Best PATA/SATA to USB adapter for old hard drives?

So, I’ve come across four old 3.5" hard drives. Each one has an OS on it—I’m not entirely sure which one, though two are almost certainly Windows XP, if not all four... but honestly, that’s the least interesting part of this. What actually matters is that there are a ton of photos on them, both JPEG and RAW formats. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction regarding an adapter with its own power supply? I need something where I can just plug these HDDs in to pull the photos off and move them over to my current storage drive... any advice would be greatly appreciated. 🙏

https://www.nabava.net/search.php?q=...sata&cod=&cdo=
Even the cheapest one from $40 will do the trick.
If you're working with an older motherboard that still has a PATA connector, you could just go with a standard PATA flat cable.

Hopefully I’m in the right spot for this question.
I'm not sure if I need exactly what's linked above or something similar. (The cheapest option seems to be $72)
I pulled a drive out of an old external enclosure, and it's labeled Seagate ST3160022ACE 160
The enclosure itself is dead, but is there any way to check out the files on that disk? Ideally, I'd love to just plug it straight into my TV... assuming I buy the right adapter?
Would this work?
What should I actually be looking for? I really don't want to waste money on the wrong thing if I decide to pull the trigger.
Any tips on where to find a good deal?

It’s not going to work without its own power supply. But the real kicker is whether we can even open what that recorder actually captured. Some of those old devices used proprietary formats that were an absolute nightmare to convert.
Especially since, looking at the disc, that recorder looks like it’s at least 20 years old. God knows what kind of file format it was using.

So, if he plugs it into his PC, can he even draw power from it?
The specs on those adapters say they work with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.🤔
Might be better to just call it quits... anyway, thanks.

Of course you can hook an old HDD up to a PC and run off its power supply, but you’ve gotta check if your motherboard even has an IDE connector for that PATA drive first. Most modern boards don't even bother with IDE anymore; they've moved strictly to SATA.
Most of those adapters you pick up online come with their own power adapter included, but if you're messing with a 2.5" drive, you might not even need it since USB 3.0 usually pumps out enough juice (about 0.9A) to get it spinning.

Since I’m clearly totally lost here I guess it's better to just quit while I'm ahead.
That drive is a 3.5-inch.
I honestly thought you could just plug the hard drive into an adapter and hook it up via USB to a PC, laptop, or even a TV.

That drive is a 3.5" PATA (Parallel ATA/IDE) model.
https://www.goharddrive.com/Seagate-...p/g01-0122.htm

Yeah, you can definitely hook this up to a computer, but you’re gonna need
1. A power supply—if you look all the way on the right side of the photo, there's a 4-pin connector. https://cdn3.volusion.com/ovay6.hxgv...G01-0122-3.jpg

2. A PATA (IDE) interface on the PC (it's on the far left, those 40 pins split into two rows).

3. A PATA cable (there are a few different types out there).

Modern PCs haven't used PATA interfaces in forever. So, you'll either have to hunt down an old desktop (maybe 10+ years old) or just grab a PATA (40-pin) to SATA adapter, like this:

Oh, and don't forget you'll need a power cable from the PC with the right connector to make it spin.

There's also a workaround where you use a PATA to USB interface, and then you handle the power through a separate USB cable.

It's actually pretty straightforward if you know your way around hardware and have the gear on hand. Honestly, any local repair shop could probably knock this out for you in ten minutes tops.

Once you've tackled the hardware connection part, *then* we can start talking about getting the OS or the file system recognized so you can actually move your data. It's most likely some version of NTFS or FAT32, so your current PC (Windows 7 or Windows 10) shouldn't have any trouble reading it.

Thanks for the feedback.
Clearly, this is way over my head—I just don't get any of this.
It’s not like it’s anything major, so I might as well just toss it in the trash.

If those drives are still working—which they probably are—it’d be a total waste to just toss them. Plus, it’s sketchy, you know? Someone could always dig through the trash and scrape your private photos off them.

Maybe try donating them to a local non-profit or a tech charity that knows their stuff. They can usually get even ancient hardware running perfectly fine with a lightweight Linux distro. Just make sure you insist they wipe all your old pictures first!

But hey, if you aren't feeling the whole donation thing, my advice? Grab a hammer and give those disks a little "love" before you drop them in the e-waste bin at Best Buy.

Those aren't photos, just shots I took of the TV screen. Movies, shows, stuff like that.
It’s from an external hard drive recorder.

Look, it’s technically super simple. It really just comes down to whether you want to drop a few bucks to have someone migrate everything over to a new drive—which, let's be real, means you'll be facing this exact same headache again in five or ten years anyway—and then maybe give away or sell the wiped gear for peanuts.

Personally? I hate the idea of tossing out perfectly good hardware. It’s such a waste when it could still get some decent use out of it. But hey, at the end of the day, I can't exactly live my life relying on everyone else's tech skills.

So, if I'm getting this right, can someone actually do something useful with that drive?
I don't need it to last me 5 or 10 years... I just thought maybe I could peek at whatever was recorded on there, though even that isn't a huge deal. Just figured it would be easy.

Look, technically speaking, this is child's play. I’ve probably done this hundreds of times myself, and so have the guys I mentioned earlier. (Though, honestly, I haven't touched this kind of stuff in ages)

I'm positive you can find someone to get this sorted for you, but my advice? Just head to a repair shop or a local tech hub. Trying to schedule an on-site visit at a client's place is always such a massive headache. Getting the hardware connected, making sure the drive is recognized, and checking the file system? That’s maybe a 10-minute job per drive.
The catch is, you spend all that time looking through the files, and then you're copying everything onto whatever media you brought along before wiping the original disk right in front of you. That whole process—the browsing, the transferring, and the erasing—isn't part of those initial 10 minutes. Depending on how much data we're talking about, that could easily turn into hours.

If you don't happen to have a buddy who does this, you should probably budget around $15 to $20 an hour.

Those old DVRs used their own proprietary file systems. As far as I know, they're virtually unhackable, and honestly, nobody's even bothered to try.

1. That disk is ancient
2. Even if you somehow get it spinning, there's no guarantee you'll actually see anything. Like others mentioned, those recorders often lock the content so it won't play on any other device anyway.
3. If you're just looking for movies or shows, it'd probably be way easier to just download them from the internet than mess around with this junk.
4. Just toss it in the e-waste bin.

Alright, will do.
Thanks