Dead Thinkpad 750C, need to recover files from its hard drive

All,

I have a dead IBM ThinkPad 750C (Type 9545) on my hands. It won't respond to
its power button at all. No lights, no POST, no whirring sounds, nothing.
It's battery is dead, but its DC power adapter is fine. I have used that DC
adapter to boot up another battery-less ThinkPad, a model 755, if I recall
correctly. So the problem is with the inside the 750C, and not with its
power supply.

I don't care about the computer itself, I just want to recover a few files
off of the hard disk drive, and use them on another computer. What is the
best way for me to read the 750C's hard disk drive, now that I have
unplugged it from the dead machine? It will not fit into that model 755 that
I mentioned above. That would have been too easy!

Do I need to find another 750C, one that is not dead, and snap my old hard
drive into it in order to read it? Are there other Thinkpad models that use
the same type of hard disk drive, or must I find an old 750C, and nothing
else will do? Or is there a more clever way to do this that doesn't require
another ThinkPad?

The hard disk drive is marked as follows:
FRU P/N 39H7040
ASM P/N 29H9484
29H9485

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Spiff

All,

By the way, can anyone tell me why the IBM ThinkPad 750C is not even listed
among the types of ThinkPads listed at IBM's "Personal Computing Support --
Browse by Product" page?

Go to:

http://tinyurl.com/229se

to check this for yourself.

Tom

"Spaceman Spiff" <> wrote in message
news:09FDc.69267$. com...
> All,
>
> I have a dead IBM ThinkPad 750C (Type 9545) on my hands. It won't respond
to
> its power button at all. No lights, no POST, no whirring sounds, nothing.
> It's battery is dead, but its DC power adapter is fine. I have used that
DC
> adapter to boot up another battery-less ThinkPad, a model 755, if I recall
> correctly. So the problem is with the inside the 750C, and not with its
> power supply.
>
> I don't care about the computer itself, I just want to recover a few files
> off of the hard disk drive, and use them on another computer. What is the
> best way for me to read the 750C's hard disk drive, now that I have
> unplugged it from the dead machine? It will not fit into that model 755
that
> I mentioned above. That would have been too easy!
>
> Do I need to find another 750C, one that is not dead, and snap my old hard
> drive into it in order to read it? Are there other Thinkpad models that
use
> the same type of hard disk drive, or must I find an old 750C, and nothing
> else will do? Or is there a more clever way to do this that doesn't
require
> another ThinkPad?
>
> The hard disk drive is marked as follows:
> FRU P/N 39H7040
> ASM P/N 29H9484
> 29H9485
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
>
> Spiff


you can buy an adaptor which allows you to plug it into your main pc as
though its a normal pc type hard drive. you can get what ever files/info off
it you like then
theres lots on ebay

HTH

Chris,

Chris 159 wrote:
> you can buy an adaptor which allows you to plug it into
> your main pc as though its a normal pc type hard drive.
> you can get what ever files/info off it you like then
> theres lots on ebay

I was unable to find an adapter that promised to work with the 750C style of
hard drive. Can you send a link to a page on eBay, or anywhere else, for one
that you think would work?

Tom

Its been a long time since I used a 75x class ThinkPad. But I am reasonably
sure that you can put the 750 drive into a 755 and boot up. Some 'new'
hardware devices may not work - but you should be able to copy the files you
want on to a floppy or send them as email attachments to yourself.

"Spaceman Spiff" <> wrote in message
news:f8GDc.69777$. com...
> Chris,
>
> Chris 159 wrote:
> > you can buy an adaptor which allows you to plug it into
> > your main pc as though its a normal pc type hard drive.
> > you can get what ever files/info off it you like then
> > theres lots on ebay
>
> I was unable to find an adapter that promised to work with the 750C style
of
> hard drive. Can you send a link to a page on eBay, or anywhere else, for
one
> that you think would work?
>
> Tom
>
>

"Spaceman Spiff" <> wrote in message
news:f8GDc.69777$. com...
> Chris,
>
> Chris 159 wrote:
> > you can buy an adaptor which allows you to plug it into
> > your main pc as though its a normal pc type hard drive.
> > you can get what ever files/info off it you like then
> > theres lots on ebay
>
> I was unable to find an adapter that promised to work with the 750C style
of
> hard drive. Can you send a link to a page on eBay, or anywhere else, for
one
> that you think would work?
>
> Tom
>


does the 750c drive have a non ata type connector ? i dont know myself

the adaptors i mentioned are for the standard ata type - theyre ever so
common

Chris,

Chris 159 wrote:
> does the 750c drive have a
> non ata type connector ? i
> dont know myself

Yes, but there is some disassembly required!

IBM has it's own proprietary connector, but if you slide the drive out of
the outermost drive casing, and then disassemble the casing inside that by
peeling off a label, unscrewing two screws, and finally by pulling off the
proprietary IBM connector from the drive within, you ultimately reveal a
standard 2.5" 44-pin laptop hard disk drive.

For $8, CompUSA sold me the adapter that takes a 44-pin 2.5" drive connector
to a 40-pin 3.5" drive connector, with a separate power connector. Thusly
equipped, I went home and attached the new assembly to an IDE to USB drive
enclosure that I already owned, and both partitions of the antiquated 750 Mb
drive instantly appeared in My Computer as the next two available drive
letters, so now I have access to anything I may need on those partitions.

Problem solved. Thanks!

Spiff

Dear Sapper,

Sapper wrote:
> I am reasonably sure that you can put
> the 750 drive into a 755 and boot up.

This idea didn't work, but only because I didn't realize that I needed to
disassemble the housing around the 750C's drive in order to make it work.
There was not enough physical space allotted to the hard disk drive in the
755 to accommodate the HDD from the 750C in it's unaltered form. But If I
had disassembled it a bit first, removing its two unnecessary layers of
external housing, it would have tucked in there just fine! I'm also sure
that the configuration of the system would have allowed it to boot with a
755, and the 750C's HDD connector was certainly compatible with that of the
755 as well.

You will read in another post of mine that I have solved this problem with
an $8 adapter I picked up at CompUSA, after I learned that the drive housing
was at least somewhat easy to take apart. That's $8 more than your solution
would have cost me, but now I own yet another adapter for use in future
projects.

Can one ever really have too many adapters? :-)

Spiff

Spaceman Spiff <> wrote:
>
> Problem solved. Thanks!

I daresay a new CMOS (RTC) battery would resurrect your 750!

--
Regards,

James

Checkout the NEW Thinkpad Forums: http://forum.thinkpads.com

Spaceman Spiff <> wrote:
>
> By the way, can anyone tell me why the IBM ThinkPad 750C is not even
> listed among the types of ThinkPads listed at IBM's "Personal
> Computing Support -- Browse by Product" page?

It's too old! You can still find a lot of info about the 750 series in the
docs for the 755 series.

--
Regards,

James

Checkout the NEW Thinkpad Forums: http://forum.thinkpads.com