USB enclosure for x41 60g HD

[Daniel Davis]

I bought a USB enclosure (IO Magic brand) with hopes of hooking my failing HD from the x41 to my w510. Problem is, the standard-looking IDE cable in the enclosure won't plug into the IDE jack on the back of the 60 gig Hitachi Travelstar, though it too looks like a standard IDE jack. The label on the back of the Hitachi says it's "ATA/IDE". Is there any other way to hook the Hitachi to the USB enclosure? It came with a SATA cable, but I see no jack on the Travelstar that will mate with it.

[loyukfai]

Search for "1.8 2.5 ide" and you should be able to find some information on this.

There could be voltage differences (3.3/5V), don't recall very well though, check and make sure they match.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

[Daniel Davis]

Here's a link that shows what i bought:

http://www.iomagic.com/collections/peri ... -enclosure


Apparently the wrong hardware.

[RealBlackStuff]

That's what I suspected all along in your other thread (3.5" case instead of 2.5").

[twistero]

Wrong hardware indeed. In most cases, what you need is a 2.5 inch PATA enclosure, instead of the 3.5 inch one you linked.

The rare case when a 2.5 inch PATA enclosure will not work, is when you have a more recent replacement from Lenovo which is actually a ZIF drive. Such a drive looks like this: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... MIGR-69154 If you plug such a drive into a 2.5 inch PATA external enclosure, you will fry the drive.

[Daniel Davis]

The link you provided for a photo of the drive you're talking about displayed an error message saying the document could not be found.

Will this drive enclosure work with the x41 60g drive?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1C1K9GJUK ... K9GJUKIK98

[Neil]

No. That one is for SATA drives. What you need is a standard 2.5" IDE/ATA enclosure. Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-External-E ... B000FNBYKW

That's not the only one out there, only the first one that came up in a quick search.

[twistero]

Seems like Lenovo removed that document. Weird. Anyways, here's the Google cache version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... =firefox-a

[keithsketchley]

Dig through this forum for information on interface of the drives.

Or try CablesToGo (C2G) for "adapters" between the laptop drive connector and USB. (You have to figure out how to line up since 1.8 and 2.5 have different way of arranging contacts for jumpers, though should be keyed.)

C2G also sell a full kit that supports 1.8, 2.5, and 3.5 SATA and PATA, c/w wall power supply for the 3.5" drives and the separate power connectors they use. I have one, works fine except on older 3.5 PATA I have to follow instructions closely or reboot with drive and adapter connected to get it recognized.

[keithsketchley]

A far out approach is to get an insert for the Ultrabay Slim optical drive bay in the x4 Ultrabase and x4 Dock.

The PATA one accomodates either 1.8 or 2.5 inch hard disk drive, with a folding spacer to plug the excess space with the 1.8 in place.

You can also get an insert to accomodate a SATA 2.5" drive.

Only good for temporary use of course since it replaces the optical drive.

PS: Beware IBM made several bay configurations, including more than one "Ultrabay".

PPS: Yet another wrinkle in HDDs is microSATA interface. Seems a common use is for plugging an SS "drive" onto a circuit board (like mezzanine or daughter board), essentially the guts of an SSD. (The space inside even a 1.8" drive is much more than needed for many SS capacities.)