Adapt Firewire Box For 2.5" HDD

[baumgrenze]

I own an external 'firewire' box (PYRO 1394 Drive Kit/Firewire
Enclosure) which supports ATA: 3.5" and 5.25" IDE Ultra DMA/33 or 66
Hard Disk drives.

I would like to check out the 2.5" drive from my wife's laptop
(Toshiba MK3018 GAS 30.0GB.)

Is there a simple adaptor I can purchase to temporarily mount this
drive in my box?

thanks,

baumgrenze

This message was also posted to the "24hoursupport.helpdesk."

Is this a more appropriate forum?

 

[John McGaw]

I own an external 'firewire' box (PYRO 1394 Drive Kit/Firewire
Enclosure) which supports ATA: 3.5" and 5.25" IDE Ultra DMA/33 or 66
Hard Disk drives.

I would like to check out the 2.5" drive from my wife's laptop
(Toshiba MK3018 GAS 30.0GB.)

Is there a simple adaptor I can purchase to temporarily mount this
drive in my box?

thanks,

baumgrenze

This message was also posted to the "24hoursupport.helpdesk."

Is this a more appropriate forum?

There are certainly adapters available. Seemingly everywhere. The
biggest difference appears to be in price which range from $5 and up.
I'd be surprised if some local computer-centric store in your own area
didn't have them too. One example from among scores is... No. Forget
that. Just go to google and do your own search for "notebook ide
adapter" (without the quotes) and then take your pick.

 

[Paul]

I own an external 'firewire' box (PYRO 1394 Drive Kit/Firewire
Enclosure) which supports ATA: 3.5" and 5.25" IDE Ultra DMA/33 or 66
Hard Disk drives.

I would like to check out the 2.5" drive from my wife's laptop
(Toshiba MK3018 GAS 30.0GB.)

Is there a simple adaptor I can purchase to temporarily mount this
drive in my box?

thanks,

baumgrenze

This message was also posted to the "24hoursupport.helpdesk."

Is this a more appropriate forum?

The 3.5" IDE drives use a 40 pin connector.
The 2.5" IDE drives have 44 pins, and the extra pins have room for power.
In addition, I believe the pin to pin spacing may be different on the
two connector types. One might be 0.1" and the other 2mm center to center.
Not sure on that.

This is an example of an adapter. The Molex connector is provided, so you can
get the necessary +5V to run the 2.5" hard drive. The 2.5" drive uses only the
5V supply, while the 3.5" drives use 5V & 12V.

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/images/25inIDEadapter.jpg

Note that the adapter adds depth to the assembly, so you'd have
to check whether a particular adapter will fit or not.

One for sale here as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16812119020

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/12-119-020-01.jpg

I think there is also an adapter type, that is mounted on a small PCB.

Paul

 

[Noozer]

I own an external 'firewire' box (PYRO 1394 Drive Kit/Firewire
Enclosure) which supports ATA: 3.5" and 5.25" IDE Ultra DMA/33 or 66
Hard Disk drives.

I would like to check out the 2.5" drive from my wife's laptop
(Toshiba MK3018 GAS 30.0GB.)

Is there a simple adaptor I can purchase to temporarily mount this
drive in my box?

There are indeed laptop to IDE converters around. They might not fit inside
your enclosure though. Leaving it open for a simple read should be OK.

You might also consider just buying a 2.5" enclosure. I've seen them for as
low as $5... cheaper than you'll find an 2.5" to 3.5" adapter.

 

[John McGaw]

There are indeed laptop to IDE converters around. They might not fit inside
your enclosure though. Leaving it open for a simple read should be OK.

You might also consider just buying a 2.5" enclosure. I've seen them for as
low as $5... cheaper than you'll find an 2.5" to 3.5" adapter.

If the enclosure in question does indeed accommodate 5.25" drives then
it is hard to imagine that it wouldn't allow the little connector
adapter and 2.5" drive to fit. A more critical thing would be the
physical mounting which I didn't take into account in my first reply.
There are adapter kits which bulk out 2.5" drives to to fit in place of
3.5" drives but they are not as cheap as the electrical adapter. And
then there is the matter of getting up to the 5.25" enclosure mounting.

If I were doing it as a quick-and-dirty for myself I'd just
double-stick-tape or otherwise fasten the little drive to a piece of
cardboard and then fit that with a couple of foam blocks and wedge it
into the case leaving room around it for airflow. If the OP has the
front cover which normally comes with such enclosures then (s)he would
be home free. We used to call this field expediency... <g>

 

[baumgrenze]

Thank you everyone for your input.

I'm pretty satisfied that this HDD is dead.

I bought a simple adapter at Fry's and mounted the drive in a 1394
box. I deliberately left it open. When I powered it up, all I could
hear in the vicinity was the fan for the box.

I pulled up the full manual for the HDD from a very hard to find
Toshiba url:

http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=HardDrivesOpticalDrives/Documentation/

It is for their storage device division and you don't find it on the
Toshiba website.

There I downloaded a 136 page pdf file and learned that pin 42 is +5 V
and pin 43 is one of many system grounds. I connected them to the
appropriate terminals on a 5V DC power supply. I could not hear the
motor spin up. Am I correct that applying 5V to these pins will spin
up the HDD, or does the controller have to send a 'start the motor'
signal as well?

Am I correct in concluding that something killed the drive and the
motor probably no longer runs?

Am I correct in concluding that without a motor that works much hard
work ($$$) needs to be done to replace it so that the contents of the
disk can again be read?

Thanks again,

baumgrenze

 

[John McGaw]

baumgrenze wrote:
snip...

Am I correct in concluding that something killed the drive and the
motor probably no longer runs?

Am I correct in concluding that without a motor that works much hard
work ($$$) needs to be done to replace it so that the contents of the
disk can again be read?

Thanks again,

baumgrenze

I've never tried to spin up a modern drive just sitting on the bench. I
would try connecting the drive via adapter directly to a known-good
desktop computer as a final test -- the enclosure itself might be a
culprit. And mind the jumper which sets master/slave/CS. If you connect
the drive via adapter to the IDE ribbon in the desktop, connect power to
the AMP connector, and the drive isn't seen in the BIOS and isn't heard
to spin up when you start the desktop then I'd assume that the drive was
a goner and move on. There are data recovery services that may be able
to extract the contents but in my experience they are so expensive that
regular private users aren't willing to pay them.