How to use laptop hard drive on PC
Tom
I need to get the data off an Acer Laptop's HDD as the Acer's keyboard
refuses to function - I suspect a controller chip on the mainboard has
blown.
Anyway I have the laptop's HDD out of it and I have a USB to IDE
convertor that has both 3.5 and laptop 2.5 inch connectors - but what
do I do about the power supply? For 3.5" HDDs I use a power cable from
the PC.... but for the laptop HHD there is no connection for the
power.
Any help gratefully received. Many thanks.
Tom
GlowingBlueMist
It sounds like you have only two choices, secure an adaptor cable to go from
the older connectors used on an IDE drive to the SATA drive.
The other option is to secure a better adapter. The good ones come with an
external power supply, and supporting cables to run either IDE or SATA
drives. The cheap ones leave the power connections up to the person trying
to use them.
Paul
If you look at the connectors, the 3.5" drive has 40 pins and they're
all data pins. The 2.5" drive has 44 pins, and some of the extra 4 pins
are involved with power. If you look at the adapter, there should be
room for a power connector on the adapter. There has to be some
mechanism, by which +5V can flow through the adapter dongle, into
the 44 pin 2.5" drive connector. So look carefully at the kit you
bought, for a power adapter cable.
A 2.5" drive runs from 5V. Current flow is about 500mA.
A 3.5" drive uses 5V and 12V. Around 12V @ 0.6A and 5V @ 1A. Needs power adapter.
It could be, that the kit designers chose to power the 2.5" drive,
using +5V from the USB bus power. So there is already a 5V source
there, and that could be how they expected to get +5V to the drive.
If the drive is power hungry, it might slightly exceed the
500mA power limit on USB. In which case, a 5V wall wart and barrel
power connector, may be the solution. Look on the adapter dongle
for a barrel power input, or look for some kind of adapter
cable which can provide more power.
So power does flow through the 44 pin, and it is up to you to figure
out how the power gets there.
If the drive is using USB bus power, you should not run the kit off
a bus powered hub. The kit should be plugged directly into
the computer USB plug. Even if that is done, the computer can cut
off the 500mA of current, if it detects an overload. If a laptop
is being used to provide the host for the kit, then a laptop
tends to "police" current flow more closely than a desktop computer,
and may cur off power precisely at 500mA. Some desktops will allow
closer to 1 ampere to flow, before the Polyfuse opens.
HTH,
Paul
Agent_C
wrote:
>Anyway I have the laptop's HDD out of it and I have a USB to IDE
>convertor that has both 3.5 and laptop 2.5 inch connectors - but what
>do I do about the power supply?
Just picked up one of these; http://tinyurl.com/yzljvb7 and it works
like a charm. Comes with the adapters _ and_ a power supply.
A_C
jinxy
> On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:02:18 -0800 (PST), Tom <r2...@yahoo.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> >Anyway I have the laptop's HDD out of it and I have a USB to IDE
> >convertor that has both 3.5 and laptop 2.5 inch connectors - but what
> >do I do about the power supply?
>
> like a charm. Comes with the adapters _ and_ a power supply.
>
> A_C
Pick up one of these enclosures, inexpensive, works great, and you
won't have to open the tower up.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3481278&CatId=2783
cheers
-J
Don Reese
I had a friend who spilled on her laptop and killed it. Like you I took
out the drive and purchased something along these lines.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816002
Plug your drive into it, then plug it in via USB (the one I bought had
two USB connectors to ensure enough power).
Don
--
Don Reese