Reddit mentions of SANOXY A12940 SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable

• I couldn't have a repair kit without these cables. Need to hook a hard drive up but don't want to put it inside of a computer? Done! You can also get a usb 3.0 if you're so inclined!
  
  
• Everyone loves magnetized screwdrivers..so I bought this set and it seems to be of good quality so far.
  
  
• Need to do some fine adjusting and use a strong tool? I bought this and love it! It fixes iPhones, has a flathead and philips bit with it as well!
  
  
• Need to do some prying for phones or laptop screens? This is the perfect tool for it! bends when it needs to, but doesn't lose its form or shape!
  
  
• Drop a screw or need to do some fine tuning? Perfect! These tweezers are amazing and I would recommend them to anyone, including you.
  
  I also bought a 128GB flash drive to keep some common repair program on and it has saved me a lot of time and trouble.
  
  Put it all in a small backpack and you have a nice repair kit on the go!
  
  
  edit/
  
  Software! I use these weekly and it saves me a lot of time and trouble. I am open to suggestions on what you can also use, and would recommend using google for tutorials if you need help :)
  
  
  
• Seagate File Recovery Have missing files or wiped a hard drive that you weren't suppose to? Use this to recover those files.
  
  
• SeaGate Discwizard Need to clone a drive, format or mount an image? This is the tool for you! Simply download and you're on your way!
  
  
• Malwarebytes Need to remove a virus, spyware or adware from a computer? Here you go! Simply run it (quick scan and full scan do the same thing!) and you'll be able to remove those violations after.
  
  
• CCleaner A system cleaner all in one. I wouldn't recommend using the registry cleaner as it shouldn't do too much, but this is a streamlined way to remove all app data and computer files in one swipe.
  
  
• BitDefender Free I don't use antivirus on my personal computer/devices, but I do install this on my customers computers. Easy to manage and low interference, makes it the perfect solution for those who don't know much about computers.
  
  
• Hirens Boot CD This is an amazing tool that has endless capabilities. Forgot a windows password? No problem! Google guides for this to use it fully :)
  
  edit//
  
  If anyone else has suggestions on programs/tools to use i'm all ears. I've been doing repairs for the past 6-10 years (personally and for business) and these are the best things i've found so far. You can never have too much info/tools though :)
  
  And make sure you upvote everyone else who is giving you ideas/suggestions. A community that grows together knows more :)
  

We have to deal with old machines all the time at work. If you have to do this often, "invest" in some sort of IDE/SATA/USB converter, for example this. I say "invest" because it really is cheap, especially if you get free shipping.

Find an older pc, or get an adapter this thing doesn't come out of the drawer much. But it's damn handy when it does.

Trying to repair it as an external drive is likely to fail. You are far better off getting something like this.

http://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-30504-Serial-Adapter/dp/B000UO6C5S

or

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/

Or you can just open up your computer (if it is a tower, not a laptop) and install it inside.

Or use something like this

Yeah, just pull the hard drive, plug it into an external HD adapter (USB should work fine), put that into another computer, and you're golden.

edit: Something like this should work fine.

http://amzn.com/B001OORMVQ

Buy that, plug the drive into it, and use it like a flash drive.

If you aren't able to get an external display working, you can manually remove the HDD and extract data by hooking it up to a SATA/PATA/IDE to USB converter.

Remove the hard drive and get one of these to connect it via USB to another computer.

Stop what you are doing.

• Buy this for $6.52
  
  While you wait for your package:
  
  
• Turn off your Sony VAIO and disconnect the battery.
  
• Remove your Hard drive from your VAIO and either place it on an anti-static bag or cardboard. (You can google your model's disassembly) guide.
  
• When your shipment arrives attach the drive to your desktop via USB and transfer what you need.
  
  EDIT: Formatting

If the system won't POST with the IDE drives then it has nothing to do with Windows. The best solution, if you just need the data off, is to leave them removed from the system and get an IDE-to-USB converter like this one, boot from the SSD, and then pull the data off each drive as if it was just an external drive (because it is, that's all externals are).

That adapter will work fine for a laptop hard drive. If your old computer was a tower you will need to get a kit with a power adapter like this one.

Ah, I was wondering how your files remained intact. Best option your have is to grab one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-A12940-Drive-Adapter-Converter/dp/B001OORMVQ

You can pull out your hard drive, attach it to the above adaptor then plug into another computer via USB and back your files up that way. Once you have your files backed up, put the hard drive back into the laptop and do a fresh install (delete all partitions and format)

Yes, there are easy ways to transfer Windows. Well, easier than re-installing and starting from scratch.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E3W15P0/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've used this in the past, which comes with a utility to clone your hard drive to your new SSD. I believe the tool requires something like this to move the data. It wasn't listed as required when I purchased this SSD, but luckily I had one lying around.

