Hi everybody,

The hard disk in my laptop no longer works, so I wanted to switch it with
another one.

As I have no other (spare) hard drives at hand, I was wondering if it was
possible to connect a normal 3.5" IDE hard disk to this laptop.

Can this be done? The laptop one has a special mini connector, is there a
cable available to connect to an IDE hard disk?

Please note that it is my intention to use this disk, replacing the disk
with a laptop sized one is not an option.

Thanks in advance,

Ikke

Re: "As I have no other (spare) hard drives at hand, I was wondering if
it was possible to connect a normal 3.5" IDE hard disk to this laptop."

Not as the "main" internal hard drive. However, it can be connected as
a USB device, the laptop bios may or may not let you boot from it.

You can get used laptop drives on E-Bay for as little as $10 for a 3 or
4 gigabyte size drive.

Ikke wrote:

Re: "As I have no other (spare) hard drives at hand, I was wondering if
it was possible to connect a normal 3.5" IDE hard disk to this laptop."

Not as the "main" internal hard drive. However, it can be connected as
a USB device, the laptop bios may or may not let you boot from it.

You can get used laptop drives on E-Bay for as little as $10 for a 3 or
4 gigabyte size drive.

Ikke wrote:

Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in
news:44D90A2D.8040809@neo.rr.com:

This is not an option - the drive must become the main hard drive. Not
internal, of course, as this would be completely impossible.

Thanks, but I already have the hard drive, so I'm not going to spend money
on another disk. Especially not if I need to do it via eBay.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Ikke

Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in
news:44D90A2D.8040809@neo.rr.com:

This is not an option - the drive must become the main hard drive. Not
internal, of course, as this would be completely impossible.

Thanks, but I already have the hard drive, so I'm not going to spend money
on another disk. Especially not if I need to do it via eBay.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Ikke

Ikke <ikke@hier.be> wrote in
news:Xns981A8EE23FE55ikkehierbe@195.130.132.70:

By the way, could you explain why this would not be possible? There are
connectors available to attach a laptop disk to an IDE cable, so I suspect
the opposite must exist somewhere, or at least could be manufactured with a
little effort.

Thanks,

Ikke

Ikke <ikke@hier.be> wrote in
news:Xns981A8EE23FE55ikkehierbe@195.130.132.70:

By the way, could you explain why this would not be possible? There are
connectors available to attach a laptop disk to an IDE cable, so I suspect
the opposite must exist somewhere, or at least could be manufactured with a
little effort.

Thanks,

Ikke

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:35:36 GMT, Ikke <ikke@hier.be> wrote:


It wouldn't fit in the hole, so what would the demand for such really
be?

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:35:36 GMT, Ikke <ikke@hier.be> wrote:


It wouldn't fit in the hole, so what would the demand for such really
be?

Chris Hill <chill_mapsfree_000@centurytel.net> wrote in
news:6hqjd218k4u7ir0jjfd8207kcmtgdsk25i@4ax.com:

I have an old computer which I can no longer use. The harddrive is still
in perfect condition.

Besides this machine, I also have a laptop which is broken. The keyboard
has been flooded, the screen is cracked, the battery no longer works, the
backup battery is short-circuited and the hard drive is dead.

The plan was to rebuild the laptop inside the case of the computer.

The cracked screen works when put under pressure, so I can mount it
inside the computer case - a battery is not needed, as the laptop can
draw it's current from the case. Keyboard and mouse are not needed,
because I can connect remotely.

The only thing I still need is a harddrive - since the computer case has
a perfectly working 500Mb hard disk, I can use this. It's a small disk,
but it's more than enough for me. A minimal linux or a stripped Windows
2000 will never use more than 50Mb-100Mb, so there's plenty of room left.

The end result should be a case which displays pictures (like a picture
frame) and plays mp3's.

So there is a demand

Chris Hill <chill_mapsfree_000@centurytel.net> wrote in
news:6hqjd218k4u7ir0jjfd8207kcmtgdsk25i@4ax.com:

I have an old computer which I can no longer use. The harddrive is still
in perfect condition.

