A friend gave me an old hard drive, from the early '90s (2.5" IDE) to see if a long-lost database might be on it.

My IDE to USB adapter will get it to spin up for about 10 seconds then stall for a few seconds, cycling like that for about 10 iterations, then quit. It never shows up as a drive, not even an unformatted one.

The windows device manager recognizes the drive by name, though - "Conner Peripherals 63 MB" which matches the drive being labeled a Conner CP2064.

Is there a reasonable way to do data recovery on it without dedicated tools? I no longer have a computer with a true IDE interface. (Well, I guess I do have my empeg in a closet, but I haven't fired it up in a few years and have no real linux skills.)

thanks!

Will the USB connector put out enough voltage to run the drive reliably?

I'd probably try an IDE -> SATA adapter that includes the 4-pin power connector instead. Something like https://www.amazon.com/Cablecc-Female-Converter-Adapter-Desktop/dp/B081YP2S5R

Good call... https://www.computerhope.com/hdd/hdd0029.htm says that the drive needs up to 560mA which is more than the 500mA current of normal USB.

You'll need a PATA adaptor though, not a SATA one: https://www.amazon.com/GODSHARK-Laptop-Desktop-Adapter-Converter/dp/B07R4WKDCP

Edit: wait, no you don't, you need a SATA to 44-pin PATA.

Peter

Thanks for the ideas. I've been using this one for 10 or 12 years, which does have an external power supply. It's worked great in the past, but the power light isn't coming on so perhaps it isn't managing power properly anymore.

I think I'll get a new bridge and the 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, too. Anyone have recs on bridges?

That seems suspiciously low, especially as it also claims the read/write current is higher than the spin-up current.

The PDF here looks more likely to be an authoritative source, and lists the spin-up current for the CP-2064 as 1.11 amps.

https://lastin.dti.supsi.ch/VET/disks/allconnr.pdf

This [amazon.com] looks like it will work and it comes with a 2 amp power adapter.

Unfortunately in the small print it says "Power adapter for 3.5"/5.25" devices; Bus-Power for 2.5" HDD". You could maybe try using it via a powered USB hub, which might be more forgiving about providing more than the standard USB current? (But newer hubs will try to do USB power negotiation before unleashing high currents.)

Edited to unmangle the Unicode quotes, which looked fine in the preview

Peter

Thanks again for the ideas. If I get it to work, I'll post back.

If you don't get it to work, you could post it to me and I'll clone it to an SSD for you.

That's a very generous offer! I may take you up on it.