External Caddy for ATA-100 hard drive

[Pinkfloyd28]

Recently my old Acer Aspire 1650 decided to die, and I now want to try and recover my data from the hard drive.

The hard drive is a Seagate Momentus 4200.2 ST9100822A - hard drive - 100 GB - ATA-100

http://shopper.cnet.com/internal-hard-drives/seagate-momentus-4200-2/4014-9998_9-31153841.html#info-5

I decided that the best bet would be to get a cheap caddy/enclosure for it and pull the files off via USB on any new laptop I buy.

However, I am confused as to what type of caddy I need to buy as most seem to say SATA or IDE interface but nothing about ATA - 100.

Furthermore, if anyone can recommend a caddy that would work my hard drive was partitioned and I wondered if this would have any effect upon my ability to access the files.

Thanks in advance.

[Computer_Commando]

...I am confused as to what type of caddy I need to buy as most seem to say SATA or IDE interface but nothing about ATA - 100.

Furthermore, if anyone can recommend a caddy that would work my hard drive was partitioned and I wondered if this would have any effect upon my ability to access the files.
...

IDE and ATA are the same.
I have an adapter, not a caddy, that works quite well on all varieties of hard drives.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156017

[soybean]

An adapter would be a good choice for a temporary situation.  If you're going to replace the computer and would like to permanently use that old hard drive for storage, then an external enclosure would be the way to go.

[Pinkfloyd28]

Thank you very much, I thought ATA maybe SATA for obvious reasons but when I pulled it out I realised that it looked like an IDE thus my confusion.

I don't intend on repairing the computer any time soon so I was going to remove the hard drive and place it in a caddy. Remove the files and then use it as a meduim to back up all my computers.

I will be ordering one of these then:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/9467083/Dynamode-USB-2-0-2-5-SATA-IDE-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/Product.html

As it says both IDE and SATA compatible, which could be useful as I have no use for my 80gb PS3 Hard drive at the moment since I upgraded. Although for that purpose the adapter would be useful I can't find one as cheaply in the UK.

Once again thanks and I will post how I get on.

[Computer_Commando]

The specifications say IDE & SATA.  Notice that the box says SATA with no mention of IDE.
I have yet to see any caddy with both interfaces, so look elsewhere.

[soybean]

Apparently, such units can be found: Max Value USB 2.0 Combo Hard Drive Enclosure for IDE or SATA Hard Drives.

[Pinkfloyd28]

As promised a report on how I got on incase anyone is interested for future reference.

I brought the IDE/SATA HDD enclosure as I posted above, also I borrowed an adapator from a friend (similiar to that suggested) just incase the caddy wasn't IDE compatible.

Turns out it was, the partition made no difference and the double USB connector on the new caddy powered my old laptops hard drive perfectly and I was able to recover all the files I lost. The SATA and the IDE input are at different ends of the enclosure so its easy to swap around, although the adapator was obviously an easier option when I was using one hard drive to make back ups of my new system and the other to get back old files.

Thanks for the help.

[soybean]

Thanks for the status report.  Glad to hear of the favorable outcome.