12-12-2011, 05:11 PM

Hey guys, been going to this website for a long time and finally decided to sign up as I had a question I know you guys can help me out with. Here's the deal.

I recently bought a usb to sata/ide kit from thinkgeek,if you need the link it's here: ThinkGeek :: USB to SATA/IDE Combo Kit

The reason why I got it is I have this super old hard drive. It's a Western Digital Caviar 22500 ATA/IDE hard drive, (remember when 2.5 gb was a lot of space?) and it has a bunch of old files and documents I want to pull off of it.

Okay, easy enough, I bought that kit, and hooked it up, I know it's getting power, and when I plug the usb in the light does turn on, but it is literally nowhere to be found on my macbook pro, or my father's mac pro. I have checked disk utility, finder, they just can't find it. (I'm using snow leopard on both the macbook pro and mac pro)

My first thought was it's a bad hard drive, but when I pop it into my old system that had it in there, it picks it up just fine, so I know it's not bad. Could it be a power issue? I do have it plugged into a power outlet with the included cable for it and it does power on though, I can hear it and feel it spinning. Any ideas/suggestions? Any help is appreciated.

12-12-2011, 08:12 PM

The adapter kit should have worked. I have a similar kit that works fine on old IDE drives (I have bunch left over from Windows 3 days.)

However, if the drive spins up and works when you put it back into your old system, why not just burn the files you need off the drive to a CD or DVD and then copy them to the Mac that way?

12-12-2011, 08:33 PM

Eh, it's mostly because the old system is incredibly, incredibly slow, and prone to crashing due to old/bad hardware, that's why I was wanting to do a simple pull of the files directly from the drive to a new mac, quick and easy.

12-12-2011, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by amiolas

The reason why I got it is I have this super old hard drive. It's a Western Digital Caviar 22500 ATA/IDE hard drive, (remember when 2.5 gb was a lot of space?) and it has a bunch of old files and documents I want to pull off of it.

Nah...not really that old. If it was a SCSI hard drive...I might be a bit more impressed.

- Nick

12-12-2011, 09:40 PM

How old is the old system? Depending upon which OS is involved it might be easy to network the machines and transfer things that way.

12-12-2011, 09:52 PM

Is it possible the mac doesn't recognize the formatting?

12-13-2011, 01:34 AM

Even if the Mac didn't recognize the format, it should still mount the drive as read only.

01-11-2012, 07:00 PM

I'm having the same problem.

I pulled the drive out of the back of the original computer case, left the power cord attached, plugged in the IDE to USB cable, and turned the old computer on.

Can't seem to get the drive to register on my new machine at all.

Any more ideas?

01-12-2012, 09:04 AM

Is the jumper set as cable select or slave?

Either way, ensure it's set to Master

01-12-2012, 10:15 AM

Hmm.. Do you know where I could find a diagram of jumper settings?

01-12-2012, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by E101

Hmm.. Do you know where I could find a diagram of jumper settings?

On some hard drives...the label on the HD shows various jumper settings (master, slave, etc.).

You will also get a ton of links if you do a "Google" search using the phrase "master slave jumper settings".

- Nick

01-12-2012, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by pigoo3

On some hard drives...the label on the HD shows various jumper settings (master, slave, etc.).

- Nick

and googling the model # will often find the jumper settings as well.


I just beat (yes, with a 10# sledge hammer) several 40gb drives to death Nick.. including 1 SCSI interfaced one

01-12-2012, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by Dysfunction

and googling the model # will often find the jumper settings as well.

An even better/more specific suggestion!

Originally Posted by Dysfunction

I just beat (yes, with a 10# sledge hammer) several 40gb drives to death Nick.. including 1 SCSI interfaced one

I'm assuming you did this for "security" purposes...and not to "let off some steam"!

If it wasn't for security reasons...I hope that the HD's we "dead"...since for guys like me (who mess around with the "old stuff")...these sorts of drives can be hard to find (especially the SCSI HD's).

But I can certainly understand if someone has some of these "ancient" tiny capacity HD's laying around taking up space...with no real purpose for them.

- Nick

01-12-2012, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by pigoo3

If it wasn't for security reasons...I hope that the HD's we "dead"...since for guys like me (who mess around with the "old stuff")...these sorts of drives can be hard to find (especially the SCSI HD's).


- Nick

What about SCSI DvD Drives?
I have an old Plextor (I believe that is the brand) DvD R/RW Drive that I never got around to junking.

01-12-2012, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by pigoo3

An even better/more specific suggestion!



I'm assuming you did this for "security" purposes...and not to "let off some steam"!

If it wasn't for security reasons...I hope that the HD's we "dead"...since for guys like me (who mess around with the "old stuff")...these sorts of drives can be hard to find (especially the SCSI HD's).

But I can certainly understand if someone has some of these "ancient" tiny capacity HD's laying around taking up space...with no real purpose for them.

- Nick

When they go *CLI-CLUNK* on spin-up, it's time for the hammer