On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, at 12:56pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Once I figure out how to get the hard drive out (I've removed every > screw in sight, but still can't get the clamshell apart)
What brand and model? One common thing: On many laptops, you need to remove the keyboard to expose more screws. The keyboard, in turn, is held in by tabs, latches, and/or screws. > so I can verify that it's the standard 44-pin IDE interface Good idea, but they almost always are, in any laptop made in the last ten years. > A 44-pin IDE to USB adapter would be more convenient, but seems to be a > lot more expensive. Yes. The 44-pin IDE interface is just the regular 40-pin IDE interface, in a slightly smaller form factor, and with four new pins for power. The adapters are typically just a PCB with two connectors soldered on to it. USB-to-IDE, on the other hand, will require a USB interface, an IDE interface, a micro-controller to do the conversion, likely some buffer memory, and maybe some other stuff, too. That will raise the price significantly. Still not a lot of money, but when you're talking about something you'll likely only use once, $5 vs $50 is significant. :) For data recovery, I would prefer the plain IDE myself, anyway. USB is often slower, sometimes harder to get working, and always hides certain aspects of the IDE drive. For example, many OEMs provide utilities which can talk to their drives and run proprietary diagnostics; such things won't work with a USB adapter. -- Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do | | not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. | | All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss