What to do with old hard drives?

Question

Hello all, I recently purchased a new Dell Desktop PC with the newer SATA hard drive. Through the years I have collected half a dozen IDE drives with significant storage potential (2) 80GB, (2) 160GB, (1) 250GB), etc. The problem is if I were to buy an enclosure for each of these, it would cost more than buying a new SATA 500GB drive. I know one new drive is the simpler solution, but I hate wasting these perfectly good older drives. Is there any cost-effective solution to re-using old IDE drives in a modern system? I was also wondering if a enclosure existed which can mount multiple drives instead of just one. I tried searching the web, but haven't found anything. Thanks in advance.

ceri sheeran · Answer

Hi,   Look at a Network Attached storage unit.   These take several hard drives together.   hth   Ceri

shesagordie · Answer

masetodd

I've been installing my 'old' IDE drives in powered USB 2.0 enclosures and using them with SATA systems, for backups.

Bev.

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mombodog · Answer

You are correct the enclosure(s) are worth more than the drives any way you slice it.   One advantage of multiple drives is if you lose a hard drive, you don't lose everything. Big hard drives are great, but a potential to lose allot of data also.   One solution is a Promise PCI IDE controller card, you can install 4 drives on one card. But only if you have room in the case for the drives.   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102027

tr4 · Answer

You could use an old pc case and add a pata card but the cheapest solution is to sell your old drives and buy a new sata drive. People like me are always looking for good drives

Storage, Drives & Media

What to do with old hard drives?

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