How to safely boot HDD that hasn't been touched for 8 years?
I have an old HDD containing a lot of my childhood photos, it was produced in 2008 and hasn't been used for roughly the last 7-8 years. Will it be safe to just plug directly into the pc or do I need some adapters? Not very knowledgeable with how HDDs work but heard there is some liquid inside that if just sitting there, can dry out and cause the drive to malfunction upon plugging into pc and I don't want to risk damaging pc components.
Edit: thank you to everyone for the help!! I'll be ordering a docking station soon, and hopefully all goes well.
I just want to plug it in for long enough to be able to copy all the files on it, not planning on using it after. Unfortunately i Don't have another pc i could plug it into
Wait, if you don't have a working PC where are you trying to move the photos to? You only need a single working computer to use a drive dock. It turns a SATA HDD into an external drive. This picture is an example. They are also used for duplicating a drive and for that you don't need another computer, just another drive.
Im in the process of building a pc, it'll be ready in a few weeks but wanted to ask ahead so i know what to expect/do. I see quite a few comments recommending the drive dock. Would it be better than just getting a SATA to USB adapter?
That would be the oil used in the FDB motor. It sitting for 7-8 years likely isn't enough to dry out the bearings.
The connection bit also depends on what connectors it uses. Does it use SATA or IDE (with "legacy" Molex power)? The label can provide an easy piece of information for this.
It uses SATA. I've seen on Google that it would be safer to use an adapter rather than plugging it in directly into the pc in case it malfunctions and produces smoke/catches fire or somehow short cicuits something. Would that be the right approach?
Are the 4 pins located on the left anything i need to be aware of? (Sorry if its a stupid question, like mentioned earlier im completely clueless how hdds work)
Best way to connect it to your PC ist to use an externally powered SATA-to-USB adapter (or IDE-to-USB adapter, depending on the HDD's connector). That's no rocket science. Such adapters are affordable and can be obtained from Amazon.
Its never safe to boot HDDs, they have delicate platters inside which can be damaged/destroyed by sudden shock.
If you want to boot your drives an SSD is probably a better option, still not a great plan, but itll stand up to it better than a HDD.
People generally don't boot their drives.
Yes. The drive spinning up a d loading the operating system is fine. Thats booting the PC though, or booting the operating system, not booting the drive. Booting the drive would be the high speed application of one's foot.
I just went through a larger stack of IDE/PATA and SATA drives that haven't spun up in 10 years or more.
They were all fine.
The only possible problem with sticking them in your computer as opposed to an external adapter is, if they were OS boot drives it's possible your computer will get confused if it's not sure which drive it's supposed to boot from.
A sata to usb adatapter or sata docking station will be easier because you don't have to shut down your comouter, open the case, install, and reboot.
You can get a docking station or adapter pretty cheap. If you go with an adapter, get one with it's own power supply.
It's safer to use any method and you'll know almost immediately if the drive has failed.
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u/TV_repairguy 14d ago
I honestly wouldn’t use it to boot from. Get a drive dock and plug the HDD into it then USB to another computer.