

Ask HN: What to do with many old pata hard disks? - rw-

I own 10+ (old) pata hard disks. All are between 100 and 400 GiB. What can i do with them?
For a file server I would need a microATX/ITX board with many pata slots.
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OttoSnard
Personally, I do not miss the ribbon cables that PATA drive use. It was a pain
in the ass to route them, particularly in some MicroATX cases.

Couldn't you use an PCI card to add support for more PATA slots? Certainly
someone like Promise probably makes something like that.

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gvb
Disassemble them and hang the platters from fishing line to keep the bird from
shitting on your boat.

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jodrellblank
That's a total of 1-4Tb. New cost for 4Tb is $220 using two of these
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148413&cm_re=2Tb-_-22-148-413-_-Product)

10 drives will need a hefty controller, and some mounting system, and they
will be hot, noisy and power hungry.

Instead of finding 10 disks and asking how you can cram them into your life,
ask what you want in your life and go and get the things that needs. If the
disks aren't in there, get rid of them.

