How To Connect Old Desktop Drive To Access As External On New Computer?

Greetings!

I have an old Dell Optiplex 745 desktop computer with a Seagate 7200.10 drive. It has been in cold storage for a while, but I realize now there were probably files on that drive that I didn't transfer to my new computer. What do I need to do, and/or what type of cable or docking station, do I need to take that old hard drive and attach it to my new computer (running Windows 10) and access it as if it were an external drive?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Otherchuck

 

The simplest, quickest and easiest way would merely be to fire up that 745, plug in a usb stick and just copy over the files that you require.

If however, for a number of reasons you feel that this is not what you want to do and want the 7200.10 to be always available to you without having to resort to firing up the 745 every time you need something, then you will need to take the hard drive out of the case by removing the 4 retaining screws and removing the power and data cables to the HDD.

The specs to your drive from the Seagate specs pdf suggests that your hard drive could have either a PATA or SATA interface but this can easily be ascertained if you take the side of the case off and look.

Then either get one of these from Amazon

https://tinyurl.com/mryk7frr

or buy and mount the drive into a external hdd enclosure for the particular HDD interface that you have. The one below is for a serial ATA drive

https://tinyurl.com/5xswzsje

If going for the external HDD enclosure, make sure that it is self powered the one above is

You go also go for some type of docking station if you want

Personally for you the the external enclosure is best subject to your hdd's interface

These are the simplest methods, otherwise what you could do is fire up the 745 image the entire contents of that drive and copy it onto your current pc. When required you could open the image taken of the 7200.10 and saved onto your current pc in a virtual drive without any of the hardware mentioned above.

Good Luck

 

My question is, do you plan on this drive being permanently attached to your current computer? Or temporary - just long enough to copy the files you want to keep?

If temporary, then the adapter r_r suggested would be a good choice. If permanent, then the enclosure. If semi-permanent, and there may be the possibility of additional drives in the future, then I recommend what I use, and that is a docking station similar to this: Hard Drive Docking Station. They come in several configurations including those that support ATA and SATA, and 2 or more drives at once for drive to drive cloning. But this basic one is probably all you need.

What is really nice about a docking station is how simple they are to use. In the bottom of the bay are power and data connectors. You simply drop in the drive and those connections are automatically made. Wait a couple seconds for the drive to spin up and for Windows to see it and you are good to go. The drives are "hot swappable" which means when done checking a drive, you just pull it out of the station, drop in another and then you are good to go with that drive. After the initial connection, there is no more messing with power or data cables. You can check a stack of drives no time at all. Very convenient.

When I want to make a backup of my system, I simply drop in my backup drive and copy my files over. Pull the drive, and store it in safe place.

However, if this drive will be permanently attached, I recommend installing it in your computer as a secondary drive. Surely the motherboard will have an extra SATA interface connection, and odds are great your PSU will have an extra power connector too. If not, a simple and inexpensive Y splitter cable will do nicely.

Internal offers the HUGE advantage of going with a direct motherboard to SATA interface connection. And that is HUGE!!! If you go with an external adapter, enclosure, or docking station, the USB interface is inserted in the middle. Actually 2 USB interfaces (the adapter's and the motherboard's). Some times USB works great, other times it is a major PITA. For that reason, I recommend using USB only if this will be a temporary attachment.

WARNING!!! Whether permanent or temporary, I urge you to manually initiate a full malware scan on this drive as the first thing you do once connected. This is just a precaution but wise with drives that have sat in storage for awhile - even if always in your possession.

If this will be temporary, then after copying your files, I recommend you "wipe" the drive clean now. Then no need to worry about it in the future. There are several wipe programs out there. If you already have CCleaner, it has its very effective Drive Wiper feature. A single pass is fine.

 

Thanks for suggestions!

Re: risk_reversal's comment re: firing up the 745 and transferring via usb, the problem with that strategy is that I periodically purge old computer equip, so that Optiplex exists just as a cpu, no monitor, no cables, no mouse, no keyboard. So kind of a pain to set up old computer with monitor, etc from new one.

Re: Digerati's question, the hard drive would be attached only temporarily. However, I must have 5 or 6 similar hard drives that I took out for safe keeping before recycling the rest of the hardware over the last quarter century. I am probably not interested in any file at all on most of those drives, but I could see the advantage of the docking station if I will be checking them periodically.

I will check for malware; thanks for the suggestion!

Otherchuck

 

With 5 or 6 drives, then yeah, I think you are a good candidate for a docking station. This is particularly true if you have by choice, default or other circumstances become the go-to computer guy for your family, friends and neighbors.

 

I used to be that years ago but stopped as it became too onerous. The worst was one day when from 6pm until 10pm I received calls from 4 people back to back!!!!

 

LOL I hear you. My problem with that has died (literally) or migrated to cell phones which I feign total ignorance of. That is, all of my elderly relations that used to call on me for help have passed. And none of my younger relations have PCs anymore, and instead, have their cell phones glued to their hands.

I still have a land line, and proud of it!

 

Snap!!!

Snap!!!

Great minds think alike!!!!

 

My husband has a flip phone so I say we don't have smart phones. I have a smart phone but give no one but friends my number because it is turned off 99% of the time. If any tries to call our text, they'd get nothing. I use my smart phone for emergency calls. I give everyone our land line phone number.

 

I seem to remember that you once posted about using image files as backup rather than the whole incremental/differential thing. Did you ever write that up? Sure seemed like an easy backup solution.

 

No simply because the software I use Acronis True Image (an old version but since we run Win 7, I don't need the latest version) can explain how to do it.

 

Sorry for the late response. It depends upon whether you have a Seagate PATA or SATA drive. There are no w fewer and fewer enclosures that support a PATA (i.e., IDE) hard drive, and they ALL (as far as I have found) DO require an external power supply (aka "wall wart..) The SATA drives may or may not require one. ) I have several (SATA); mechanical and SSD) drives, and all have been powered by a USB connection. They are compatible from Win 98SE (with aftermarket USB drivers, not the original MS USB drivers) and work up to Win 10. With a PATA drive, the "Master/Slave" jumperssdon't seem to be needed, and will be recognized by the USB adapter or proper enclosure. SATA drives only have one way to connect, (they are essentially polarized) and powered by the computer.
Once properly connected, the external drives should appear as another drive (or drives if they are multiple partitioned) in File Manager. You should be able to copy files from your (now) external drive to anywhere on your internal drive(s) you desire.

 

I believe in making images before Windows loads so no file manager is involved. Also if Windows doesn't load because of some problem, you can still get to your image files, load a previous image when Windows loaded and fix the problem.

 

OK, I'll admit I don't know how to do THAT (image before Windows loads.) . What software are you using? (IMHO, the best place/time to make an original "image" is when the computer is first started up, for archival purposes (if everything else goes wrong) and subsequent "images" made at intervals, such as when significant software is installed, or every month or two, whichever comes first. I appreciate your comment, thanks!

 

I, too rely on a "landline" most of the time (with an iPhone 12 turned off) but it's only a "psuedo" landline; it is VOIP, and if the I'net goes down, so does the telephone. But I originally had to go with an I'net provider and add "phone" service, becuse the old (Verizon) copper wasn't reliable; it was out more than 50% one month, with excuses of "squirrels," broken lines due to wind, bad copper, and (unofficially) too expensive to maintain land lines." (But using the "landline" phone is usually more convenient, as it's right in front of my computer keyboard, and Caller-ID lets me see it's usually a robo-call or telemarketer. If I don't recognize a call, it goes to an answering machine: if no name, number, or message is left, it's undoubtedly a telemarketer.