Convert an Internal PATA IDE (Desktop) 3.5″ Hard disk to External USB Hard Disk

Most of us upgrade our PC in every 2 to 3 years… When we do so we find we may have few extra full functional left over product from the old PC… One of which could be a PATA / IDE (U-ATA) Hard Disk drive…

Now days all new motherboard may come with only one single IDE slot, therefore you may find that, the fully functional HDD cant be connected to the desktop any more..

Rather than thronging the HDD away or thinking of re-selling it, one nice idea would be using it as one large external USB plug n play storage device…

How to Convert a Internal PATA IDE (Desktop) 3.5″ Hard disk to an External USB Hard Disk ??

Hardware you need

All you need to do is purchase one external USB 2.0 Casing or enclosure for IDE drives… In India its around INR Rs. 600/- to Rs. 1200/- depending on the brand and also from the place where it is been purchased..

One may look like this,

External PATA Casing

USB 2.0 Port, please note that all new motherboard will have native USB 2.0 ports now !!!

Softwares you would need

Now days for large USB 2.0 you dont need any special software, all major new linux distros and Windows 2000 SP4 or later which includes windows xp sp2 and windows vista or server 2003 sp1 and later natively support USB 2.0 interface…

How you can do it ??

Open up the pack, it will contain the HDD casing, open the casing from the top end, and it will have connectors for IDE cable and the power cable, just connect them to your IDE HDD slots.

IDE PATA External Casing inside

Now put the casing cover back on and it may look like this bellow image,

Any external casing will come with external power supply adapter and one USB 2.0 dock cable….

External HDD Power cable

The Larger Desktop HDDs like normal standard 3.5 inch PATA IDE disk will need external power source to operate, this adapter will work with any 220 volt home power socket !!!

You may visit the store to purchase the product…

Choto Cheeta on October 21, 2007 | Filed Under Computer, Hardware

40 Comments

ravi  on October 21st, 2007

Nice tutorial………
Most us just throw our old PATA hard disk.This is very handy tut for old PATA user who are planing to upgrade their PC.

Choto Cheeta  on October 21st, 2007

Thank you for the comment :)

Satyam  on October 22nd, 2007

Owesum Post
I have 2 hdd of 4GB was thinking to throw it
This made it useful
Really Helpful Post

joe2005  on October 23rd, 2007

Nice Tut.Thanks

Sunny  on October 30th, 2007

Hi,

Yaar kia ghazab ka totka bataya hai tum nay .I Like it !
i have 3 old harddrives…one is 8.1 GB with IDE interface.
2nd is 8 GB IDE Interface.
3rd is 120 GB with SATA interface..
now confirm me that ….. by looking at ur site..i got the idea that… this BOX thing will Convert my Harddisk into a Large USB Flash(Just Like Memory Stick like Kingston USB Stick). will it work the same way?
next is u mean to say that kay … i just have to plug in USB Cable into USB 2.0 Port. owlaa. here i go… can i start moving my data into in that so called new 120 GB USB Memory Stick(offcourse it is not a Stick but i m using it as an example).
Please i m waiting for UR Reply. ASAP.

Choto Cheeta  on October 30th, 2007

Thank you for the reply…

Yes USB HDD will just work like you USB thumb or USB pen drives… They are plug n play under OS like Windows 2000 / XP / Vista or Server 2000 / 2003 or any other Linux !!!

as shown you have to power up the 3.5″ Casing drive with exter power supply adapter whichwould come with the casing !!!

Casings are around Rs. 600/- wtih 1 year warrenty :)

apoorva  on November 5th, 2007

well, its good i found out about this… i thought external hard disk enclosures were very costly, now i will buy 1 today itself..

amar  on November 8th, 2007

You can get a nice ZIPPYS external hard disk casing for Rs 300 at Nehru Place in Delhi!

Mani  on November 27th, 2007

hey,

I wonder wat about speed I mean tranfer rate, will it be affected?

Choto Cheeta  on November 28th, 2007

Hello Mani,

No there wont be any speed issue with any of the External drives… !! Usually you would find them performing faster with USB as there wont be any OS activity going on the device…

Here is a USB drive running under vista…

!!!

thnx…

bhadri  on December 1st, 2007

hey , i jus got a Zippys 3.5″ HDD.
plugged it to a 160 gb IDE harddisk.
windows detects the new hardware and says it is ready for use… but it does not turn up in my computer at all.. i cannot acess it. any idea why.
the jumper is on cable select.

