Is it possible to use my dad's old hard drive on my new computer?
Posted by IcyBushGuy@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 8 comments
I recently found my dad's old pc and asked if i could use his harddrive for extra storage. He agreed but when I connected it to my computer (via SATA) it didn't appear. It isn't showing in disk management or device manager.
Frolock@reddit
Did you connect power to it as well? I know it’s a dumb question, but you only mentioned connecting to SATA.
IcyBushGuy@reddit (OP)
Oh, Im dumb. If you dont mind me asking... how would I do that..
Frolock@reddit
There will be a cable coming from your power supply that will connect to the hard drive. It looks similar to the SATA connector but it’s wider.
IcyBushGuy@reddit (OP)
got it sorted, thank you so much
greggm2000@reddit
Without more information, it's hard to say what the reason might be.
What specific model is it? Depending on how old it is, it might be such a small capacity that it wouldn't make sense to try and get it working.
Aggressive_Deer_7072@reddit
First thing i’d check is whether the drive even shows up in BIOS because if Windows can’t see it at all then it’s usually cable/power/dead drive stuff before software
also if it’s REALLY old there’s a chance it needs a different SATA mode, separate power connector issue, or the drive itself just died sitting around. old HDDs get weird fast honestly
greggm2000@reddit
If it's REALLY old, it might be PATA/IDE, which would be very problematic, and such a small capacity anyway, that it wouldn't make sense to install it, even if you bought a IDE adapter!
OtherAlan@reddit
The hard drive needs two cables, one for power and one for data. If you don't feel it spinning up when powered on, it's probably dead.