| Jef,
| This is perfect!! I'm on my way to CompUSA to buy a similar cable. Do
you
| have any thoughts about hooking this up to a laptop easily. I have more
| laptops sitting around than desktops.
|
| Rich Raine
| (e-mail address removed)
|
Hi Rich -
The adaptor won't work on another laptop. Laptop hard drives have both data
signal lines and power supplied through the ribbon cable. The adaptor
aligns a desktop IDE cable data lines with those of the laptop drive
connector and separates the power lines onto a four-pin molex connector.
This would be your most economical option - and probably your best bet if
your primary objective is to simply retrieve the data from the drive. The
drive may also be permanently mounted in a desktop computer using the kit I
referenced in my first post to the newsgroup - it includes metal drive
adaptor rails to mount the notebook drive into a 3.5" IDE position inside a
desktop computer case.
If you're wanting to connect the drive onto another laptop your best bet
would be a 2.5" USB-based drive enclosure. These should also be available
at most computer stores, including CompUSA. This option would work on both
laptop and desktop systems, though you'll get the fastest data access speed
with a USB 2.0 enclosure, but it would still work, slowly, on an older USB
1.1 connector.
Another option, for a laptop that has a second drive bay, would be an
adaptor specifically for that bay would do the trick. Example: IBM laptops
with docking stations have a slim drive connector for many of their Ultrabay
models where a second hard drive can be connected. You'd probably need to
purchase and adaptor directly from the manufacturer.
The second and third options are significantly more expensive than the
first.
Good luck with whichever path you choose to take.
Jef
