Laptop HD connection to a PC

[Lost_luggage34]

Thought I'd give this a try as the advice here is some of the best !

Anyone know of a way of connecting a laptop hard disk to a PC ?

Obviously it doesn't have the standard 40 pin IDE connection which PC HDs have.

Are there adapters available - power connection is my main concern as if that goes wrong the laptop drive is well and truly stuffed.

[Nightrider]

easiest and almost cheapest way, get a 2.5" carry case with USB connector (around £19.90) and fit the HD in there...
I did that and bought an extra 40GB HD which I now use to carry around and connect in the office, at home and down-route and have all important things on this...

[piesupper]

Try this...
http://www.busybits.com.au/item/GC325?busybit

The link is from OZ but a little googling should find you a UK supplier soon enough, I have used these in the past with excellent results.

All the best

piesupper

Just found the link to the UK supplier I used last time I needed one of these beasties.

http://mcsx.co.uk/products/ideadapter.htm

No excuse now for not backing up your laptops!

All the best
piesupper

[The Nr Fairy]

If you're worried about a laptop backup, then look on Ebay for backup devices.

I've used the OnStream USB30 for a few years now, it's a little slow but reliable and you can use it on more than one machine with a little unplugging and re-plugging.

Manufacturer's web site for USB30 (http://www.onstream.com/products/usb30.shtml)

Ebay listing for Onstream items (http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.co.uk%2Fws%2F&query=onstream&ebaytag1code=3&shortcut=2&currdisp=1&maxRecordsReturned=300&maxRecordsPerPage=50&SortProperty=MetaEndSort)

[fobotcso]

Agree with Nightrider; a suitable product is made by an Italian manufacturer called Miglia. It comes with a Firewire interface and doesn't need a power supply although a socket is provided for a power input in case you have exhausted all the wigglies on the Firewire bus.

I have one and am very satisfied. It does exactly what you want and I have even used it to "Clone" a Boot Partition from an inadequate Ultra thin Laptop HDD first to the Host HDD and then Cloned it back to a larger capacity HDD in the Caddy. This was a quick way to keep everything as it was but with four times the HDD capacity. It did mean a bit of screwdriver work to swap stuff about but the result was perfect.

The software for this was Partition Magic.

A similar "caddy" is made by Amacom. They do one for full sized 3½" HDDs and it comes with Firewire sockets and the power supply.

That was a neat link, piesupper, thanks.

[allthatglitters]

Try maplins, I got a ide ribbon cable, which you could fit to the IDE channel, eg. normally used to connect the cdrom/dvdrom, the other end pluged straight into the standard 2.5" drive. managed to download every thing I needed when the drive was on it's last leg. Also the power supplied via the IDE cable.
Also have a box which you can place the 2.5" drive in and connect to the PCMCIA channel on the laptop, I understand can now get them for USB.

[Lost_luggage34]

Cheers guys - excellent info - especially piesupper - spot on !