Computer vanity--Uber Nerd help needed (HW)

Boris | 11-26-2004 | Boris

[boris]

Wondering if any freeper can help. I've tried Fry's, HP, and Radio Shack: no joy.

I gave a friend's daughter an HP laptop last year as a college-entrance present. It lasted 6 months and someone gave it a big cup of coke. We managed to save the HD.

Now I am trying to put the drive in a standard desktop PC. I bought a kit which provides spacers and a special header to bring power in thru the HD pinouts.

Then the big surprise. THE PINS ON THE LAPTOP PC DRIVE (and the adapter) DO NOT MATCH a STANDARD IDE CABLE!

So what I am looking for is an IDE cable as follows:

End #1 is standard IDE female (for connecting to the PC mobo). End #2 is a standard IDE female (for connecting to the original PC HD. End #3 is a NON-STANDARD cable suitable for connection to the laptop PC. Will settle for some sort of adapter that resolves the pinout difference. Can anybody point me in the right direction, or should I just give up?...Thanks, and yes, I AM logged in.

--Boris

[FairOpinion]

Try

http://www.cables.com/

[epluribus_2]

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=906&sku=17705

would this work?

[Petronski]

I have such an adapter in my hand right now, and I don't understand what you mean by "the pins don't match the standard ide..."


You can't fit it in the IDE cable, or it fits, but the drive doesn't work?

[SeeRushToldU_So]

good luck.....maybe a computer shop could transfer the needed data to a CD.

[Petronski]

Boris, you need this:

Do you have one? Fry's should have one, I doubt Radio Shack does.

[Petronski]

Here's the same thing on ebay.

[TheShaz]

Pins on a laptop HD (being much smaller in size to fit IN a laptop) are not the same as a standard IDE HD found in most PC's

The adapter shown above will work. You connect that to the laptop HD, and your desktop IDE cable and power connect to the adapter.

[TheShaz]

Pins on a laptop HD (being much smaller in size to fit IN a laptop) are not the same as a standard IDE HD found in most PC's

The adapter shown above will work. You connect that to the laptop HD, and your desktop IDE cable and power connect to the adapter.

[Libertarian4Bush]

most likely your laptop HD already has an adapter ON IT that is converting the pins to some kind of wafer pinout, or otherwise. sometimes it's very hard to see the split between the adapter and where it meets the HD.

however, even if you are able to make this conversion, please be aware that any modern Windows OS (i.e. 2000 or newer) is not going to work well when transplanted into a different PC, due to drivers and such. you may wind up reformatting.

[Petronski]

Pins on a laptop HD (being much smaller in size to fit IN a laptop) are not the same as a standard IDE HD found in most PC's

Well, let's be precise. The pinout is the same, but the pin spacing is wrong.

[Petronski]

however, even if you are able to make this conversion, please be aware that any modern Windows OS (i.e. 2000 or newer) is not going to work well when transplanted into a different PC, due to drivers and such. you may wind up reformatting.

I believe Boris will (and should) install the laptop drive as a secondary drive only for the purpose of extracting the data files thereon. As you say, he can't and shouldn't try to boot that laptop drive...won't work.

But for heaven's sake, don't format that laptop drive until the data has been extracted.

[Leroy S. Mort]

There seem to be a bunch of the necessary conversion kits on eBay for under 10 bucks.

[Libertarian4Bush]

my interpretation was that he got the proper KIT, but was being thwarted by HP's tiny "pinout to wafer" adapter, most often used to prevent pins from being bent when sliding the HDs into laptops.

also worth noting, after someone's good advice above about using it as a secondary - there's slim but real chance that the drive was NTFS-formatted, and/or otherwise security-restricted at the file level. this can throw one last wrench in retrieving the data, depending on which OS you're using to do so. in most cases, it can be done even IF this happens. just noting this to keep you from giving up if it does.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Part number NB2PC

You have to take the notebook hardrive out of it's holder and remove the HP ribbon connector for this to work.

[Petronski]

Boris, what I was going to point out to you about these adapters is that sometimes they have one pin too many.

The IDE ribbon cable has one spot blacked out...there's no hole for the pin to fit. This is done on purpose to establish only one way to plug the cable in place. The adapter I bought had all 40 pins, and to get the thing to work, I actually had to bend one of the pins out of the way.

It was a wrinkle I had not expected, and at first I thought I had been ripped off...after all, the cable was supposed to fit, but didn't.

[Petronski]

If the drive is security-restricted, there's a very good chance that Linux will be able to read the data, because I believe Linux will ignore the security restrictions.

Even if encrypted, a brute-force method under Linux (hashing?) can usually get through.

[Petronski]

You have to take the notebook hardrive out of it's holder and remove the HP ribbon connector for this to work.

That's important. The drive when removed from its holder looks like this:

[Syntyr]

You can use this drive adapter to make the drive conenctable via USB if you want it.

http://www.xpcgear.com/usbideadapter.html

Or you can use any 2.5" storage Encolsure. A bit more expensive than a cable but nor bad should be around $20

Here is a nice aluminium one for $17

http://www.xpcgear.com/ue201.html

I only have one other comment...

You went to Fry's to ASK A QUESTION... HEHEHEHE What were you thinking? :-)

[Petronski]

Hey Boris,

Are you there? You gettin' this?