Besides this machine, I also have a laptop which is broken. The keyboard
has been flooded, the screen is cracked, the battery no longer works, the
backup battery is short-circuited and the hard drive is dead.

The plan was to rebuild the laptop inside the case of the computer.

The cracked screen works when put under pressure, so I can mount it
inside the computer case - a battery is not needed, as the laptop can
draw it's current from the case. Keyboard and mouse are not needed,
because I can connect remotely.

The only thing I still need is a harddrive - since the computer case has
a perfectly working 500Mb hard disk, I can use this. It's a small disk,
but it's more than enough for me. A minimal linux or a stripped Windows
2000 will never use more than 50Mb-100Mb, so there's plenty of room left.

The end result should be a case which displays pictures (like a picture
frame) and plays mp3's.

So there is a demand

Your suspicion is wrong; there are no adapters available (at least that
I have ever seen) to allow connecting a 3.5" drive to a laptop. No
argument that it's theoretically possible, or that it's just a
connector/cable issue, but I have NEVER seen such an adapter offered.
"Could be manufactured" .... yes, agreed. But isn't, as far as I can
tell, and the connector for the laptop end, as well as the cable, does
not appear to be readily available.


Ikke wrote:

Your suspicion is wrong; there are no adapters available (at least that
I have ever seen) to allow connecting a 3.5" drive to a laptop. No
argument that it's theoretically possible, or that it's just a
connector/cable issue, but I have NEVER seen such an adapter offered.
"Could be manufactured" .... yes, agreed. But isn't, as far as I can
tell, and the connector for the laptop end, as well as the cable, does
not appear to be readily available.


Ikke wrote:

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 14:42:34 GMT, Ikke <ikke@hier.be> wrote:

But, the question is, how many could a manufacturer actually sell. I
suspect the number is right around 1. Ebay yourself a new drive.

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 14:42:34 GMT, Ikke <ikke@hier.be> wrote:

But, the question is, how many could a manufacturer actually sell. I
suspect the number is right around 1. Ebay yourself a new drive.

Chris Hill <chill_mapsfree_000@centurytel.net> wrote in
news:q80kd2952lmv5lfnuqddt2n46p9pv6g029@4ax.com:

<snipped>
I'm afraid you are right about those sale figures

eBay? Ain't gonna happen. That means it would cost me money to finish this
project. One of the reasons for this project is to create something useful
from junk that's gathering dust here, not to gather more junk.

Thanks anyway.

Ikke

Chris Hill <chill_mapsfree_000@centurytel.net> wrote in
news:q80kd2952lmv5lfnuqddt2n46p9pv6g029@4ax.com:

<snipped>
I'm afraid you are right about those sale figures

eBay? Ain't gonna happen. That means it would cost me money to finish this
project. One of the reasons for this project is to create something useful
from junk that's gathering dust here, not to gather more junk.

Thanks anyway.

Ikke

Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in
news:44D9FAD4.90109@neo.rr.com:

"Could be manufactured" is not to be taken in the sense of mass-scale
production. What I meant was, if it does not exist, it should be easy
enough to roll-you-own in this case.

Anyone have the correct schematics nearby from one of those converter
dealies that does the opposite? I can take it from there...

As far as I can tell, I'm not the first to build something similar to a
picture frame from a laptop - surely there must be someone out there who
has ran into this issue as well.

Thanks,

Ikke

Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in
news:44D9FAD4.90109@neo.rr.com:

"Could be manufactured" is not to be taken in the sense of mass-scale
production. What I meant was, if it does not exist, it should be easy
enough to roll-you-own in this case.

Anyone have the correct schematics nearby from one of those converter
dealies that does the opposite? I can take it from there...

As far as I can tell, I'm not the first to build something similar to a
picture frame from a laptop - surely there must be someone out there who
has ran into this issue as well.

Thanks,

Ikke

If you have the laptop hard drive and you have the 3.5" hard drive, you
should be able to figure out how to manage the adapter. It seems to me
that one problem you might run into is the power requirements for the
3.5 HDD might be more than the laptop circuitry can handle?

I will check when I get home today and see if I can figure out the
schematic from my converter.

Ikke wrote: