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How to: Connect IDE/SATA drive to a recovery PC |
This article gives brief instruction of connecting hard drives from failed device to host Windows PC for data recovery.
The sources of this article are public information and our own data recovery experience.
DISCLAIMER: You are using this information on your own risk. There are no any warranties that methods described below will work in particular situation and that following instruction below will not cause hardware damage.
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Getting started
Warning! The instruction below assumes you have basic technician skills for physical hard drives manipulations. Any hard disk drive strikes or blows may cause permanent data loss. In case you are not sure you can operate with physical hardware please consider of using professional data recovery service.
- All the device hard drives are good;
- Only one drive failed - for RAID1, RAID5, RAID6 or RAID 10 (0+1) only;
- Two drives failed - for RAID1, RAID 10 (0+1) only.
- More then two drives failed - only for complex storage systems (RAID60, RAID10, RAID51 etc.) if you are sure there are enough information redundancy.
The common drive connection steps are:
Step 1: Precise hard drives interface. Old hardware used IDE (PATA) disks and new ones using newer SATA interface (in this article we do not describe SCSI and SAS devices). You should disassemble device and examine hard disk interface type:
- Remove the device cover to free access to the hard drives. If device uses removable hard drives in special bays: simply eject one of drives from bay;
- Examine drives holder block; in case drive back panels are hidden with enclosures - remove drives from them;
- Review drives back panels.
See the SATA/PATA drive examples on pictures below:
Pict. 1. IDE (PATA) disk back panel.
Here you can see:
- IDE data interface. Please pay attention to small hole in middle top of connector body: it is used as 'key' for right cable connection. Wrong cable insertion may damage connector and cause drive damage.
- Power supply interface. It also has keyed form for right power cable insertion. Wrong cable insertion may damage connector and cause drive damage.
- Jumpers. They are used for correct identification of drives order on paired IDE cable and additional IDE settings.
Pict. 2. IDE (PATA) data cable.
Here blue connector is used to connect cable to computer/device mainboard and black connector is used to connect the drive (please pay attention to 'key' on connector that corresponds to 'hole' on drive's connector).
IDE cables usually have two drive connectors: 'Master' (at cable end) and 'Slave' (at middle of cable, closer to 'Master' connector).
The SATA disk example is shown below:
Pict. 3. SATA disk back panel.
Here you can see:
- SATA data interface. Please pay attention to 'keyed' form of the connector.
- SATA power supply interface. Unlike IDE, SATA power cable is wider then SATA data cable. It has same 'keyed' form.
Pict. 4. SATA data cable endpoint.
The SATA cable consists of two equal endpoints on thin data cable. There are no differences which end to use to connect the drive. Please pay attention to slot form that matches keyed form of SATA drive connector.
Step 2. Choose the method of drives connection to the host computer.
The main methods are:
External adaptors.
The safest and most expensive way. You need USB/Firewire adaptors for each drive to connect all drives to Windows PC.
* In case you have much disk space on host computer, you may use fewer adaptors by making disk images to disk image files.
You may find such adaptors for both SATA and IDE hard disks; some of them support of both of interfaces:
Pict. 5. USB to IDE hard disk adaptor with external power supply.
Pict. 6. USB to SATA hard disk adaptor with external power supply.
Please note that some USB to SATA adaptors have pair of SATA interfaces thus you need only one adaptor to connect two SATA drivers.
Pay attention to external power supply: some adaptors are powered from USB and cannot support 3.5" hard drives used in NAS and desktop computers.
Mainboard connectors.
The cheappest way of drives connection, however potentially unsafe. It's possible that computer mainboard cannot support all the drives.
Before choosing this method make sure that computer power supply is able to provide at least 15 Watts additional power per drive.
- Remove cover holder screws on computer back panel. It's enough to remove two screws holding left side cover ('tower' type computer case);
- Open left cover panel. Usually you need to pull it a little back and take aside.
- Examine motherboard expansion slots.
Pict. 7. IDE and SATA connectors on motherboard.
Here at right-bottom you see two IDE connectors, marked on motherboard as IDE 1 and IDE 2. IDE 1 is usually colored (blue, green etc.) whilst IDE 2 is usually black or white. Each IDE connector could host two IDE hard disks.
SATA connectors are visible at left side of Pict. 7. They usually have black, red or orange color and their numbers are indicated on mainboard as SATA1, SATA2 etc. Each connector may host single SATA drive.
Pict. 8. Closer look to SATA connectors.
