New Computer - Old IDE ribbon cable hard drive to SATA.?

Question

I am getting a new computer. My current computer has the old IDE ribbon cable going to the hard drive. I MUST move the contents to the new drive. What is the easest, fastest, cheapest way to do it. I am only gonna do it once.

Somebody at Best Buys Geed Squad said most new motherboards have an old IDE connector on them. Could I just plug a ribbon cable into that, and copy from that to the new SATA hard drive?

Thanks! ~Cindy! :)
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Answer 1

Hmm good news, on getting a new computer. I also built myself an excellent value for money gaming PC two days ago.



Yes every motherboard has atleast one IDE connector on it. So you can connect your new Hard Drive in SATA port, and the old hard drive in the IDE port. Both the hard disks will show up, and then you can transfer data to and fro.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

New Computer - Old IDE ribbon cable hard drive to SATA.?

I am getting a new computer. My current computer has the old IDE ribbon cable going to the hard drive. I MUST move the contents to the new drive. What is the easest, fastest, cheapest way to do it. I am only gonna do it once.



Somebody at Best Buys Geed Squad said most new motherboards have...

Answer 3

Some do have an IDE, some don't - the IDE function was left out of Intel chipsets from the ICH8 (southbridge / I/O part), so unless recent Intel chipset boards have an additional controller for IDE, they won't support it.



Simplest answer, I'd put the drive into a USB external case (you can get them in SATA or IDE), avoids any problems with opening up the new machine - then you can use the drive for external storage, if it's a decent capacity.



There are also adapters that go from SATA to IDE or IDE to SATA, just make sure the description covers the right direction.



PS. IDE is also known as "ATA" (AT Attachment) or "PATA" (Parallel ATA) to distinguish it from Serial ATA.



Suggestion:

http://www.bestbuys.com/p27833887-Sabrent-3.5-USB-2.0-Aluminum-Hard-Drive-External-Enclosure-Case-Black-ECS-U35K--offers.html

IDE to USB case.



The other alternative, as suggested, is to network the two machines and transfer that way, or possibly to use another external drive to dump things onto and then transfer them, then use for backup.

Answer 4

the prvios responses are accurate, but there's two more things to consider.



1. Unless you are building your own new pc, opening the case ad putting this second hard drive in will void the warranty on any new pc that is store bought or oredered from dell, etc.



2. The hard drive has jumpers on it that tell the hard drive what function it has. Ie cable select, master, slave, secondary slave. Most drives are set to cable select from the factory, so be sure to plug it into the 2nd plug on your original ide ribbon cable. Sometimes you have to change the jumper to slave if you only have an ide cable with a single connector.



I would personally keep the old pc running, connect it to a router/switch and share the c drive out. Then I would access the old one from my new pc and copy only the files I need to my new one. Your files are generally located mostly if not totally within your profile folder. This way you are only copying image files, music, faves, etc.. Makes it easier to avoid copying over a virus or any corruption.



good luck and congrats!

Answer 5

The easiest way, because most people have a router now, is to connect the two computers to a router and transfer the files over the network. There is even a wizard included on XP for doing this and should be one on vista and windows 7. If not, this is another way

On the old conputer, right click on the drive and go to "Sharing" and set up sharing on the drive

On the new computer goto network places and you should now see the drive as a network resource. You can now browse it as if it was attached to your computer and copy the files across.



There are other methods which involve opening your new computer and attaching the old drive, or getting an external enclosure for your drive to turn it into an external drive, but the network is the cheapest and easiest (not necessarily the fastest though)

Answer 6

Yes, all modern motherboards have at least one IDE port that allow you to connect IDE devices to it. It will show up as a regular hard drive.

Answer 7

Yes as long as the motherboard has SATA connectors

Answer 8

with data transfer cable



http://www.usb-ware.com/usb-2-usb-data-link-file-transfer-cable-uc250.htm



can do it the other way



be careful no viruses are on old drive





hugs

xxxx