Choto Cheeta  on December 1st, 2007

^^^

If you have one unpartioned drive then its possible to face such issue…

Under Windows XP, Right Click on My Computers and click manage

Next at your left side navigation menu select the option disk management… and if you have any unpartioned space, then partion it and asign drive letter to start using it…

~NG~  on December 11th, 2007

hi
wat a nice conversion technique !!!

gr8 :P

keep up d gud work!!
njoy!!

sankar  on December 13th, 2007

hi i got a zippys external case fro my segate 120 gb hard disk..im using a vista platform.whenever i plug in the device it says the device is not able to start.can u help me out???

Choto Cheeta  on December 13th, 2007

There is an update available for Vista for USB devices, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/941600 see installing that helps or not.. I would suggest run an auto update too :)

DVS  on December 23rd, 2007

Can I have the driver for the same. Acually I have the Zippy casing but lost the CD that came along with the same. Now I have changed the laptop & at times it creates problem when I try to explore the HDD.

amit  on December 29th, 2007

hi,
i just bought this device to interface my desktop’s hard disk with the laptop (vista) but it refuses to work. The usb mass storage icon pops up in the taskbar when i connect, but disappears within a few seconds. i went to the vendor to get it checked but it worked fine on his desktop, so it appears to be an issue with vista.
i’ll be really grateful if you can help me out with this.
thanks.

Choto Cheeta  on December 30th, 2007

Hello Amit,

As its Windows Vista, I would say run an auto update !!! which would download any missing driver or patch which may be needed to run your device…

For ex, pay a visit here, For Vista USB Driver Issue

James  on March 26th, 2008

I was just about to create one topic in Thinkdigit forun about how to turn an Internal IDE HDD into External USB HDD & I saw there is allready one such topic :D

When I was reading the replies, I saw one member has given this page’s link. (Thnx a ton to him)

Thnx a lot yaar, u r doing gr8 job, keep it up. :)

Niraj Pathak  on April 11th, 2008

from where i can get this magic BOX?

Jamshid  on May 12th, 2008

I looked for the casing but it seems to cost above INR 1000.

I think it’s better to buy a new HDD for just INR 1700 rather than buying a casing of Rs. 1000! or atleast use the existing hard disk…

Thanks

Choto Cheeta  on May 12th, 2008

Hello Jamshid

This is just to confirm you, the casing from brands like Techcom / Frontech is Rs. 450/- for IDE where as Rs. 550-600 for SATA HDDs

None of them comes with any warranty !!

jineesh  on June 3rd, 2008

i hav a 40 gb ide hdd i m making it external
thank u 4 ur advice

Lokesh Bhagwani  on July 15th, 2008

Hi
i have seagate 40 GB HDD, Casing and a laptop can you tell me how can i make this 40 GB hdd boot from that laptop and would like to run my laptop using this Hard Disk and Casing. I don’t have the driver cd which came with the casing could you please help

Lokesh

abhishek  on July 21st, 2008

hi i will like to know thAT i have a 250gb seagate ide drive
suggest me a good n cheap USB casing for it
i want to use it with my laptop

partho  on August 29th, 2008

that doesnt solve many issues. they are as follows.
#1. there is no heat exhaust. when the hdd spins it generates a huge amount of heat most of the time the aluminum case is not what it is its made of plastic. and when hard plastic melts? it sticks on to the hdd. and the static noise from hdd spin from those high magnetic base ends makes it generate a LOAD of noise and they produce vibration which sometime helps the disk slide if the surface is smooth/slippery
#2. the power supply is weak. its not optimised. and some hard drives require specific voltage as per the industry guidelines. and i lost my friggin 250 GB seagate drive. thanks to one such case and a stupid case mistake and i had to recover the data from a electronic hardware store where they charged me a heck a lot of money to recover the data.
#3. they aint designed to be shockproof. so? if you drop it by slightest mistake? kiss it byeeeeee, thats history and spoilt american pie.
#4. alternate solution? instead of spending cash like duckbucks? go for IDE/ATA/PATA to SATA connecting cables. they work on same voltage which is regulated by the SMPS so if your processor gets a burn black dont blame the manufacturer. because it gets a different voltage from other plug point. PC on PCI cards support 3.3/5.0 volts and there are bits specifications also. so? if you are making the thing “totka” mast? baapu aap jaldi pachataoge. the 32-bit and 16 bit PCI cards and both with 3.3 and 5.0 volts are not always measured the same by that power outlet. and second the old drives work more with 80 pin IDE cables and new ones outperform a 40 pin IDE cable and as you can see its an IDE cable with 40 pins. WTF man, dont you know? in a oneway the one can go oneway. even though its a bidirectional dataflow, but when stripping from 80 pin to a 40 pin? via IDE you will surely have some major issue. and even if you do have spare 80 pin how will you mux it to make’em both work with one board terminating node and other hdd pin terminating node. because you need to cross connect the cables. the pinning is not the same for 40-80 and pinning is really hectic. so? rather than for a MAGIC “BS (BOLD)” (BS=BULLSHIT) go and purchase sata – ide converter. for picture/photo? try here. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-in-1-IDE-to-SATA-SATA-to-IDE-Converter-Adapter-B017_W0QQitemZ320291453278QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320291453278&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
;-) rest is upto you.
my 2 cents!

