Thinkpads Forum

Hi guys and gals, hope all is well.

I've got a precarious situation....

I have an operational T400 (which I love) and a non-operational T42 (which I also love). I replaced the DC Power jack in the T42 thinking it was the problem but the darned computer wont even start! No power...

I don't have the time to fix it at the moment but really need to retrieve some papers I wrote. Now just looking at the two computers, it doesn't look like I can simply replace the harddrives.

Am I right? If so, is there anything I can do to get the files off my T42?!

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Buy an external USB case and throw the drive in there. You can dump the files onto your T400.

nykobing06 wrote:Now just looking at the two computers, it doesn't look like I can simply replace the harddrives.

No, T42 takes PATA (IDE) drives whereas T400, as all T models starting with T60, uses SATA drives. The connectors are totally different so you won't even be able to put the drive in.

What you need is, as FredGarvin said, an external USB enclosure for PATA drives. The important thing is NOT to get a SATA enclosure cause you will be kind of back to where you are now.

Alternatively you can get an USB<->PATA converter cable. Some of such cables support SATA too (USB<->PATA/SATA). Using this kind of cable you are able to connect any HDD, be it 2.5" or a desktop 3.5", PATA or SATA, to your notebook. You can also hook up a desktop optical drive to it. The reason to get the enclosure instead of such cable is that you end up with a nicely packaged HDD that you can throw in your bag whereas with the cable you get a bit of fun connecting everything together every time.

Yes, it's good for doing backups so you won't have all your files in one place, which you don't want when a problem arises.

You can get cheap £1-3 IDE-USB cables from places like ebuyer in the uk to transfer any files. It might be worth getting an enclosure for around £20, I did that with mine but both of my HDDs are SATA.

WRT: "No, T42 takes PATA (IDE) drives whereas T400, as all T models starting with T60, uses SATA drives"

Can yak clarify this statement? Does this mean PATA drives are in T20-T23, T30, T40-T43, and SATA drives are in T400, T60, T61... ?

I am looking for a USB HDD external enclosure to hold the drive from a Dead T30, can anyone offer a make and model drive to buy for this purpose? There are 428 hits on eBay that meet this discription and I'd like to narrow these down by reading from personal experience out there.

Thank You!

This would be one.