In this video, I show you how to recover data from old desktop and laptop hard drives with the Unitek Hard Drive Adapter. *Unitek IDE & SATA Hard Drive Adapter* Amazon.com: amzn.to/3FGHmoR Amazon.ca: amzn.to/3tawFtZ #unitek #howto #tech
DO you happen to still have the driver for it? I bought the Y-3324 model and can't make it work... And their website has no drivers for it, or any other anymore. Thanks!!!
Hi. So, there's no driver for just using it to move files. Providing your drive isn't corrupted, it will appear in Windows Explorer. The download is for One Touch Backup to turn your drives into external back-up HDDs: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cb5iGsFiqF0.htmlsi=jpDf_xsMz4pIwMaj&t=140
May or may not help. In my quest I found that you need a version of windows that was on that HDD before you can access it. Microsoft has removed support for IDE devices since their earlier updates but I can't say when. I thought the device I was sent was defective. Tried a few of these devices to find this new info out. What version of windows did you use and how long ago? I may install an older version of windows say xp and see if I can claw the old data onto a pen drive ... Good luck in your pursuit.
@@gul.iam.3195 Thanks for the info. That's an interesting Microsoft dropped the IDE support. I can't pin your comment but other people will find it useful. I was using Windows 11
This seems great to simply get data off of whatever drive or media. I mean I like that it has multiple uses. But, would be great if it helped with a corrupted drive or a drive that just simply failed for no known reason.
I ordered mine from Amazon and not only did it not come with instructions, it didn't come with a CD. Thank you. I successfully recovered my data from my 5 year old ASUS with broken hinges that cost more to repair than to replace😂
an "easy" way to make sure it's almost impossible to refind any delicate data, first format, then fill the entire drive with compressed files so it's not just the FAT that is gone, but the actual data everywhere is overwritten with the new data. There might be some segments left because of how data is stored, but those will be small. The larger the files, the fewer segments are left untouched.
@@HowToDoItTech i got a question i have a usb to ide adapter like that it connects to the computer makes a sound like its connected and nothing shows up what's wrong with it or that am i doing wrong
Great review, very informative. Do you know how to fix a hard drive if it was corrupted or not working for some reason, do you have any advice or go to method to fixing the issue?
If you backup your data to a 2TB hard drive, which would you recommend please, am following this guide to retrieve info from my last hard drive. Happy New Year and thanks for your help.
Hi there. Just to confirm, are you looking for a recommendation for a brand of external HDD? I'm personally a big fan of sticking with major brands for peace of mind. I'd recommend Samsung or Western Digital. However, this device only works with internal hard drives. Do let me know if you have more details on your requirements and hopefully I can point you in the right direction.
Mine was working fine until I attached it to one particular HD. At that point it whirled up, then turned off. After that, it did the same with every HD.
Yes, was thinking the same. I remove the magnets, disk platter and rotation surface since it is super low friction for things you may need that for. If you dont tinker with projects then scrap it all I guess. I hate to think how many are just thrown away.
Hi there, I have a dead portable hdd even when connected to laptop it just won’t read it anymore. But the disc is spinning inside, you guys reckon this thing could help me recover all the data from it?
Sadly this won't work with external hard drives out of the box. It sounds like the PCB for the USB drive on your device is faulty. I can't recommend stripping down your EHD to get to the drive, but it's one option. I haven't seen a video about recovering EHDs but there may be another video on here that can help.
Can someone please explain where the data goes please? IE: is the unitek the hard drive storage? How do I send the data to it please?........Sorry, Complete novice🙏
No problem. So the way it works is your connect the Unitek device to your computer via USB and then connect your old drives to the Unitek device. Your computer will be able to see the drive (providing it's not corrupted) as if it's an external HDD.
So when I plugged mine mine to the device a the usb to the computer the drive doesn’t show up on the computer how do I get the computer to see that it’s there !??
So, providing the drive is in working order (not corrupt or broken) and your adapter is plugged in using the accompanying power supply and switched on, the drive should turn on. If you need to confirm whether it's the drive itself, I recommend trying another computer to troubleshoot first.
In theory your laptop hhd will have the right connectors as they are pretty standard but my recommendation is to double check the specification before buying.
