PATA Laptop Hard Drive Help

Glimmervoid · Post by **Glimmervoid** » 2008-09-26 02:13pm

I have a Pata Hitachi Travelstar Hard drive from my old laptop (which went on fire), my new lap top dose not use the same connection however. Dose anyone have any idea how I can get files off it?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-26 02:43pm

Get a hard drive enclosure for your type of drive?

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2008-09-28 12:44pm

Plug it into a desktop? Although I do like the enclosure route myself.

DaveJB · Post by **DaveJB** » 2008-09-28 01:19pm

Plugging it into a desktop's not really a great idea - it can be done with an adaptor, but PATA laptop drives use an unkeyed single plug for both power and data connections - get that connector upside down, and the drive's going to be as burnt up as the laptop it originally lived in. A USB enclosure on the other hand is usually designed so that the drive will only slot in the correct way, so it's probably the best way to go here.

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2008-09-28 01:24pm

DaveJB wrote:Plugging it into a desktop's not really a great idea - it can be done with an adaptor, but PATA laptop drives use an unkeyed single plug for both power and data connections - get that connector upside down, and the drive's going to be as burnt up as the laptop it originally lived in. A USB enclosure on the other hand is usually designed so that the drive will only slot in the correct way, so it's probably the best way to go here.

The adapter takes care of that by using the HD's key. At least my adapter does - it's one solid block.