PATA/SATA Docking Station

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baddoch

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Hi

My desktop died, but I'm pretty sure the HD is OK.

From what I've read, it should be possible to get a docking station to take the old HD so that I can use it as an external disk on my shiny new laptop. The old HD is PATA, the laptop SATA.

The desktop ran on XP, the laptop is windows 7, but if I'm not booting from the old one does it matter?

Ideally, what I'd like to do is get a device which

1 powers the old HD
2 links to the lap top via USB to let me get at some of the files I hadn't backed up

Does such a device exist and how easy is it to set up?

Thanks

Ian
 
They do exist and they are easy to set up. In fact, there's no setting up at all really, you just plug it into a usb port.

I have one myself and use several different hard drives with it.

Maplins do one if you want to buy from the high street rather than buying online.
 
Forgot to mention, once it's plugged into your machine browse to 'My Computer' and it will show as a hard drive, you can give it a name by right clicking on it and slecting properties. And double click on it to access contents.

If you use any new hard disks in the dock, they will have to be formatted first which can be done in Control panel/Administrative Tools/Computer management/Disk management (that's the XP path, Vista and Win 7 are similar).
 
Thanks again. Maplin came up trumps and I'll get it going tomorrow.

Appreciate the help

Ian
 
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