Data transfer from dead PC

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neate

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A friend's "dated" pc won't power up. To help him I've followed all the online advice to no avail. He now has two choices get a professional firm to transfer files or allow me to buy kit to connect the hdd to my pc and transfer a few text files, that he took ages to create, to my pc.

The former is very expensive the latter not. However I'm not confident enough to buy the correct kit. The hdd is an 80gb Maxtor, ATA, 3.5 series as per the enclosed images.

I would be grateful for any links for an inexpensive best buy.
20200912_175023.jpg
20200912_162826.jpg
 
I used a caddy into which the hard drive is fitted and via a USB this caddy then connects to the host computor as an external disc.

My caddy is labelled as a 3.5" HDD External Box

Make sure your computor cannot boot up from the disc in the caddy. Easiest way to ensure this is to turn your machine on BEFORE connecting the caddy.
 
bernardgreen said:
I used a caddy into which the hard drive is fitted and via a USB this caddy then connects to the host computor as an external disc.

My caddy is labelled as a 3.5" HDD External Box

Make sure your computor cannot boot up from the disc in the caddy. Easiest way to ensure this is to turn your machine on BEFORE connecting the caddy.
Click to expand...

Seconded.
 
I have a caddy too but it is only suitable for SATA drives and I see that yours isn't SATA so, you might need to get an adapter cable.
 
Thanks all. So I need a PATA enclosure. And the hdd is connected to something inside the enclosure.

The enclosure is connected to the pc presumably by USB. But won't it require a power source?

Has anyone got a close-up image of how the enclosure works?
 
Bernard I think it was you that sent images of a Maxtor PATA in a caddy. It had all the connections inside the caddy with a power source for transmitting to a PC or Laptop. Just what I need. Thanks. Have you got a buying link?
 
How old is your PC? Is it a desktop?
It may still have an IDE connector (same as on the drive) on it, and if it does then all you need is a cable and you can attach it.
Else get a "3.5" IDE USB drive enclosure" - searchable on amazon or ebay etc.

Like this.
 
Bernard, at least you put me on the right track.

Thanks. Mattylad, good spotting. The seller of that last link has this product description:

1x transfer wide line
1x cable
1x usb line
1x adapter
1x enclosure
1x screwdriver
6 Pieces Screw

When you look at the image of the enclosure, you see two ports and a switch. Do you know whether the two ports are covered by any of the items above? And I'm not clear on how the PATA HDD is powered up? Can you help on this. Much obliged for your contribution.
 
the PDF may explain how this unit works with the IDE Data & LP4 power connections
https://www.novatech.co.uk/products...ssdhdd-1-x-type-a-female-usb/usb2sataide.html

I purchased a similar unit from Novatech maybe 10 years ago and use on a lot of different drives to copy data from peoples OLD harddrives
Also what version of windows did they run, that will depend on where you need to look for the data, Documents, Photos etc
BUT data from email maybe a hidden folder - depending if they used a application email program
Although now you can easily get large USB sticks, NOTE not a reliable place to keep the data. I would have the data , if important , on at least 2 different media
 
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