3.5" ide drive with 2.5" cable?

[kelvinhall05]

i was wondering if i could use a 3.5 inch ide drive with a 2.5 inch ide hard drive cable. i have a bunch of old hdds lying around and i need to test them on a dell optiplex sx270. also, would i need to use a psu for the molex connector, or does the ide cable supply power?

[asdf2061]

Use Molex for IDE power. As long as the IDE ribbon cable has 40 pins, you're fine.

[zMeul]

the 2.5" IDE HDDs had their own connector

 

you will need an adapter: 

[meenmeen1103]

A 3.5 ide enclosure might be useful here, you wouldn't have to assemble it completely for each drive. I don't think the 2.5 and 3.5 would be interchangeable

[kelvinhall05]

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

the 2.5" IDE HDDs had their own connector

 

you will need an adapter: 

 

ok. thanks anyways

[corrado33]

Best option for testing lots of old drives. Make sure you buy one that's compatible with older IDE drives. They're generally hot swappable and most newer ones are USB3. 

 

There are other kinds that are just cords with a multi headed... head. Those work OK but you need an external power source for the drive. Which means you generally pull the side panel off of the computer and use a spare molex and it's just a bit janky. 

 

[kelvinhall05]

2 hours ago, corrado33 said:

Best option for testing lots of old drives. Make sure you buy one that's compatible with older IDE drives. They're generally hot swappable and most newer ones are USB3. 

 

There are other kinds that are just cords with a multi headed... head. Those work OK but you need an external power source for the drive. Which means you generally pull the side panel off of the computer and use a spare molex and it's just a bit janky. 

 

 

how much would that cost?

[corrado33]

3 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

how much would that cost?

Depends on how much you want to spend.

 

$30 - $80 depending on features and quality.