Transfer Old HD to New Computer

Hi Everyone
I finally took my "dead" computer in and was told the problem was the processor or mobo. I decided it was time to replace instead of trying to resurrect the old PC.
I purchased a new Dell that says the HD is ATA but the cables are skinnier so I am lost.(the specs say 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache)

My old HD has data that I need to transfer to either the internal HD or my external HD. The old HD is "Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 Ultra ATA" I also have a "Seagate FreeAgent" external HD.

Can someone help me figure out the easiest and cheapest way to do this?
I realize easiest may not be cheapest and I am not opposed to purchasing a HD enclosure (which was one suggestion I received)
However, I am totally confused with all the letter, numbers etc and I do not want to get something that won't work.

Which type of enclosure would work for this Barracuda HD?
Thanks for your help!

 

Piece of cake!! Go on e-bay or any PC store an look for usb to ide drive cable or case. About $10.00 on ebay max $25.00. If you buy a case you can use the old drive for a backup drive

 

Serial ATA (or SATA) is different from Ultra ATA (also called ATA, or IDE, or PATA for Parallel ATA). SATA drives have flat 'tab' type connectors for both the data and power cables, and the data cable is less than a half-inch wide; SATA data cables are typically red, orange, or blue. Ultra ATA drives have a 4pin power connector (commonly called Molex) and a 40pin data connector that consists of 2 rows of 20 pins each, with the bottom row having a 'key' pin removed so the cable can only plug in one way. The data cable is roughly 2 inches wide, plain grey, with a red or blue thin stripe running down one side of the cable. As suggested above, using a drive enclosure is the way to go. Once the data has been transfered and/or backed up, the drive can be erased and reformatted and used an external 'storage bank' for music, videos, data, whatever. If you're unsure of whether you need a SATA to USB or IDE/ATA/PATA to USB, you can get an enclosure that has both interfaces built in to it. Once you look at it, you easily determine which type of interface connects to which type of drive. Here's one at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817388002
It can accomodate either a SATA hard drive or an IDE/PATA hard drive, and then you plug it into a USB port.... easy!
:-D

 

The external case has to be able to hold a 3 1/2" drive, the size in desktops. 2 1/2" drives are used in laptops.
Example of a case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817193019
example of an adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101

 

These tools are pretty useful. I use one all the time at work and home and saves me alot of time. This is the one I use:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

Sometimes have some trouble recognizing IDE on Vista but, usually nothing that a reboot or re-connect doesn't fix.

 

Thanks so much everyone. I appreciate the input. I will probably get the enclosure. It seems more useful to me in the long run.
Thanks again!

 

Gosh
I thought I could figure out this darn problem. I purchased an adapter and hooked it all up. the light came on and everything seems fine but my computer does not recognize the drive at all. I tried moving the jumpers around.... master, slave, etc and still nothing. Can anyone offer a possible solution?
I miss my data LOL
Thanks

 

Can your new Dell accomodate a slave drive internally?

 

No USB device shows your hard drive?
Have you clicked on Control Panel, Admin Tools, Computer Management then Disk Management? It might show up there as Disk 1. You might have to take ownership before you have access to your documents.

Does the adapter have a power cord? If not, about the only problem I could see might be the USB port can't supply enough power for the hard drive attached. Since my adapter came with a power cord, I never faced that problem.

 

Ok I believe I have confused you substantially.
I will try and sort this out better LOL
I bought a PATA to SATA adapter and have it attached internally to my MOBO with the cable. It has a power cable and that is also fed from the power supply. I know it works because a light comes on.
As far as all the other questions... I am still trying to get a handle on this new Vista.. UGH!! rolleyes
As far as enough power... there is no external power involved.
I hope this clarifies it a little bit.
Thanks

I happen to think since this was my primary HD in the old computer it has the OS still on it. Is there a way that I might be able to "boot" to it and then harvest the stuff I need? I would still like to use it as a backup storage drive however.
Just thinking

 

From what I read above, it appears that the old drive (the one you're trying to read) is a standard ATA (or IDE or PATA) hard drive. You bought a converter to plug the IDE/ATA drive into a SATA port on the motherboard. Correct? The drive should be jumpered to "Single" or "Master". I've used a few of these adapters (possibly different from what you have) and they had a little push-button. You boot up and if Windows didn't see the drive, you'd power down and hold in the button for a couple seconds, then reboot. I'm pretty sure it's safe to press the little button while the PC is POSTing (like right after the PC is turned on and you get the logo screen), but I really don't remember - I haven't had to use one of these adapters in a long time - and you might have a different unit. Other than this, all I can suggest is to check the PC BIOS: if the drive is connected properly to the adapter, it should be listed in the BIOS as an active drive. Many newer Dell PCs are shipped with all the on-board SATA ports disabled except for the installed hard drive and the DVD drive (if it's SATA). So you might check in the BIOS and be sure the appropriate SATA port is enabled.....
Good luck! Let us know how it goes!!!!!!!!!!
:-D

No. The operating system is configured for an entirely different PC and it will simply crash when you hook it up to your new Dell due to the drastic change in hardware (motherboard, CPU, etc)

BTW- I sincerely hope that you bought the system from a small local independent PC shop. In these tough economic times, we ALL need to be shopping locally and spending our hard earned dollars with hard working local businesses. Newegg, Dell, TigerDirect, BestBuy, etc, have plenty of money. The guy down the street running the PC shop a little further down the street with two kids and a mortgage probably needs the money a bit more that the global multi-national corporation.