Full disclosure, I did this from one SSD to another, but you should be able to use it from an HDD to an SSD. You'll need to trim down the data on your HDD until it's roughly 75% of the capacity of the new SSD before cloning it over.

Obviously keep your old HDD for a while after you've started running of your new SSD just in case you run into any problems.

Edit-- Just realized that it's your secondary drive that's failing, meaning you may not have a holding space for the data on your primary drive when you trim it down. If you're going to use it as a secondary drive later, I'm assuming it's a larger drive--not sure how full it is. You may need an external drive to temporarily hold the stuff from your primary drive if you don't feel like trusting that data, even temporarily, to the failing secondary drive. The tool I suggested does not, as far as I'm aware, allow you to copy over JUST your OS files and leave your other files in place. You wouldn't be able to hook up your new drive, boot into the old drive, and copy the Windows files over because most would be in use by your current drive. I'm guessing you could use a Linux ISO on a USB stick to boot into Linux and use their file tools to copy over all of the Windows files from the old drive to the new one, but I have suspicions as to how well that would work. My suspicions could be unfounded.

Shouldn't need a second computer. If anything (if you have a laptop or a strange desktop without connectors), you might need a sata/pata to usb adapter.

Do you or someone you know have another computer?

What I would do is remove the hard drive from your laptop, and use an external hard drive reader, kind of like this (on mobile forgive the bad link): http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001OORMVQ/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/183-6987695-8583560

It's essentially a cable you connect to your hard drive, then to another computer so that it registers as just another drive. From there you can browse the drive and pull off your data.

Depends on if your old laptop hard drive has IDE or SATA interface. If they are both SATA it should be easy and quick.

• Get your desktop updated and running and then shut it down. Pull power cord.
  
• Start Steam on your laptop and use the option to back up your games. This should create a big file.
  
• Shut down your laptop, pull power cord and battery.
  
• Pop the desktop case open and look for the SATA cables, they are typically red and the power cables that go with them.
  
• Open up your laptop and pull the hard drive.
  
• Use another SATA data cable that came with your system or pull power/data off of your DVD burner.
  
• Plug your laptop hard drive into your computer using the power and data cables. It is ok if it dangles, just don't short anything out.
  
• Boot up your desktop and you should see your old hard drive. Navigate to the Steam back up file and copy over to your new computer under a temporary folder.
  
• Start Steam on the new computer and use the option to recover from the back up.
  
• Go make some waffles, because waffles are tasty.
  
  If your old laptop has an IDE interface, go and order one of these and then use it to connect to your new computer.
  
  That should be the fastest. But transferring anything other than save data across computers is screwed now days. If you don't understand any of these steps, use Google. Good luck.

For sure:

The way I do it is I remove the hard drive from the computer (you should be able to Google "<computer type/model> harddrive removal" and find documentation for it), then you would need the appropriate usb cables to connect that computer to another. Once it's connected, it'll act like an external harddrive, from there you just copy it to the computer you're on.

The cables vary depending on the type of harddrive (laptop/desktop), but something like this bundle is cheap and has them all: http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ

So basically you're turning the harddrive into an external harddrive temporarily so you can access/copy the files from the user account. Make sense? Happy to answer more questions.

TIL not every tech has one of these with them at all time.
http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ

Could be a failing PSU. If you have another PC to work with you can pull the HDD out of the dying machine and use a USB to SATA cable and pull the data that way.

Found this for $8 on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-A12940-Drive-Adapter-Converter/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1454258291&sr=1-5&keywords=IDE+to+USB

Buy this, plug the hard drive to the laptop:

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341912989&sr=8-2&keywords=sata+ide+usb

This will connect almost any disk type to usb so you can hook it up to your pc.
[(http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=pd_cp_pc_0)]

If you end up going the enclosure method, and don't know anyone that has one - [use this cable set] (http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344519708&sr=8-2&keywords=SATA+to+USB+cable) - $8 on Amazon with free shipping if you have Amazon Prime. Not an enclosure, but still lets you hook the drive up USB and is much cheaper than an enclosure.

Sorry I don't have any experience with fixing damaged drives.

When trying to pull data from a failing drive I've had much better luck attaching the drive via a kit or adapter to another PC via USB and pulling the data that way. If the bad sector contains OS data it may struggle to boot but pulling your data off shouldn't be an issue. I personally have this cheap adapter from Amazon and have used it many times in this kind of situation.

Best of luck.

I got an IDE to usb converter like this. Quality control doesn't seem to be great with these, but mine works fine and it lets me loan people files on an old drive that I don't have to worry about getting back anytime soon.

It might be fixable depending on what exactly is broken, but it's hard to tell without opening it. This kit on Amazon or a dozen others like it can be used to plug a hard disk on your computer through USB, bypassing that circuit in the external drive. But you still need to open the drive enclosure and extract the hard disk. If you do it carefully, you can't really damage it more than it already is.

OP, you could do a clean install(which is best when moving to an SSD), and then get one of these and just transfer over what stuff you really need from your user profile.

I'd recommend picking up this kit then; Or if you're connecting it to a desktop, just open the tower case and connect it directly to the SATA controller with a SATA cable.

If what you need it for is temporary, such as transfering the files from the old hard drives to the new one, I would suggest using something like this instead of an actual enclosure.

If you want something more permanent, you could look around for something like this, just look up 3.5 inch enclosures for standard hard drives. They make other sizes if your hard drives are different.

You would need something along the lines of this USB Drive Adapter You will be able to browse the drive and hopefully get some of your files back.

Get these hard drive cables for $8 and free shipping. It will connect just like an external hard drive without all of the trouble.

THIS! Because my laptop died last night, I can send a picture if you want, and I have to rescue the hard drive! I need those files!!! I'm on Reddit using my tablet but I need my files :(

Thank you for the contest!

Ah, yeah, I'm more than half-way across the state from you, or I'd be happy to lend you one.

This is the one I have. $9.40

Check the power supply - if it's not working - Look into an external kit, I got it from amazon for $10
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OORMVQ/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

Actually, I think the same kit may work on SCSI. Here is the link.

What would you suggest for the precision screwdrivers and the interchangeable tip screwdriver?
I thought this had everything needed.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OORMVQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1J1FQSKQ3KTM2

or is this what you are talking about
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005B3VO24/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A294P4X9EWVXLJ

No. Not saying that. You won't be able to boot from that drive, but you should be able to mount it. You have a few options: put a different drive in the iMac and install your 10.4, or acquire 10.5, and install that. Get one of these http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001OORMVQ/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1312802147&sr=8-1 and hook up your old drive externally via USB. The drive will still mount, as long as there's nothing wrong with it. Copy your stuff and wipe that drive.

Otherwise if you have a windows PC, get something like "Mac drive" and hook it up over USB using the bridge I linked on amazon. Either way, you're good to go. Let me know how it turns out

Hey,

Still using USB, but I would suggest just temporally pulling out the drive and using a SATA to USB. Your computer will see the hard drive like a USB drive and you will be able to pull everything off in one go.

Here's a link. Only $9 and super handy to have around:

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422332172&sr=8-1&keywords=desktop+drive+to+usb

If the connectors aren't glued, you can pick up something like this to connect to another computer and transfer the data off.

quick question would you say either of these are good choices to get? i mean do they have good specs at first glance?

http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-SATA-Drive-Converter-USB-DSC5/dp/B000HJ99DI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449650088&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=sata+ide&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-A12940-Drive-Adapter-Converter/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449650647&sr=8-1&keywords=sata+ide&refinements=p_n_condition-type%3A6461716011

should i go for more expensive? will these break down in like 3 days cause of the cost?

http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-A12940-Drive-Adapter-Converter/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451437077&sr=8-2&keywords=internal+hard+drive+adapter

OP, Rollout and rawrsauce are right on the money. You need to run to your local computer parts retailer and get yourself something like this. Notice the part with the USB end, that part attaches to the hard drive and then can plug into another computer. It will mount as a new hard drive on the recovery computer and you can access the file system and pull off what you need.

I tried and tried online backup with Amazon S3. But my upload is just too slow. Tape is dead to me. I use one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b attached to a 1 or 2T disk and use a combination of bacula and rsync to write my data to it. Then I occasionally rotate that disk off to a secure off-site location. Works great.

I use something like this because I constantly need to plug internal drives into various computers and don't like to go through the time of putting it into an external hd case. If you don't think you'll need to use the adapter in the future though, a case works great and then you have the added bonus of having a new external HD floating around.