Does this work for hard drives that won't connect? I need help. I have a Western Digital 10 tb that wouldn't sync up. So i took the hard drive out. Trying to see if i could connect to my mac but i've been 2 busy raising to kids by myself.
That's a great question. I haven't tested with a faulty drive, only drives from devices where the power supply is broken. My intuition is that if the drive is broken, this adapter won't work either :(
@@HowToDoItTech I need some help. lol I have a lot of songs that i've lost. My music on under Shadiktv but yea i have some songs i'm trying that i would rather get from the hard drive than redo them.
Yeah, I can't guarantee success using this device, but depending on your budget you could *try*... but I think there may be better solutions out there for recovering data on corrupted drives, which inspires me to do some research and possibly make a video. Good luck! I hope you're able to recover your songs.
that darn 4 pin molex connector broke on me immediately trying to unplug it. for some reason my old IDE drive didnt respond i dont know if its the adapter or the drive. the back up mode is pretty cool in theory havent needed to try it in an emergency situation yet. a way to get those hidden files to show up is to go to file explorer options and uncheck the hide folders and pick "show hidden files, folders, and drives". the restore option is kinda weird i had to make an empty backup folder first "hidden file" onto the drive and then drag everything into that folder and then restore it....or i could just drag and drop all contents manually onto a folder... so i dont know maybe a pointless feature.
I wonder if the old IDE drive is very old the latest version of Windows might not recognise it. I hadn't thought about the age of the OS versus the OS on the disk. I wonder if there's a compatibility issue?
Great video, quick question, I've connected everything up but when I want to see photos or something else, it says I need the administration authority.. anyway around it ?
Hi. So, it sounds like the either computer your using needs administrator access or the drive has the legacy permissions still active on the data. For the first one, if you're not the computer owner, it'll just require them to input their password/change to Administrator. However, if it's the second one I'm not sure. However, I did find this video which *might* help: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iGoTHB--bzc.html
@@HowToDoItTech yeah so its old IDE 3.5 hard drive, when i click on photos or documents it asks for permission, where would i type a password? the hard drive is over 15yrs old so no chance of remembering
@@kizouille1 That's a bit of a mystery to me. Was the previous video of use at all in solving the issue? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iGoTHB--bzc.html
Hmmm... that sounds like a device issue rather than the OTB software but I could of course be very wrong! Are you able to get the drive recognized by the adapter and reformat the drive? That *might* be it.
@@horacio040586 That's an odd one. I've not run into that issue personally. Do you see the same issue with any other drives? It might narrow the issue down to that particular HD.
I have a Seagate portable hard drive that has a broken USB CONNECTOR. Will that device be to retrieve files from a portable hard drive that has a broken USB CONNECTOR?
If I sound like a novice , I am...lol. I have an old Compaq Presario desktop with windows XP circa 2005 or so when, about that time, it seemed like the hard drive was going so I it turned off to never use again. Like others, I have old pics on their I would like to save if I can. Presently i'm using a Toshiba desktop with windows 8.1( never updated to the next level). Simply, assuming the old hard drive isn't shot, can I use this system to transfer my pics to the windows 8.1 computer? Thanks.
The drives will automatically appear in Windows Explorer provided they aren't corrupted. But you'll need to install/download the Unitek software if you want to use your old drives as additional back-up devices: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cb5iGsFiqF0.htmlsi=RvJ-NrArJJwa_Tzg&t=142
I haven't tried to do it myself, but I'm doubtful. I don't think it would recognize any connected harddrive as a boot media via USB despite being connected via USB.
I almost bought this but read a comment below about it only working on drive that function but are just in disfunctional computers. My problem goes back to when Windows 10 was installed. I had a almost new Seagate 4 TB external drive and as soon as Windows 10 was started up, the drive refused to be recognised. I tried tons of things and of course went to Seagate page for a patch. Come to find out that patches were developed for all drives but mine. This drive has 2 TB on it, mainly images and I would like to recover them. BEST BUY wants $500 to recover it. I told them, they were crazy. The drive is not broken. Some conflict with software is. I get it if the drive was screwed up and you had very important data on it but that is not my case and they held fast to that $500 price. So , if that is the issue, will this device recover it ??
So, sadly it doesn't sound like this will work for you as it's designed for internal drives that use IDE or SATA connectors. External drives tend to use USB or another similar port.
I have seen videos of people removing a standard drive from these externals and just plugging them into normal drive slots so if I removed it, I wounder if it could go into this device and be recovered?? I am about ready to use the drive for target practice with my 9mm... Tired of fighting this thing so long.@@HowToDoItTech
Will the USB to hard drive adapters work with a MAC computer? I have M1 Mac Mini 16GB with a 1TB SSD and I salvaged my hard drive out of my HP-15 laptop when it quit working and I have most of my photos on there from my old iPhone I had from 2012 to 2014 and need to get them off of there. I ordered an USB 3.0 adapter from Amazon and it will be in on January 4th.
Hi. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test it with a Mac and the instructions said it was for PC only. I'm inclined to believe that the software is PC only rather than the device but I'm unable to verify.
Just picked one of these up. Did you experience problems with the IDE interface, specifically - Drivers? Mine works fine for SATA drives, but I get PCI interface error in Device Manager when connecting an IDE drive. There is no "driver" on the web page, only the software. Any suggestions? And no, windows automatic search for an updated driver did not work. I am running through a USB hub, so my next attempt is to go directly to the computer.
Hi! No, unfortunately this won't enable you to clone drives directly. It just backs up th data to your computer. However, someone may have found a work around using this device. I'll have to do some research.
I have 3 hard drives with the 40 pin connection and one has xp on it the other has windows 95 and the other one windows 98 can i use them and boot my new pc so i can get the files
I plan on retreiving files from an old windows laptop i bought around 2007. Is this the appropriate adapter to use? Do i need to take out the hard drive? And will i be able to transfer files to my macbook after i succesfully retrieved them? Thanks in advance! 🙂
Yes, this will work providing the drive is in working order and not corrupted. You will need to remove the hard drive first to connect to the adapter. However, this adapter is only for use with Windows computers so to recover the files, you'll need another Windows-based PC or laptop. Once you have the files, you can then transfer them via other means (e.g. a USB thumb drive or a cloud service). Obviously only files that are compatible between Windows and MacOS will work.
@@HowToDoItTech I'm assuming bootcamp from a MacBook probably won't work? Also, will it bypass any login passwords if I don't remember them? Thank you so much in advance!
@@AlexDiavolo1 Sadly this device is only rated to work with Windows devices from the marketing. I don't have a Mac to test it. Also, another user said they couldn't transfer files from password protected drives.
So my drive shows up, but it's greyed out and says "please insert a disk into USB drive: E" i'm confused, it won't let me access the contents of the hardrive because of this. What am I supposed to do?
Interesting. That error would seem to appear if you're trying to connect an external USB drive in normal circumstances. The way the Unitek adapter works would probably trigger the same issue. It's related to Windows rather than the device according to what I've found online: recoverit.wondershare.com/flashdrive-recovery/please-insert-a-disk-into-usb-drive-fix.html
Unfortunately I think if the drive is waterlogged you won't be able to recover data. The tool works for old working drives you're unable to access, rather than corrupted or destroyed drives.
@@HowToDoItTech a followup question. Please look into it. This old drive had four partitions in my old laptop: C, D, E, F drives. Would these show up in the new laptop where I will connect the SATA USB port?
I was hoping to connect a floppy disk reader to it as well as my old ide drives, but the floppy reader has a different kind of IDE connector and a small power connector instead of molex. Bit of a shame.
@@HowToDoItTech thanks for the reply. Yeah I did some reading and found that PATA cables and floppy cables are completely different despite having very similar connectors. I already found an adapter on Amazon so it's all good!
Just bought this after watching this video. Trying to recover a file from my wife's old laptop that recently died. The SSHD shows up in Disk Management, but all the options are greyed out except for "Delete Volume". Think this must be a formatting issue. Gonna look around the internet a bit more to see if there's a solution to this. bleh
I had a look around too and it does sound like it's the disk management. There's an extensive list of troubleshooting ideas on this thread that may help: www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/11qlkck/my_hard_drive_shows_up_but_it_is_grey_i_cant/
No. They will be incompatible unless you wipe and reformat the drive. However, it's worth doing some research on what brand of drives Apple uses and whether you can transfer the drive.
I can't stand that USB C or whatever is on the back. Everything I have with that connection type often gets stuck in a disconnect/reconnect loop. I have to position the wire in a very specific way for it to stop.
Sorry to hear that. The Unitek Adaptor uses Micro B USB (which is quite a rare connector in my experience). Have Unitek customer support been able to help at all?
Hello! Thanks so much for this! Question- I have a very old Windows 7 PC (around 2010) and the computer has not stopped working, but it is dying (the fan I believe is going bad in it). I have some photos on it that I want to take off from the hard drive. If I could, I would like to take the hard drive out of the computer and throw the computer away. Then, I would like to buy one of these kits (or a similar one) that would work with the hard drive and get the photos off it it using this method. But the problem is- I don't have another Windows Computer to do this, I switched over to Chromebook a few years ago. If I did this, would the kit work on my Chromebook and get the photos off of the hard drive, or do I need another Windows computer to do this? I am new to this as I've never done this before. Thanks!
I just received a Unitek adapter to recover files from an old tower pc hard drive. The drive shows up in devices under control panel/file browser, but it will not open to view or access anything on the drive. At first upon attempting to open the drive, the progress bar on the browser continues until the very end and then just keeps spinning. The Unitek software doesn't seem to to recognize the drive even though my laptop does. Any suggestions as to what may be causing this?
That's an odd one. I haven't experienced that issue myself. While Unitek doesn't have a Support section (other than contacting them directly via a form) they do have a troubleshooting guide in the manual (FAQ section) which might help: onedrive.live.com/download?cid=52E8D7BCED8638B8&resid=52E8D7BCED8638B8%21148&authkey=AKaf_ia_9Ue54uc&em=2
Could this work with a old tivo hard drive? i have a Servers RS-TX20 tivo the issue is its hard drive is going out sometimes it gets stuck warming up and fully turned on if it manages to warm up it stays on for 3 or 4 minutes then crashes and tries to reboot the issue is i want to get the recordings off of it on to disc so i need a way to get the recordings safely off of the hard drive so i can replace its hard drive
So I have 2 external hard drives that would not power up. When I plug in the Unitek nothing happens. The blue light just blinks and nothing is coming up on my computer, any thoughts?
I can't recommend it myself. It will void any warranty you have and my recommendation is contact the manufacturer customer service for repairs or faults. However, if you're undertaking disassembly on your own volition, it'd be advisable to research the specification of the hardware first to ensure the necessary connectors are present.
My computer died and I'm trying to get the information from the m2ssd to load into the new computer and I'm having trouble with permission. Is there a way to do it? Thank you
I got an adapter from sabrent..it's not giving me and files or folders I had loaded with my bird photos or music ..no sign of it anywhere .to call them is futile .none speak perfect English .. and none seemed to have strong knowledge of the product. One thing I noticed that could be a problem is that the adapter didn't include the last for prongs of my older Toshiba HD. LIKE the smaller ones you show. I'm thinking maybe those prongs are the very thing I'm not getting I think my drive was partitioned ..and all saved things of mine are in the C partition. None of them could even comprehend what I was saying .
I plugged in a Seagate Barracuda 1000GB drive. Nothing happened. There was a brief noise but I can't see the drive anywhere on my PC. I can see it in device manager/control panel so how do I see it on my PC?
Sorry to hear that Nigel. Just checking and I don't see any limits on drive size, which was my first thought. It could be a device error. Unitek offer a 2-year warranty so you should be able to get it replaced.
@@HowToDoItTech It's a drive error - time to open it up I think. The drive isn't spinning so no amount of whizzy software will help until its unstuck. Thanks for coming back.
I can't see any of my files, and when I plug it in only "system reserved drive D:" shows up in the file Explorer, how screwed am I? How do I get it to show all my data like an external? Or can't I?
That's an interesting one. Just looking online it seems to be just partitioned system files (not directly related to the Unitek adapter). Here's a guide for troubleshooting on Microsoft support which may help you: answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/system-reserved-drive-d/bc9cbabd-72c6-4dc9-9d57-214aebb31116
@HowToDoItTech thanks man but all good I found it not long after writing this comment lol. I think I just clicked into the local drive and it was in there as well as the partition one.
My computer doesn`t recognise the adapter. Cd is installed, and cable and hdd connected properly but the system doesn`t show it. I can see it only Device Manager- Disk Drives- Innostor Ext. HDD So ????
+Attila Englerth that doesn't sound right. You won't need the CD (back up software) just to see connected drives. That suggests the drive might be corrupted.
I had this same problem, but it turned out there was no drive letter assigned to my drive. I used paragon partition manager to add one, and it works fine now. Hopefully this fixes the problem!
Hi. Hopefully the video explains it but you can also refer to the manual that comes with the device here: onedrive.live.com/download?cid=D75D52B742BD1D34&resid=D75D52B742BD1D34%21562626&authkey=AL4f0XDqvWqW7qg&em=2
please help, 80% of the ide drives I have, show up as 100% empty but with proper drive letters like t:\ 100% nothing on it, not even one file I know for sure there are.. and this has happened to 29 ide drives out of 30 only 1 shows files, the rest, just see them as empty. advice? elp?
Hi. So, Windows (and I'm assuming MacOS) automatically attribute drive letters to any connected harddrives. You can actually reassign the letters if you want. Unfortunately I'm not sure why the data isn't appearing for you specifically. If you definitely know there's data on them, it could be the drives are corrupt.
@@HowToDoItTech no its saying its an empty drive that is not initialized Then asks me to set mbr which does nothing as its not the old mbr..but trying trial recovery software shows 200gb per drive and they are full ALL DRIVES HAVE LETTERS I use t u v: Just to not confuse These are old ide. 200gb plus drives 80% read as empty but they aren't My.other adapter read a few this won't And this one powers on a few the other didn't But please note Your video is WRONG about the restore feature This isn't a file recovery tool It goes by mbr to fix it which does what I did...makes it look blank ie my current USB hookup reads T: 198.9tb free of 202tb Aka 98% empty Psi. That app again bad news. I'd hope you.might REMOVE that from your video along with backup Both don't belong on modern os's And recover tried to find windows files for recovery not.mbr missing files So recovery doesn't exist with that tool. And in fact is dangerous to use Win 10 pro sp 99999
Nothing but "No" "I'm Not Sure" "I haven't Tried" as an answer for this gadget implying it can retrieve files from old broken harddrives. The low price is the 1st red flag 🚩 *Companys charge hundreds to several thousands with no gaurantee of extracting any files and no refund. I've ben there done that. 😖
@@HowToDoItTech I have to be honest. Based on your previous responses I would assume they were making reference to your answers. I admit that sometimes the honest answer is "No" or "I haven't tried that" or "I have not come across that" but I am also inferring that the person is searching for a response that indicates a little more experience with the concerns of people that are having problems with the product. I understand. I am also looking for a recovery solution but I am also wary. It also appears that this person has been burned by a similar experience.
@@mrbrown708 That's fair feedback. I don't have any corrupt drives and the specification for this devices only concerns itself with working harddrives. It's not marketed for recovery of broken or corrupt devices so I wouldn't want to give unsound advice. My advice to anyone looking for a concrete response on it's suitability for situations outside of working IDE and SATA harddrives is to contact Unitek directly.
for some reason when I plug in my old external drive to a new computer it comes up on my computer as a D: and E: drive and then when I click on either one - the new computer folder manager crashes and says "not responding" and I can't do anything until I shut off the old external drive.@@HowToDoItTech
Okay, so it would seem that the reason you have D: and E: appearing is because the drive has two partitions. Unfortunately I'm unable to find any resources on whether it would contribute to crashing Windows Explorer. I'm able to view my own partitioned drives though. One recommendation would be to try the adapter and drive on another computer and also test any other drive you have to see if you can isolate the issue to the problematic drive.
That's an unusual one. I haven't been able to replicate that issue with my own set-up. I searched for troubleshooting on the Unitek website, but it looks like you have to submit a form to get support: www.unitek-products.com/pages/contact-us
