Laptop HD to PC HD?

Hello there.

Just a quick question for anyone who might know the answer. I have a laptop that burnt out, now not turning on. It's pretty old now so I don't really want to pay to get it repaired I'd rather get a new one. Thing is, the harddrive has tonnes of files etc that I don't really want to lose.

Is there anyway for me to somehow connect to the HD with my pc and pull the files over?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Laptop HD's usually have an adaptor on the end which can be removed to reveal a standard IDE connector. You can then connect it into your PC and read it as just another disk.

 

This is NOT true. (well, the adapter part is true, but the rest of the info after the word "removed" is wrong)

If the laptop has a SATA hard drive, it will connect to a PC SATA data cable and power cable, but the IDE laptop drives have a competely different and MUCH smaller IDE interface than a standard PC IDE connector, plus they draw the power they need through the connector and not only will a standard IDE connector not fit, but if it did, there would be no power to run the drive. You'll need an adapter from 2.5" IDE to 3.5" IDE, or better yet, get an enclosure that will house the laptop drive. Plug it into the USB port on the PC, copy your files over, then format the laptop drive in the enclosure and use it as an external back up drive!
Here's a Newegg link to what you need: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145752 I have used this exact same unit (actually I have two of 'em) and it works beautifully. When you plug it into the USB port, WinXP will automatically pick it up and install it as a new drive letter; open My Computer and access it as you would normally browse your C: drive. Easy, no?

[dlb]
:major

(another nice thing about the enclosures is that they get the power they need via the USB port and no additional power cord is needed. There's many other brands and makes of these enclosures at NewEgg; just be sure it says "IDE" and "2.5 inch". If you're unsure, post a link here and we can tell you if it will work or not. You may want to post the make /model of the laptop so we can be 100% sure that it has an IDE drive and not a SATA drive, but they do make enclosures that will house either type)

 

Adapters are less expensive. It depends on how often you will use these items. Here's one type of "quick adapter", so you know what to look for if you choose this;

 

Before you do this check on the type of connection available on your laptop hard drive.

There are at least 5 different IDE physical connectors; I have adapters for each, but you will only need the one.

Post the hard drive details.

 

I bow to your superior knowledge. The only reason I said what I did was that I'd just installed a laptop HD into a desktop to retrieve the data and it plugged in and worked just fine. Maybe I was just really lucky. :confused

 

Will post drive details as soon as I know.
If it helps, it is an IBM thinkpad T30

 

ATA Bus Interface is as close as I can find on the Lenovo site; http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-58227

(HDD thickness plays a role based upon if the unit has a Touchpad or not.)

 

It was probably a SATA drive. In my 15+ years of working on PCs, I have never seen a laptop IDE drive connect directly to a desktop PC IDE interface, nor have I ever heard of one. Laptop IDE drives use the two pins on the end of the connector for the power. In Dan's picture above you'll see that there is a separate molex power adapter, and the black plastic part flares out from a narrow end (where the laptop drive plugs in) to a wider end (where the desktop IDE cable plugs in). Without the molex adapter, the drive would get no power when plugged into an IDE cable; and the laptop IDE interface connector is MUCH smaller than a desktop IDE connector and wouldn't fit no matter how hard you try or how lucky you are... it just isn't possible. However, laptop SATA drives and desktop SATA drives use identical connectors for the power and data, so a laptop SATA hard drive can be connected directly into SATA cable in a desktop PC without any problems or adapters.

 

Great info Dan.

The laptop does have a touch pad. I believe it was a 60gig HD.

So knowing all this info what steps do you guys recommend I take order to get the info off of it? Many thanks for all of your help though!

 

What about one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156017

E

 

I have posted a photo of some adapters I use to connect laptop IDE hard drives to a desktop connector. These are meant to connect to both a molex power connector and the female data connector on a standard IDE ribbon cable.
As DLB says the power connectors on laptop drives are integrated with the
data connector and these babys perform the conversion.

Doddz,
I would guess your drive is an IBM (now hitachi) Travelstar and the bottom adapter with the leads is the one that usually fits these.

@DLB
If you have never seen these I can thoroughly recommend them as servicing is often facilitated if you can connect the drive to another system.

 

studiot, not to get off track here. but, where did you buy that at? was it a kit or what? i have something like what dan posted below. however, there's a few laptop h/d's here, that i need to get access to, and that looks like it'll work. - sos

 

Luckily I didn't have to make them. I've collected them over a couple of years from various sources, some here in the UK some in Hong Kong, although I think they all probably came from China originally.

I'll try to sort out some references.

 

Here is a photo of a SATA laptop drive (Fujitsu).

This has flat lands not pins and the connector is a single unit on the laptop.

The smaller group of lands on the left form the data connection and the larger on the right the power. This is opposite of parallel types.

The good news is that standard SATA power and data connectors go straight on to these, side by side.