PATA-IDE-Converter-Adapter/dp/B07GST883X

 

[SkyNetRising]

Now you can help me to find the necessary connectors required for it on the amazon.in

Sure.

https://www.amazon.in/techBerri-IDE...ds=pata+cable&qid=1563983329&s=gateway&sr=8-3

 

[Shivam541141]

Will it require any extra adapters?

 

[AllanGH]

I inadvertently linked to incorrect products for you, where a SATA only motherboard is involved. Refer to the bottom-most link if that is your need.

If you have an IDE/ATA-capable motherboard, you will only need the cable.

If you have a SATAonly-capable motherboard, you will need the adapter.

No additional components will be necessary, as far as I can determine.

 

[Shivam541141]

My mobo is jetway 945GCM2S-A2-6H

 

[Shivam541141]

Please tell me whether or not I have to use any extra adapters instead the cable you described.

 

[AllanGH]

The support page for the Jetway 945GCM2S-A2-6H motherboard.

The motherboard supports both IDE/ATA hard drive and standard floppy drive connectors.

Assuming a standard power supply for that vintage computer system, you will only need the cable that I linked-to earlier: https://www.amazon.in/techBerri-IDE-Cable-Transfer-Motherboard/dp/B010FLDCL2

The blue connector would be connected to the motherboard, and the end black connector would be affixed to the hard disk drive. The hard disk drive would need to be correctly jumper selected as the "primary" or "master" drive, if you are attempting to boot from that drive.

If you already have a functioning boot drive, that would be affixed to the end black connector on the cable, and the drive we are discussing would be affixed to the white middle connector. In that instance, the drive would then need to be correctly jumper selected as the "secondary" or "slave" drive in order to be able to correctly access the drive contents.

 

[Shivam541141]

Ok thanks

 

[AllanGH]

Since the cable I indicated is an 80-wire cable with 40-pin ATA connectors, "Cable Select" is supposedly supported, although this was never universal, during the heyday of IDE/ATA use.

In this case, will jumper for "Cable Select" on both drives and allow drive positions to dictate "Primary" and "Secondary" drive precedence. The cable or 40-pin connectors should have drive precedence printed on it/them.
You may still find that you have to explicitly jumper for "Primary" or "Secondary" drive precedence, depending on how the drive cable was manufactured, and motherboard BIOS support.