How can I use an old PATA hard disk drive on my newer SATA-only computer?

How can I use an old PATA hard disk drive on my newer SATA-only computer? I've got some old hard drives I'd like to connect to my new computer to quickly transfer gigs and gigs of data from the old drives to my nice large new drives. The old drives are PATA/IDE/ATA and the new computer's motherboard only supports SATA drives.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 328

Total answers/comments: 4

Comments display order:

bert [Entry]

"Here's a power adapter that goes the right way...

SATA 15-Pin Power Male Connector / Adapter / Converter to Standard Molex 4-Pin Power Female for Hard Drives and Optical Drives

Great for those with new Dell, HP,
Compaq PCs that do not include any
4-Pin Molex connectors on their Power
Supplies!

If you need to use an older IDE hard
drive or optical drive with a new SATA
power supply, look no further than
xPCgear’s LP4 to SATA power adapter.

http://www.xpcgear.com/lp4satafm.html"

bert [Entry]

"What power supply do you have?, because I've never seen any power supply come without at least one of the older 4 pin molex connectors.

If you don't have that you can pretty easily rig something up with your existing connectors if you're feeling a little brave.

Pinouts Here

There's really no need to get another power supply for this"

bert [Entry]

I took the second connection from my DVD drive and hooked up an 80gig drive at work, If you can fit everything try it out. I removed my 3.5" and the end of the HD fits perfectly in the whole it left behind, heh.

bert [Entry]

"i'm somewhat surprised no one has suggested an ide to sata connector. the usb to pata way is rather tricky due to the huge difference in speeds.
of course this method may mean that you sacrifice the use of your dvd drive while the copying takes place. this is a real hassle too because it involves opening the case and unplugiing stuff."