partho  on August 29th, 2008

this is how my home (personal network setup) looks like (picture diagram):

Phenom aka Opteron aka AMD’s quad core 2.0 -~= AMD x2 2.8 ghz -~= AMD Athlon 64 2.8 ghz -~= P4 1.7 (williamate) -~= P2 233 mhz * 2 -~= P1 133 mhz * 3

- = bluetooth, ~ = traditional cat5 lan, = = wifi

simple diagram

[ opteron -~= x2 -~= Athlon 64 -~= p4 -~= p2 -~ p1 ] – openwrt on linksys * 2 (WRT54GL); Bluetooth PAND LAN; CAT5 UTP 1000 mbit LAN.

p1/p2 works as routers and switches and gateways and firewall and vpn and radius when working in LAN/WLAN/PAND else a mono tower when browsing and “JUST 1 (one) monitor” and 2 laptops. ;-) zig-zag at times.

hard drives? DONT ASK, its in TB’s of storage, a huge power bill and 2 capless broadband connections each 1 mbps, developing linux related things.

thus for me data is the CNS (central nervous system) so loosing data is like becoming nervous and panicky. :-p thats why the tip. hope it helps, than annoys.

kk  on September 1st, 2008

URGENT
How to boot from the hard drive after using enclosure???

jose  on September 3rd, 2008

hi i want to know that when i want to initialized the hdd it everytime say “the drive is not ready” until now i still cannot use. help thanks

A.R.GANESAN  on December 21st, 2008

i had a follwing problem with my external hard disk (3.5 “) make zippys.

hey , i jus got a Zippys 3.5? HDD.
plugged it to a 160 gb IDE harddisk.
windows detects the new hardware and says it is ready for use… but it does not turn up in my computer at all.. i cannot acess it. any idea why.
the jumper is on cable select.

Gather  on April 25th, 2009

I have same problem with A.R GANESA & bhadri, but my problem with my HDD 40Gb. i already try the jumper (become slave, master, and on cable select), But it still problem. any one can help me….? thanks….

Case for Internal Hard Drive - HTFC Forums  on November 2nd, 2009

[...] see if there is any help here Converting PATA drives for USB A wise choice to keeping back ups…. another one would be to get yet another drive and clone the [...]

Inner Eye  on December 16th, 2009

Now all PCS are with new HDD connector.very small one,with a red thin cable.Can we get the casing which adopts both HDD plugs?meaning casing with bigger plug(which is explained here above) and then new one which i asked here?so we can use any of the HDD as USB as and when needed? Its perticularly useful when one has PCs of both this kind of HDD and data of new type connector HDD to be transfer prior to formatting.Sorry for not using technical terms as i am unaware of it.U may pl. rewrite my questions in a manner all can understans.Thanks in advance for yr help and many many thanks for sharing all yr valuable experience with all.-Inner Eye

CS  on January 26th, 2010

Hard disk , Floppy Disk, CD-ROM drives are external or internal?

rohit  on April 11th, 2010

i have ha USB casing , i am doing all the plug but my disk is not open and error is plz formet this drive

Vikram  on April 20th, 2010

Hi..
I have a computer within this configuration:

Intel Dual Core 3.6Ghz
Gigabyte 946G motherboard
2GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
40GB IDE HDD
NVIDEA 7300GT 512MB gaphics card.

yesterday i buyed a 250GB SATA HDD with an external HDD casing band Techcom

after connecting the HDD casing, i connected the HDD to the USB port.

Now the problem is, when i send any file to the HDD i get an error message on the system tray like this,

Windows – Delayed Write Failed
“Windows was unable to save all the data for the file F:\$Mft. The data has been lost. The error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connections. please try to save this file elsewhere.”

is there any solution for my question please help

sesil  on June 28th, 2010

sir,
my toshiba stellite m55 s1001 laptop is not getting switched on
if the ON button is pressed the LED on the button blinks for a second and switching off immedieately.please help me to trouble shoot my laptop.

Saurabh  on August 27th, 2010

can d hard disk be used on ps3 after casing? also i think my hard disk has bad sectors in it.

liju  on December 14th, 2010

the hard disk adapter burns up again and gagin .. give me suggetion of some brnded adapters..

shrey  on July 15th, 2011

is there any problem in using HDD casing

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