Ensure motherboard has enough free disk connectors. For example, for 4 disk NAS with IDE hard drives you need two free IDE interfaces on motherboard (two drives per interface). For 4 drives with SATA interface - four free SATA connectors.
In case there are no enough free motherboard connectors, consider of using external adaptors or expansion card. If you decide to free some mainboard connectors for extra drives, make sure system boot drive or RAID will be still available.
Expansion card connection.
This method is efficient, guaranteed, however potentially unsafe.
Before choosing this method make sure that computer power supply is able to provide at least 15 Watts additional power per drive plus near 10 Watts for the expansion card.
Pict. 9. PCI IDE expansion card with two IDE channels.
Please note that IDE expansion cards have one or more IDE channels. Each channel may host two IDE drives. It's recommended to use single card for all drives.
Pict. 10. PCI SATA expansion card with four SATA channels.
SATA expansion cards have two or more SATA channels. Each channel may host single SATA drive. It's recommended to use single card for all drives but you may consider of using more cards for cost efficiency (multi-port cards are more expensive).
For data recovery from RAID there are no requirement for hardware RAID support on expansion card so you may choose among inexpensive models.
Pict. 11. PCI slots on motherboard.
Please refer to expansion card installation manual for more details about PCI card installation.
Verify if expansion card kit contains enough data cables: single cable per two IDE drives and single SATA data cable per single SATA drive (if there are no enough cables you probably should purchase more).
Step 3. Powering the disks.
For different connection types there are different ways of powering the disks:
- For external USB adaptors use external power supply from external adaptor kit;
- For mainboard or expansion card connection use computer power supply cables.
If you are using mainboard or expansion card connection you need to ensure computer power supply:
- Can support extra 15 Watts per extra drive you are going to connect;
- Has enough power cables to power on all the drives.
Pict. 12. SATA (left) and IDE (right) power cables.
In case you need more IDE drive power connectors, you may use power splitters:
Pict. 13. IDE power cable splitter.
For extra SATA power connectors it's recommended to use IDE to SATA power adaptors/splitters:
Pict. 14. IDE to SATA power cable adaptor/splitter.
Step 4. Connecting the drives.
Make sure are not trying to connect failed or failing drives with physical problems. Doing so you have risk of permanent data damage on failing drive and/or hardware interface damage (external adaptor, mainboard, expansion card).
- Connect drives with external adaptors:
- Connect each drive data interface to adaptor data interface. Key elements of connector must match each other: key holes must match to key lugs;
- Connect external power supplies to hard disks paying attention to 'key' elements;
- Ensure there is available good airflow to cool the drives; it's not recommended to place drives one on other or use soft surface with good thermal isolation because this might cause drives overheat. If drives could become hot - it's recommended to use air coolers for forced drives cooling.
- Power on external power supplies. The disks must start spin. Wait for drives initialization is completed (about 5-10 seconds);
- Connect adaptor USB cables to Windows host PC keeping right drives order.
- Connect drives with computer mainboard/expansion card:
- Power off the computer and unplug it from power source;
- Open left side cover of computer case (tower type case);
- If you are using expansion card - install it to free PCI/PCI-Express slot (read the card installation manual for more details);
- Connect data cables to mainboard/card IDE/SATA expansion slots. Connect power splitters/adaptors if required;
- For IDE drives: make sure drive jumper (see p.3 on Pict. 1) is set to 'cable select' (CS) mode. The table of valid jumper positions must be available on drive sticker;
- Connect data cables to the drives. If you are using drives from RAID - try to keep right drives order. For this:
- For IDE drives: connect first drive as 'master' of first IDE channel (see description under Pict. 2), second drive as 'slave' of first IDE channel, third drive as 'master' of second IDE channel and so on. 'Cable Select' jumper position ensures drives would be recognized correctly depending of position on the cable.
- For SATA drives: connect first drive to first free SATA port (for example - SATA3), second - to next free SATA port and so on.
- Pay attention to connector key elements: key holes must match to key lugs.
- Connect power cables to the drives;
- Ensure there is available good airflow to cool the drives; it's not recommended to place drives one on other or use soft surface with good thermal isolation because this might cause drives overheat. If drives could become hot - it's recommended to use air coolers for forced drives cooling.
- Plug and power on the computer. Ensure Windows can boot. Otherwise revise BIOS configuration for boot device sequence. See your motherboard BIOS manual for details.
- After additional drivers installation for external adaptor, expansion card, hard disk drives etc. the system is ready for logical data recovery.
Final notes
If you are not sure you can recover data by yourself, it's strongly recommended to bring your NAS to specialized data recovery laboratory to avoid data loss.
Last update: 10.11.2008
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