Using one of these will let you get out the documents you need before a reinstall. You need a second pc though. You can also just take it out and put it in as a regular drive, but I prefer one of those converters as I mainly work with laptops

If you don't mind using only one drive at a time, you can probably use a SATA to USB converter. For instance this one is $10:
http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_text_y#Ask

So this
https://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-A12940-Drive-Adapter-Converter/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=pd_bxgy_147_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B001OORMVQ&pd_rd_r=AT1B9TDJER9KKH9NG95J&pd_rd_w=3uwrp&pd_rd_wg=rncT9&psc=1&refRID=AT1B9TDJER9KKH9NG95J

is the last part that I need to start ordering/building my PC, right? I'm using a laptop right now, and it doesn't look like I have a SATA port.

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332177612&sr=8-2
this is the one I bought. is it possible the hard drive is bad entirely?

I third this, but to be honest this might be a little daunting for some people....even if it is easy for us. If you want step by step instructions on how to do this using a USB thumb drive I can help.

Another thing you can try is buying one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/
You have to take the HD out of the computer, then plug one end of the cable in the HD (the HD will also need power, so plug in the power too) and the USB end in to a working PC. If you are lucky the HD might show up like an external HD with a drive letter. If it does, just download everything you need and you are done. Ive done this a bunch of times and it has always worked for me, but the issues I had may not be the same as your friend.

Good luck

LOL, I love that you admit you need to recover porno. I have clients dance around this all the time. "Can you backup this folder... but don't look in it please"

ANYWAY, If you only other computer is a laptop you will need an adapter to connect a desktop hard drive to your laptop. This is my favorite. If you have USB 3.0 on your laptop then this may be a better option.

Once you have it hooked up you should be able to copy onto/off it like a flash drive. If not, you may need to use some recovery tools. Recuva is free, but somewhat limited. Use it and see what you can get.

If you still can't get anything, you can use GetDataBac as a trial to see if it can find anything for you. If the demo finds stuff you want you will need to buy the full edition so you can copy it all onto your hard drive. You want the NTFS version BTW, it should be $79.

This is what i have. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_gV5-tb179AW9S

>Is that adapter now powerful enough?

The adapter is just adapting...it's your USB ports that don't have enough power.

An adapter that comes with a power supply would work. Like this:

https://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-A12940-Drive-Adapter-Converter/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1466106889&sr=8-10&keywords=usb+to+sata+adapter

I use one like this all the time, ide or sata. http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313338538&sr=8-2

Probably a bad enclosure if nothing is showing up. I've killed at least 3 of them... not sure why theyre so shitty. I'd expect at least a USB-IDE bridge or some other device to show up in Device Manager (Windows) if the drive was not working but the enclosure was. Might be worth getting one of these barebones USB to IDE/SATA converters . Or, you could just plug it in directly into the PC (if its a desktop) and see what happens

You don't need an enclosure, but you will need a power cable. You could improvise if you have a spare power supply lying around, but it sounds like that's unlikely. Your best bet is probably getting something like this.

Do not trust that drive as far as you can comfortably spit a rat, though. Just get what you can off it and discard it. Depending on how important the data is, if you can find a circuit board for exactly the same model disk (eBay can sometimes help here) that might help it hold together longer and/or let you get more data off the disk. They are usually pretty east to swap.

Here is a couple of possibilities:
Get one of these cables. Most if not all building blocks are there.

Buy basic powered USB hub, and get a WD passport or essential external. they have the USB integrated, so you could take it apart, and mount the whole concoction in a microITX case. Nice and tidy.

For the optical drive, just get this or this. I've converted an old optical drive into an external one, and it's not any cheaper. Plus, the little ASUS ones work entirely off of USB, so it's much more convenient.

For external drives, the IDE isn't bad. You should still get decent throughput. This is the cheapest well-rated one I can find. If a bare drive doesn't bug you, you could also try this.

If the disk really is ok
Option 1. put the hard drive in the computer
Option 2. get a new enclosure
Option 3. Get one of these.
http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317818255&sr=8-2

Buy one of these buggers. I use this exact setup almost everyday at work, it's super reliable.

to go with sp105's response -get one of these to read the drive:

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1371408101&sr=1-2&keywords=sata+to+usb+cable

everyone should have one of these handy dandy items in their bag of tricks!

What is your goal with the laptop? If you are just looking to make sure no one accesses your data and but cannot boot the laptop, just remove the drive. You could also potentially get a drive caddy or adapter and connect it to another computer to wipe it.

Something else to consider: you could maybeprobably use a crossover Ethernet cable or adapter. The reason you can't just connect two computers, usually, is because the send line from one is going to the send line of the other, and the same thing with receives.

Alternatively, you could buy some sweet hard drive cables so you could remove the hard drive from one, connect it to these, and your other computer would see it as an external hard drive.