Where can I go to transfer data off of two old hard drives, one a 20gb Maxtor and the other a 40gb WD to USB drives?

lmmorTall

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Apr 6, 2014
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I am looking for a quick way to move the data off of two old hard drives that I have and put them onto USB drives instead. One drive is a 20gb Maxtor drive and the other is a 40gb WD drive.
 
Solution
If you have a desktop machine with an old-stype PATA controller you can plug them into it and copy them to something new. PATA is parallel ATA; the drives have a narrow connector with two rows of 20 pins each. I this this is likely what they are, since the more modern SATA drives would probably be larger. Is this the kind of connector on the drive?

I just did that for a friend of mine last weekend and it worked.

If you don't have a motherboard with a PATA controller, or have a laptop, or aren't comfortable opening up your machine, you could get a PATA to USB converter pretty cheap. Or, if they are SATA, an SATA to USB converter pretty cheap. NewEgg has this for $15 that will handle either kind of drive...
If you have a desktop machine with an old-stype PATA controller you can plug them into it and copy them to something new. PATA is parallel ATA; the drives have a narrow connector with two rows of 20 pins each. I this this is likely what they are, since the more modern SATA drives would probably be larger. Is this the kind of connector on the drive?

I just did that for a friend of mine last weekend and it worked.

If you don't have a motherboard with a PATA controller, or have a laptop, or aren't comfortable opening up your machine, you could get a PATA to USB converter pretty cheap. Or, if they are SATA, an SATA to USB converter pretty cheap. NewEgg has this for $15 that will handle either kind of drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152 (price good until tomorrow only). Or save money and have a tech-savvy friend do it.
 
Solution