[andy_e]

My laptop merked itself recently and I need to recover a bit of stuff I'd saved on to it. I thought it was a standard IDE but it turns out it's smaller- what do I need to connect it to my desktop/can it be done/any other ideas? ta muchly.

[underground]

Is it SATA then? You could try connecting it to a SATA cable on another computer and seeing if it picks it up. Failing that there are caddies you can buy for creating a portable HDD that would allow you to connect it via USB..

[GCW]

S-ATA look like this:



If it's one of those you can just plug it into a S-ATA on your PC and run it as a secondary HDD.

[andy_e]

No, it's like IDE but smaller (i.e. same number of pins)

plug it into a S-ATA on your PC

If I had SATA on my PC, that is...

[GCW]

Sounds like you may need one of these:

[GCW]

Sorry, that was bigger than I expected

Also forgot the link.

[underground]

Failing that there are caddies you can buy for creating a portable HDD that would allow you to connect it via USB..

It's one of these andi.... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200245487831 and you'll end up with a new portable hard drive to use then aswell...

[andy_e]

Sounds like you may need one of these:

No, that's a bog-stardard IDE, no?

Cheers underground!

[GCW]

Or a non- e-bay version.

That's a 2.5 to IDE converter.  You'll see one end is smaller than the other and is 44 pin.
But if you trust your drive, get an enclosure and run it as a second HDD.

[underground]

Don't worry I'm not selling it, it was just the cheapest Google hit - 3 quid rather than 16 quid

[GCW]

Nah, more for people like myself that have a pathological fear of using e-bay

[nik at work]

I've got a universal hard-drive to USB adaptor.
It's got IDE, little laptop IDE and sata to USB.
Basically plug your HDD into the appropriate do-dah then plug the USB end into another computer and you can read the HD as a memory stick type whatnot.
You can borrow it if you want if you can work out a way of getting hold of it...

[andy_e]

come to longridge later then...

[nik at work]

I did you bone idle student waster.