Need computer geek help !

[wish2fish]

I've got some old computers that probably have some photos on their hard drives. Before I get rid of them I was hoping I could check their hard drives.

I see these cables that say SAT to USB, ATA to USB and IDE to USB. Is this all i need to get the hard drive working to see if there is anything on there I want?

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1C1CHNY_enUS344US344&q=sata+to+usb+adapter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=9485045192101622072&ei=_1SaTIeRKIyJnQfN2P39Dg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=image&resnum=3&ved=0CEkQ8gIwAg#

 

[Tonka Boater]

Yep, those will work. You need to pull the drives and determine if they are SATA or IDE. IDE drives have the old fashioned ribbon cable with a wide, flat connnector. SATA drives have regular looking cable (usually red) with a relatively small connector. Once you determine the type of cable you need, you simply plug the cable into the hard drive and connect the other end to your computer. Your computer will recognize the drive and external storage device and you can search through the folders and grab what you need.

If you are throwing away or recycling the computers then I would not include the hard drives. The data is still accessible even after it has been deleted. If you don't need the hard drives then destroy them and toss them in the trash.

Oops...I just realized that the cable in your post supports both ATA and IDE so you will be fine.

 

[tbirdvet]

Not sure what you're saying. Do you have these drives out of the PC? If so they can be read by another PC if 1) you supply power to the drive and 2) connect using a usb cable. Never used what you show here on the link, I have always put them in a hard drive enclosure and they work great.

 

[chumbley]

Yes, those types of adapters work well. There should be a power supply that comes with the adapter, to power the drive. Smaller drives can be powered by the USB power, but older drives will need an external power source (you can use an extra power connector on your system if it doesn't come with a power supply).