Using laptop HD on desktop, no power felt.

Hello,

I'm trying to connect a laptop IDE hard drive onto a PC and
read it.

I'm using an IDE laptop to desktop drive adaptor. I connect this
adaptor into the laptop drive's pins, and then the PCs power connector
and IDE cable to it.
I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive. Motor doesn't spin.
I hear nothing.
I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't get the motor spinning on
any one of them.
I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside down, it would have
worked the other way.

Any idea to read that drive?

The reason why doing this is I've got a laptor with password on
Windows, and password on BIOS. So I want to format the drive with the
PC, then put it back in the laptop, and in some way, clear BIOS
password as well.

Thanks for any help.
Luc

XYLOPHONE wrote

> I'm trying to connect a laptop IDE hard drive onto a PC and read it.

> I'm using an IDE laptop to desktop drive adaptor.
> I connect this adaptor into the laptop drive's pins, and
> then the PCs power connector and IDE cable to it.
> I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive.
> