Effective and Inexpensive IDE Hardrive Backup Methods?

Hey everyone,
Looking for a solution to back up and transfer data files from old IDE hard drives.

I have about 6 IDE Hard drives that I would like to back up and transfer their contents to SATA drives. I am about to get a new PC, and I do not want to deal with IDE hard drives. I just want to connect them, as simply and as easy as possible, and transfer files that I may need.

I was thinking of getting an external hd enclosure (which will cost me around $40-$50)... and just switch drives one by one and back 'em up like that... but that requires a lot of manual labor with assembly and disassembly... is there a simpler plug and play solution?

 

Hmm, its seems to me that you should try looking into some external SATA hard drives. IT would be a lot easier and, you could move it and add more -depending on your amount of USB ports. I do believe that external sata does not rely on USB. Just saying that USB is another way to go. IT may be possible to create the image of your HD's and put them into an external as well.

 

The way you described will probably be the simplest/fastest/easiest solution. I don't know what you would call a lot of manual labor, but you only need to connect and disconnect 2 wires each time you switch a hard drive. You wouldn't really need to put the screws in each time if all you are doing is a one time backup of the drives.

However, if you don't want to spend the $40-50, then you could just plug them into your motherboard to copy the files over. You'd just need to reboot/unplug each time you switch a hard drive.

 

I was thinking, and something like this might be even better. It's at least $15 cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101

 

You're right. It isn't that much work. Just switching cables.

Thanks everyone.
I will also look into making an image of my hard drive(s) and backing up those.