Q: Reccomended external HD enclosure to get data off of old HDs no longer in a Mac.
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May 13, 2014 4:27 PMby Ralph Landry1,Check out OWC, http://www.macsales.com for all sorts of accessories...I have two of the thin form factor MacBook Pro enclosures that were around $20...and know they have large form factor enclosures, also.
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May 13, 2014 5:28 PMby Allan Jones,HelpfulI just looked at the OWC site and as nearly as I can tell, all their own brand's drive enclosures now only have an interface for SATA drives. The only enclosure I found on OWC that has an IDE/PATA interface is this one by MacAlly:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/MacAlly/PHR100NDAS/
and it's rather pricy.
However, a universal bare-drive adapter:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/
is much cheaper and will work with 3.5-inch PATA as well as SATA and laptop drives. Also faster to switch among your stack of drives.
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May 14, 2014 1:19 AMby Jeff,HelpfulI agree with Allan's second suggestion - the USB-to-IDE (or SATA) adapter that plugs into a bare hard drive for temporary data transfers. A separate power supply is included to connect to the drive. The adapter is designed to plug into the IDE interfaces found on 3.5" and 2.5" devices. There's also a SATA port on it. Because this adapter isn't platform-specific, you don't have to buy one from a Mac dealer, like OWC/macsales.com. You can buy one from a PC store for about half the $28 price tag at OWC. I bought one for $15 at Micro Center a few years ago and use it with my PCs and Macs.
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May 14, 2014 7:48 AMby Harvey Jewett,Although I didn't get one of these, this was helpful. Thank you. I think I will go with something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161121931674&ssPageName=ADME: L:OC:US:3160 for a cost effective solution.
