JohnnieB's computer gave up the ghost.

[Volt_Ampere]

You can buy an IDE / SATA to USB adapter for cheap. I have several and I use them to access drives. The one I have works with all of the standard interfaces and comes with a wall wart power supply. I think it was about $25.

Mine is a SATA / IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter made by Vantec Model CB-ISATAU2

[yurtle]

I like having my archival drives unplugged and not spinning 24/7. If they aren't plugged in, they can't be taken out by power surges. Since they have a rated MTBF, they should last a LONG time.

[cgtech]

You must have alot of "music"..

[yurtle]

I don't do DVDs anymore. I have a cheap Lenovo IdeaCentre (my poor eyes can't read the model number) hooked up to my TV via HDMI, and have setup the drive letters to be "static" and shared them all, so I can plug in a drive or two and watch media on my laptop, my wife's desktop, or the TV. All three can be watching a different movie.

[yurtle]

I have my media and media machine in the laundry room. I have a 30' HDMI and a 16' active USB and a 15' passive USB, running the 30' up to the attic and back down to my TV. The USB is for my Logitech K400 wireless keyboard dongle. I have the dongle just behind our tray ceiling mounted TV, so no problem with reception.

I used to have a LOT more hard-wired networked PCs. I'm currently not using either hub, I just go from patch panel to the wireless router now.

[criley]

I have one of those, too. Mine handles multiple drives though. Very handy. Well worth the 50 bucks or so I paid for it.

Chances are really good the drive from the old computer is still just fine.

[yurtle]

Mine does two drives. I paid around $50. Two is great, so I move things around from one drive to another. It only does one laptop drive, but I don't use them. Handy if a laptop dies though.

[Volt_Ampere]

My USB does one drive but I have two of them.

[sportcoupe]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

The "fun" part is going to be getting all the files on the new system, since the new motherboard doesn't have ports the old drives will plug into, so I'll have to install them in a computer with the old style ports, transfer the files to an external USB drive and then sneaker-net them over to the new system.

Just get an IDE-SATA-USB adapter. Then you can plug old drive into new computer and won't wear out your sneakers.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...952&CatId=3770

If your old drive had a windows password you files might not be accessible unless you take ownership of the folders from new computer. It's a simple process.

[JohnnieB]

Thanks to all for the tips and pointers.

Ordered the USB adapter sportcoupe suggested. It'll come in handy for some other things once I get the files transferred to the new system, which isn't here yet.

I resurrected an old system running an AMD K6-II @ 500MHz with the primary drive out of the dead computer. It was quick in its day (Running Win-95C), but man is it slow now (Running Win-XP).

The important part is that I now have access to some files that I wanted to make sure were intact.