Old Hard Drive (....very old!)

[Hew Jaz]

Came across old pc in attic and it doesn't want to start up (not surprising really I suppose). However, I figure there is probably some stuff on the hard drive that I may like to copy / retain before it finally goes to the great recycling centre in the sky.

Ok, so it's years old, guessing 12(!). Isn't there something about different bus speeds that would prevent me putting the HD into my newer pc (3yrs) and copying any info I may want? Or is there a work around to it.

The PC tends to hang on startup, but there's a tiny amount of memory in it and it is an, erm, old, erm pc, maybe from the erm, 486 era... ssshhh......

I haven't tried it, as I wasn't sure of the potential consequences.

Any thoughts?

HJ

[rotorcraig]

No, an HDD is pretty much an HDD - you don't need to worry about bus speeds etc.

But the HDD from your old drive should have some switches / jumpers that can be used to select between Master and Slave. Chances are it's set to Master (or maybe Auto?) ... change it to Slave.

If you're lucky, your new PC will have an HDD ribbon cable with two connectors - one half way down and the other at the end.

If one of these connectors is doing nothing, then plug the HDD in there, and connect up a spare power connector too.

It's possible both connectors are used, but that one is going to a CDROM drive? If so then disconnect that and plug it into the HDD (and put it back on the CDROM drive afterwards).

RC

[Mac the Knife]

"...an HDD is pretty much an HDD..."

Not so. It may not be an IDE drive at all.

If the drive is REALLY old it may have a ST-506/ST-412 interface. Possibly also ESDI or SCSI (less likely).

ST-506/ST-412 drives can be recognised by having two ribbon cables (instead of the single cable used by IDE/ATA and SCSI). One of the cables is 20 pins wide and carries data, and the other is 34 pins and carries control signals.

If you want to read it you'll have to find a working mobo with an ISA/AT bus and an ST-506/ST-412 controller and set it all up. Best contact your local computer interest group and see if any of the old guys like me still have some of the kit around.

See http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/if/obso.html

Good luck!

[rotorcraig]

Not so. It may not be an IDE drive at all.Fair point :O

RC

[Saab Dastard]

If the 40-pin ribbon cable from your current PC fits, then it is an IDE drive.

AFAIR, IDE drives became standard around the time that the 386 was replaced with the 486, so virtually all PCs of 486 and above were built with IDE drives.

SCSI drives were rarely fitted to desktop PCs, as they were then considered "high performance" and "high capacity", so usually only found in servers and workstations (and Apple MACs!). Not impossible, just unlikely.

The most likely problem?

The early IDE drives had all 40 pins present - you had to read which was pin 1 to ensure you got the cable the right way around - and they didn't always have a slot on one side of the socket (same reason). However modern IDE drives have 1 pin missing and a slot cut out, so the modern cables have one pin hole blanked and this will need to be drilled out to get the cable onto the drive.

It can be done (I know, I've done it), but it is much easier if you can take the IDE cable from the old PC and use that.

SD

[Hew Jaz]

Ok, thanks for those replies. I guess that will be my folly perhaps this evening, or more likely tomorrow.

I'll report with any info.

Cheers,

HJ
:ok: