Truly Nerdy Gadget of the Day

If you’ve ever removed & replaced a hard drive from a computer, then wanted to transfer the data from the old HD, chances are you’ve had to use a spare external USB or FireWire drive enclosure to hook the removed HD to your computer.

No more!

Brando’s USB to SATA/IDE cable connects all 2.5″ and 3.5″ IDE and SATA drives (even optical ones!) to your computer.

I don’t have one (yet), but the reviews I’ve read look upon it quite favourably. Brando sells it for $35, but you can find it at other places for around $15. Hey, my birthday’s coming up in November!

From Windows to Mac

Keith asks:

My Windows XP PC kicked the bucket, but its hard drive is fine. I bought an iMac; how do I get my documents from my PC’s hard drive to my new Mac?

You could network your PC and iMac, but your PC is fried. I recommend buying a 3.5 inch hard drive enclosure that has a USB or FireWire interface on it. Take the hard drive out of your PC, install it in the enclosure and attach it to your iMac. Voila! There’s your hard drive! You can copy whatever important documents you have to your Mac.

This process is extremely easy; don’t get intimidated by the task of doing surgery on your old PC. Look on the bright side: you don’t have to put anything back together!

Once you’re done, format the hard drive using Disk Utility (it hides in Applications>Utilities) and you can use it as extra storage on your Mac.

*Note: Make sure your hard drive is compatible with the enclosure! Most desktops manufactured in the last year and a half use SATA interface while older ones use the IDE (or PATA) interface. Take a quick peek at the cable and compare it with the aforementioned articles.
**One last thing: You can do this with a laptop hard drive as well; just buy a 2.5 inch enclosure.