Need some information of an quondam hd? Unfortunately, it'southward not easy to connect a bulldoze to your PC. And so, what tin can you do when you lot need to retrieve those old spreadsheets, or forgotten digital photos?

Here are some useful and practical ways you tin can connect your hard drive to your current calculator and recover information from it.

How to Get Data Off a Hard Bulldoze

Getting your data off an old hard disk bulldoze is easier than you call up. If the device has been disconnected from its original PC and kept gratuitous from knocks, the data should be retrieved with relative ease.

You lot accept six options to connect an one-time HDD to your estimator:

  1. Connect it using a special USB adapter cable
  2. Hack an external HDD
  3. Build your own external HDD
  4. Use a USB docking station for deejay drives
  5. Install the disk in your PC
  6. Install the HDD in a laptop

Some of these methods are simpler than others. Permit's look at each of them in plough.

1. Access an Old Difficult Drive With an Adapter

Copy data from an old hard disk drive with an adapter

A hard disk drive can be direct connected to any PC via a special USB HDD adapter. These typically come up with connections for SATA and IDE/PATA drives.

HDDs currently use the SATA connection, which is a modest "50" shaped connector and a thin, flat cablevision. These drives are powered using a slightly wider "L" connector, or a Molex four-pin connector.

IDE/PATA drives, meanwhile, rely on a much wider ribbon cable connector, along with a Molex connector.

Employing a USB cable adapter for your HDD ways identifying the correct connection blazon and plugging in the HDD. Fo example, if yous had an onetime IDE/PATA disk drive, you would connect the IDE/PATA adapter port to the drive, then the Molex plug to the mains adapter. After connecting the adapter to the PC via USB, switch it on.

The bulldoze would be detected equally a USB device by the operating system, set for you to browse.

This solution lets you connect a PC hard disk to a desktop or a laptop.

2. How to Hack an External HDD to Get Information off an Old Hard Drive

Reuse an External hard drive case

Peradventure you have an external HDD with a USB connectedness. Inside, the device basically contains a SATA-to-USB cablevision adapter.

So, how tin can y'all go files off a hard bulldoze with an external HDD?

External hd drives basically contain of a small circuit board with SATA connectors to dock the bulldoze, and an enclosure. Past opening the enclosure and removing the screws securing the existing drive, y'all can easily swap it with your onetime HDD.

With everything connected and secure, connect the drive to your PC, power information technology up, and showtime retrieving data. Don't forget to replace the original HDD into the external drive housing when you're done.

Before doing this, note that opening the drive upwards could invalidate the device's warranty.

3. Mount the HDD Into an External Enclosure

Use an enclosure to connect your HDD to a PC or laptop

Planning on accessing this hd regularly? If so, it makes sense to purchase an external HDD enclosure, and install your disk drive in this.

This is actually a similar footstep to hacking your existing external HDD. The only difference is that the enclosure should ship with some instructions on how to install the bulldoze. You'll also need to confirm the enclosure is the right size to accomodate your deejay drive. Remember, HDDs come in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch varieties.

One time you've installed the HDD in the new enclosure, simply connect it to your PC via USB, power it up, and start retrieving your data.

The do good of this option is that once you've found recovered the missing data, you lot can apply the disk as an external HDD. Connect a reformatted bulldoze to any reckoner or media device as external storage.

4. Browse for Data Using a USB Docking Station

Copy data from a hard disk drive
Epitome Credit: pmsyyz/Flickr

A quick an easy option for connecting sometime hard deejay drives to your PC is a USB docking station.

This is a device that sits on your desk-bound and plugs into the reckoner'southward USB port. Inside the docking station, you'll discover SATA connectors (and sometimes IDE/PATA connectors) that the deejay drive tin can exist plugged into. The drives essentially slide into the docking station in an upright position, providing access to the contents over USB.

Think of information technology equally a hard bulldoze reader.

Different types of USB docking stations for disk drives are available. Nigh provide SATA-only connections for three.five-inch and 2.5-inch disk drives.

All in all, this is probably the virtually comfortable option and some devices even provide space for multiple HDDs.

However, some drives also include IDE/PATA connectors, although the position of the power connector on these older drives can cause problems.

5. Install the HDD in Your PC

A hard disk tin can be directly connected to a PC via a cable direct to the motherboard.

The verbal steps will again depend upon the HDD connector type:

  • Connect SATA drives to the motherboard using the SATA cable
  • IDE drives use the IDE ribbon cablevision, then the motherboard will need to have a compatible port

If no port compatible with your bulldoze is available, you'll need a compact adapter small enough to fit inside your PC case.

Note that this isn't a long-term solution. Stop using the adapter once you take recovered the information and copied it to a new HDD or SSD.

Of class, before installing any device inside your PC, yous should be confident that y'all know what you are doing. With the HDD correctly connected to your PC'south motherboard, it should be rubber to power up the computer and browse the device.

6. Install the HDD in a Laptop

Most of the options above tin be used with a laptop. But if you want to connect the difficult drive to a laptop internally, things are a little unlike.

You have two options here:

  • Install a deejay drive in the laptop's dedicated expansion slot
  • Replace the optical bulldoze with a hard disk

(Note that the second solution is less practical for newer laptop computers, which increasingly send without space for additional disk drives.)

Our guide on how to connect a hard drive to a laptop using the optical drive will provide more information.

Now You Know How to Read Old Hard Drives

With your hard disk drive connected to your computer, information technology should be apparently sailing. All y'all demand to practise next is copy the data from the HDD to storage on your PC. Every bit long every bit there is enough storage space, this shouldn't be a problem.

Withal, if you're trying to recover lost or deleted data from the HDD, you'll need some recovery software.

One option is to look at these recovery tools for Mac and Windows. They're designed to find "deleted" data on a connected device and restore it, preferably to a different bulldoze. Alternatively, use a rescue disk to help recover information from a difficult drive.

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