44-pin laptop to 40-pin laptop adapter

Hey guys,

I'm trying to resurrect an old laptop with a broken screen to turn it into a custom DVR (don't worry, my question is nothing about that really!). It's an HP Presario 2100 missing it's original IDE hard drive. The trouble is that it's one of those laptops where the hard drive needs an 'adapter' to allow it to connect to the motherboard, and I can't find it anywhere. Now, I use the term 'adapter' loosely, as I don't believe it converts current or the order of pins at all, but rather it's just a system that allows a horizontal hard drive to connect to a vertical socket. Here's one of the few images I can find to illustrate what I'm talking about:
http://i831.photobucket.com/albums/zz239/bernard134/DellLaptopHardDriveConnectorIDE44Pi.jpg

The image is specifically of a Dell one, which seem to be the easiest kind to search for on Google. I'm cautious to use anything other than an HP one for this computer simply because I doubt the dimensions are standardized. Ebay for example has a dozen DELL ones, one 'HP Omnibook', and no others.

Does anyone know where I can find these for sale, or even what to call these little things so I can research them myself?

 

Yikes!

Only thing I can come up with that you may not have considered is that Compaq and HP are hand-in-hand: when you're doing your parts searches, don't forget to include Compaq.

Good used hardware (especially laptop hardware) is becoming increasingly tough to find.

 

Ebay US have many listed (this one's from HK and ships to many countries), most are caddy + adapter, prices from around $5 inc. delivery.

I think the HP part number on that page is correct, it's for the full drive caddy kit.

 

Case closed!

Thanks to the both of you.

I use 'hp' and 'compaq' interchangeably, and although I don't remember which I searched under I do know I only searched for one of the two!

After searching Ebay for caddies I found the part I needed right away, for just under $5. Good thinking!

I think the best name for it is a 'laptop hard drive connector', rather than 'adapter' or 'converter'. Though really it *must* have a more specific name, though I don't know what it is.

Thanks again all.

 

Glad you got it. :major