Need good IDE drives

I have a couple old computers that still use IDE drives. Unfortunately, CrystalDiskInfo shows that 2 of my remaining 4 IDE drives are failing. I need to find some additional IDE drives. Doesn't anyone know where I can still get some good IDE drives?

I bought one drive (WD WD2500JB Caviar SE EIDE 250 GB) that supposedly had never been used (0 hours) but it failed in less than one hour. I returned it for a refund.

Two failing drives:

 

Do you have a micro center around your area? Last time i went there they had a bin of used IDE drives they were cheap money.

 

https://www.ebay.com/b/Ide-To-Sata-...55-0&campid=5337590774&customid=&toolid=10001

 

You can do a search for where to buy new IDE hard drives, you will get lots of choices for new and refurbished,

 

Only the strangest weirdest luddite, the kind of person that would have a bath in cold porridge would buy an IDE (PATA) Drive. A refined gentlemen of breeding and education would make his own much faster solid state versions.

There are so many options and paths to choose from, listing them all is just silly.

But for the very budget conscious and slightly timid.

To make a solid state IDE drive purchase the following.


Serial ATA SATA to IDE/PATA 40 Pin Converter 2.5" 3.5" Adapter Card


Here is one in UK for £6.49 delivered.


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36305909...+uswjX4Gj1fieFQHZB0D2oAvGZ|tkp:Bk9SR9rG55vqYA

Then you purchase a cheap solid state SATA drive of 250GB

Connect together and stick in computer.

Or if you are more timid than a church mouse with PTSD that has just seen a family of cats move into the rectory, just follow Elizabeth’s advice and buy a new old stock one.

 

Thanks for the response but I think I will pass on IDE drives. A lot of listings don't say what the status is so I assume they are not new. I saw a new WD 250GB drive listed for $170. Even new doesn't mean anything because the drive may have been manufactured 10 years ago. I have found that hard drives have a limited life whether they are used or not. I am also leery of refurbished for the same reason.

Excuse me but I am not timid or a wierd luddite. I have probably owned computers before many people here were born. I am a retired computer engineer living on a fixed income. I have several computers that already use SATA and NVME SSDs so I am well aware of them. I have one that is working fine with 3.5-inch SATA HDDs with a 2.5-inch SATA SSD to boot from.

I have a lot of free time so I pulled a couple old computers out storage. #1uses both IDE and SATA drives while #2 just uses IDE drives. Unfortunately, the motherboard for #1 was made in 2003 and supports SATA 1.0. I tried a SATA 3.0 hard drive with it but it won't work with it. I loaded the SATA driver but the Windows setup just doesn't see the SATA drive. It might work if the drive was SATA 1.0.

I should have given this more thought. I was just trying to get IDE drives to replace the failing one. Unfortunately, new IDE drives when found are not very cheap. Still like refurbished drives may have been manufactured 10 years ago or more. That means they are subject to fail any time. Even SATA drives of small capacity may not be worth their cost. I will probably buy a IDE/SATA adapter and a small 2.5-inch SATA SSD. I will try it with both computers. If it works with both I will buy another set.

 

How about IDE ssd's?

https://www.ebay.com/b/Ide-Ssd/175669/bn_7023243432

 

I might consider than in old laptop because space is limited. However, I will probably go with IDE/SATA adapters for my dektops because I have the space to use them. Also, for similar sizes SATA SSDs are cheaper than IDE SSDs.

Another thing that worries me is quality. The IDE SSDs seem to be made by unknown Chinese companies. You can easily find SATA SSDs made by more well known companies.

 

Why don’t you do what everyone else does. And use an M2 to IDE converter with cheap M2. I have used M2 to IDE converters in nice 2.5 inch drive caddies in Old SNAP ON analysers , Tektronics kit, Geotechnical Instruments and IBM Thinkpads. Never encountered a problem.

 

Thanks. I never thought about going that route. I'll look at that and see if it makes sense economically.

 

There's also CompactFlash to IDE adapters that work great. I use those in my 386 and my 486 computers.

For more capacity you can get mSATA to IDE adapters on amazon/ebay for like $5 and a generic cheap mSATA SSD for a few bucks and use that.

Really I would suggest you *NOT* use old IDE spinning drives for any reason. They fail too commonly today.

 

I've got a boatload of IDE drives, and I know how to read the SMART data. 20gb to 120gb size. All the larger newer ones love to fail, but these older generations, man you can't kill em. I'm willing to sell them dirt cheap, like the price of shipping and the gas to get to UPS. It'd be great to see them put to good use. They all came out of unwanted computers before I recycled most of the guts (because storage is always useful), back when I use to repair and optimize computers. When customers upgraded they typically gave me the old ones as a sign of appreciation.

 

This was my first impulse thought as well.