Getting Data From Laptop HD

[Juan Wei]

My stepson's laptop died and I would like to be able to pull his files
from his SATA HD (that I have removed).

I need some sort of adapter to connect to a USB port and power.

What do you recommend?

Thanks.

 

[Paul]

My stepson's laptop died and I would like to be able to pull his files
from his SATA HD (that I have removed).

I need some sort of adapter to connect to a USB port and power.

What do you recommend?

Thanks.

This is a minimal solution. It uses USB bus power, extracted
from two USB connectors. My laptop has three USB connectors, so
this would work with it. On one USB connector, only VCC and GND
are hooked up, while the second USB connector uses all four pins.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1PU0FG7690

*******

I would hook the drive to a desktop, as that doesn't
cost anything. My desktop has three sets of SATA cables,
ready for any drive I want to connect. And one of those
cables, is how I connect up my laptop drive once in a while.

The 3.5" SATA cables are the same as 2.5" SATA. It's only
when you go as small as 1.8" SATA drives, that they switch to
microSATA for those. And that requires separate cabling
to be purchased.

Paul

 

[Juan Wei]

Paul has written on 2/26/2014 5:32 PM:

This is a minimal solution. It uses USB bus power, extracted
from two USB connectors. My laptop has three USB connectors, so
this would work with it. On one USB connector, only VCC and GND
are hooked up, while the second USB connector uses all four pins.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1PU0FG7690

Interesting! You say that it requires connecting to two USB ports?

 

[philo]

Paul has written on 2/26/2014 5:32 PM:

Interesting! You say that it requires connecting to two USB ports?

The reason is : USB ports are current limited to 500ma and the device
requires a bit more current than that

 

[Carpe_Diem]

The reason is : USB ports are current limited to 500ma and the device
requires a bit more current than that

Most 2,5" disks have enough with one connection!

 

[micky]

My stepson's laptop died and I would like to be able to pull his files
from his SATA HD (that I have removed).

I need some sort of adapter to connect to a USB port and power.

What do you recommend?

Thanks.

At one point I thought an drive enclosure would be a great idea, but
once I'd screwed on the end of the box, it seemed semi-permanent.

Then I found in an ad the Rosewill RCW618 SATA/IDE to Detachable USB
2.0 Adapter) which supporst 2.5, 3.5, and 5.25" IDE and SATA drives.

It includes an AC cord, transformer, and a cable with power connectors
for IDE and SATA. That's one part. And the other is two-edged
connector that fits large harddrives and DC/DVD drives and on the other
side, small harddrives, (or maybe it's IDE and SATA, but whatever, it
fits everything listed) with a USB cable to connect to the computer.
And it comes with a mini-CD in case your computer doesnt have the
software already installed.

There's a similar thing made by another company. It's upstairs and I
don't remember the make or model.

It's great. When I had 20 harddrives to check out, I could connect and
disconnect each in less than a minute.

When I have a netbook, with no optical drive, I can connect a spare
internal DVD writer and write DVDs etc. just by connecting to a USB
port.

It does not connect to flopppy disk drives, but it's still some of the
best money I ever spent.

I might have bought it at Newegg. At any rate, it's there now for $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119244

The pictures don't show the cables but I'm sure they're included. It
also has little vinyl envelopes, open at one narrow side, one for a 2
1/2 and the other for a 3 1/2 drive.

http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Adapter-Supports-Windows-RCW-618/dp/B00558I7Z2

 

[micky]

And the other is two-edged
connector that fits large harddrives and CD/DVD drives

and on the other
side, small harddrives, (or maybe it's IDE and SATA, but whatever, it
fits everything listed)

 

[philo]

Most 2,5" disks have enough with one connection!

I have two such external drives,
one with two cables
one with one cable

 

[Juan Wei]

philo has written on 2/27/2014 5:40 PM:

I have two such external drives,
one with two cables
one with one cable

I didn't know we were talking about external drives, philo!

The two-cable drive -- one USB and one power?

 

[philo]

philo has written on 2/27/2014 5:40 PM:

I didn't know we were talking about external drives, philo!

The two-cable drive -- one USB and one power?

These are enclosures for laptop drives and have no separate power
supply, they are powered solely by USB


One of them has a single USB plug

and the other has two USB plugs


(no AC power)

 

[Paul]

philo has written on 2/27/2014 5:40 PM:

I didn't know we were talking about external drives, philo!

The two-cable drive -- one USB and one power?

When a disk enclosure has a two-headed USB cable, that's
to "add" the current flow from two ports together.
It doesn't work exactly that way, but we'll pretend that
it does.

These are the pins on the two connectors that are used.
Each connector contributes 500mA. That way, the VCC wires
can carry 5V @ 1A to the hard drive in the enclosure. And
that's enough to spin up some of the more hungry 2.5 inch drives.
The D+ and D- on the first connector, are not used.
There is no electrical connection to the D+ and D-.
Only one port "shows up" in Device Manager (the lower port).

VCC -----+
D+ |
D- |
+---- GND |
| |
| VCC -----+------- controller -------- 2.5 inch drive
| D+ ------------- chip in
| D- ------------- enclosure
| GND -----+-------
| |
+--------------+

The D+ and D- pins of the lower connector, are the data
path for the enclosure. The data transfer happens
over those pins.

Due to the phenomenon of current hogging, the process
isn't as democratic as painted above. One
connector may end up carrying more of a load
than the other connector, and so the actual
available power is not exactly double what
it would be with one connector. Just to add
some realism to how it works. Only if the
resistance of the wires and pins was
exactly equal, would they tend to share
equally.

HTH,
Paul