Fitting a SATA to PATA IDE adapter into a 15" T4x

[virge]

I have been looking for HDD cover for my recently acquired T42P and noticed that the HDD sits quite deep inside the machine. This got me thinking... Is it possible to stuff a SATA/PATA adapter in there so I can use a SATA drive?

They make something like this for desktops:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0230251448

There are tons of these on Ebay and they look to be about the right size and I think I may have enough soldering skills to make the connectors fit. I'm about to order one to try, someone warn me if its going to smoke my computer-- hmm. I better try on an older test machine first.

Is this a crazy idea? I know its past my bedtime.....

Andy

[iamdmc]

I'm a student, so I'm always tired, but that still sounds like a baaad idea

The problem comes in when you consider the power connector... instant blue smoke. That and the fact that it'll stick outside of your machine by half an inch at least.

edit: ALSO - this is intended for 3.5" IDE - 3.5" SATA. The 40-pin connector is almost as wide as your 2.5" HDD and may not even fit inside the T40 series HDD slot. All-around a bad idea.

If you're set on doing it, take some pictures and post them.
GL

[aaa]

Sounds interesting...

But with that adapter in particular, aside from being too big, there is no power connector. I think it will be hard to find one small enough anyways.

[o1001010]

no, the area is designed to fit exactly with a hard drive. there is no room for anything else.

[virge]

So nobody thinks this is a good idea?

Seriously though, here's what I was thinking:

First: When the hard drive is installed, there is about two inches between the end of the hard drive and the hard drive cover. Thats close to the size of that adapter. This is an a 15" T4x machine.

Second: I own a cheap 2.5" to 3.5" IDE drive converter. From studying that, it seems pretty easy to build.

Third: The power for the pictured adapter seems to pull from a 5v power source. One of the laptop's female plugs for the hard drive supplies 5v (right?).

The plan: I have more than a few dead 2.5" hard drives. I remove the pin connector from one of those and replace the desktop IDE connector on the adapter. Then I solder a power line and ground from the laptop's +5v and -5v sources to the adapter.

Still think it wont work? What actually concerns me the most is whether the 2.5" connection will provide enough current to run both the adapter and a SATA drive.

[virge]

The problem comes in when you consider the power connector... instant blue smoke.

Can you elaborate on this? What's wrong with the power connector that'll cause this to smoke? I don't like the smell of blue smoke!

[aaa]

Well if you're going to solder things, then I guess it would work... I don't think the overhead of powering the adapter will be an issue (if you do it right...).

I'd test it with a scrap desktop motherboard and scrap drive first though.

If there's really that much space in there, then a more specialized adapter could be made. Wonder how much demand there would be for it?

[virge]

Thinking this over and a big problem that I see now is that SATA drives appear to require a 12v power source. I don't have any SATA machines or devices so I'm going by the pinout shown on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA). As far as I know, the PATA drives only have 5v power.

I guess I didn't think this through. Any ideas?

Edit: Had another late night thought. There are USB enclosures for 2.5" SATA using only the USB power source. USB is only 5v right? So there must be some way of getting a SATA drive to work! Maybe a combination of the SATA/PATA adapter and the USB/SATA adapter will work?

[zdriver]

If you do a google search on Asus sata pata adapter - voila!... you will find the adapter that will fit in a 15" drive bay thinkpad.
Aparantly Asus made this adapter to allow you to use either a SATA or PATA drive in certain notebook models.
It looks to me though, they used a propriatiary caddy and might be difficult to modify the adapter to use in the thinkpad.
At one time, the adapter kit with caddy was available from excelcomputerinc.com for $57

Just to clear things up, the 15" model thinkpads have a deeper drivebay with 1/2" extra length, this is because it is obviously wider than the standard 14" model and they both use the same motherboard. The drive cover is different - has longer tabs to reach further to the drive.

[aaa]

A word on voltage... I think the drives only use 5v, and not the 3.3/12v that the power connector also provides.

Reasoning is, laptop drives work fine running off a the standard desktop molex power adapter (which only has 5/12v), eliminating 3.3v. As for why it doesn't use 12v, I'm just pretty sure all laptop drives use 5v only.

[virge]

A word on voltage... I think the drives only use 5v, and not the 3.3/12v that the power connector also provides.

Thanks for the heads up. I just looked at the spec sheets for some 2.5" laptop drives and you're right on. That makes things easier.

zdriver: I did a google search with those terms and found the adapter you're talking about. A big thank you for that. I'm going to try and find one.

[aaa]

Looking at the Asus Z71 adapter, it looks like it's passive, with no converting chip on it at all... I'm guessing the Z71 had both PATA and a special ribbon SATA slot. Meaning it probably won't work (just guessing here though).

If you're still looking for it, another name for it is "m7v sata adapter". Or just look for the drive caddy for that particular Asus, it often comes with the adapters.

[virge]

Looking at the Asus Z71 adapter, it looks like it's passive, with no converting chip on it at all... I'm guessing the Z71 had both PATA and a special ribbon SATA slot. Meaning it probably won't work (just guessing here though).

I think you're right. I just found a picture of what it looks like. Would've been interesting to try, but they appear to be a little hard to find... talk about hens' teeth!