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What do you do with your IDE drives?

W

Winston Marmaduke III

Member
I have a couple of IDE HDDs sitting around here, ranging from 60-80 gigs.

I did a bit of shopping this weekend for USB 2.0 enclosures to try to salvage these drives, at least to backup documents and store important but rarely accessed docs, if nothing else.

The IDE enclosures are just ridiculously priced. I don't want to have to spend 18 - 30 dollars each to resurrect these drives. Especially when a 2.5" SATA external doesn't cost more than that, with the minimum size being more than what I'm working with IDE here.

So, I decided to shop for adapters instead. Only thing is, these USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA adapters I'm finding don't work with Win7 64 bit!

Would anyone be able to recommend to me either:

1) Cheap as dirt 3.5" IDE enclosures (with AC plug of course); or

2) Cheap as dirt USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA adapter that actually works with a 64 bit os?

Thanks.
 
I give mine away to a friend - a high school teacher in Columbus, OH. He puts them to good use.
 
Well, if I can convert these to external data storage, I'd rather do that. 🙂

Is IDE just not compatible with 64 bit?

I give mine away to a friend - a high school teacher in Columbus, OH. He puts them to good use.
Click to expand...

Good use being what? I have no systems I can throw these in 🙁
 
I scavange the permanent magnets from them. These magnets are incredibly strong and are very useful for magnetizing tools, etc.

I also have a large pile of old HDDs varying from 30 to 80 GB. I tried to give them away but no one wanted them.
 
Friend of mine told me that they used old HDDs as pins when they were bowling on their last LAN party.
 
I have a brand new retail packaged Western Digital 80 gb ide that somehow I never got around to opening.

Heck, I've got Atari ST games I never got around to playing.

Maybe I'll start a museum.
 
I junk them. I don't think I've ever seen an old IDE drive that didn't make a racket or have some other abnormalities.
 
WD has 120 GB laptop sized external hard drives for $25 that are powered by the USB cable. Tiny, quiet, no power brick.

Spending $20 for an IDE enclosure that's much larger and needs a power brick, to salvage an out-of-warranty 80 GB drive doesn't make much sense.
 
DaveSimmons said:
WD has 120 GB laptop sized external hard drives for $25 that are powered by the USB cable. Tiny, quiet, no power brick.

Spending $20 for an IDE enclosure that's much larger and needs a power brick, to salvage an out-of-warranty 80 GB drive doesn't make much sense.
Click to expand...

Right, but if I can find something like this comparably priced that actually works with a 64 bit OS, then I'd be more than happy:

http://www.meritline.com/usb-to-sat...p-34964.aspx?clickid=TG7QLwoBCjYAAFeHLyQAAAHR
 
My Mom, Dad and Sisters Windows XP machines still use 80 - 320 GB IDE drives. They ain't going anywhere for at least a couple more years.
 
RhoXS said:
I scavange the permanent magnets from them. These magnets are incredibly strong and are very useful for magnetizing tools, etc.

I also have a large pile of old HDDs varying from 30 to 80 GB. I tried to give them away but no one wanted them.
Click to expand...

I forgot when I typed the response above, the platters make excellent paper weights. I typically use a set of platters as a paper weight on my desk at work. Whenever someone comes into my office they invariably pick it up and start playing with it. It is fascinating to me to see how people can not resist playing with it and seeing hoe fast they can make them spin.
 
Scavenge the platters, bearings, and spacers to make wind chimes and use the magnets for lots of things.
 
I have a stack of these as well, including ones as small as 4GB.

I've reused a lot of them in old PCs. If I can't reused them I toss them into recycle. You could always try Craigslist or uPillar.
 
I hope to eventually upgrade from this drive to one of your new-fangled 60-80 gig IDEs, once I make the final payment on my 1974 Ford Pinto:

ST-4096.jpg
 
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