Easiest way to get data off an old hard drive?

[Dragline]

Our ten-year old family truckster PC finally died last week and I need to get some of the old data off of the old drive. (After which we may have an "Office Space"-like cathartic baseball bat meets obsolete electronics experience, while yelling "Die MF! Die MF!")

Research reveals solutions like this one for about $20: http://www.howtogeek.com/182452/how-to- ... t-in-a-pc/

Is this the best/easiest method?

[Spartan_Warrior]

In principle opening another computer and plugging it in is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest method. That article kind of glosses over any reasons for not doing so (perhaps in order to proceed to include affiliate links to products for the consumer alternative). The only reason I would think not to do this would be incompatibility. But if you have another computer with a compatible motherboard (I'm guessing ten year old hard drives would use IDE cables rather than SATA), that's how I'd handle it.

[tommytebco]

I bought a cheap USB hard drive dock.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/2916424757 ... noapp=true

It has recognized all hard drives that still operated. I just copy the files I want to the new unit. If the hard drive itself is defective, I think the only alternative is to send away to a specialist.

[jacob]

If the HD is defective, the lesser-specialists at Best Buy will make the attempt for $100 or so (2008 prices). They might not be as good as the $2000 forensic expert. Depends on the importance of the data. (Happened to DW's PhD thesis before she grokked the importance of regular backups.)

[Lucky C]

A few years ago I used one like in the howtogeek link.
This is the one I used and it was very easy and worked fine.
https://www.amazon.com/Vantec-CB-ISATAU ... B000J01I1G

[KevinW]

Yeah the cheapest approach is to move the hard drive to another working computer with the same disk interface. As pointed out, that may be tricky since the old drive is probably IDE, but for several years everything has been SATA. It's also moderate-effort since you'll need to open up and move stuff around inside the working computer.

Those cheap USB adapters are a good compromise.

[TimeTravel]

I've used the USB to IDE/SATA connectors and they work fine. I still have one around just in case. But lately, I've been using in an extra bay, a hot swap HD rack reader. That comes in really handy for quick changes.

The one I have is as follows: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F6 ... UTF8&psc=1

Note however, not sure if any racks are made for IDE. They may be made for just SATA.

[daylen]

Why not continue to use the drive with your new computer?

[TimeTravel]

Why not continue to use the drive with your new computer?

A ten year old HD is pretty old. Perhaps because the connection is IDE instead of SATA and with a slower spin rate? Or perhaps the old HD doesn't hold much data (I have an old HD that only holds about 40 GB). Or perhaps, the catharsis to physically destroy that old HD is just too tempting .

[enigmaT120]

Plus, strong magnets to play with!