From Leo's mailbag:
> From: A Computer User
> Sent: May 10, 2008
> To: Ask Leo!
> Subject: using a PATA drive with a STAT motherboard
>
> Leo,
> i discarded a 4 year old e machine and took the 80 gig hard drive out.i
> bought a dell with A SERIAL ata hard drive and was told by dell that
> the mother board will not support the old hard drive. how can i use
> the old drive on my new computer? there is info on it that i need.
> thanks.
The old drive probably has a parallel interface, (PATA).
Two options come to mind:
1) get an external USB drive enclosure and use it as an external
USB drive. I've done this a few times, just make sure the enclosure
you get has the parallel ATA or IDE interface.
2) get an add-on disk controller card for your computer. I've zero
experience with this, but I assume that they exist and would
fit into one of the expansion slots on your motherboard. Again,
make sure that the add-on card supports the parallel interface.
--
Thanks for asking,
Leo Notenboom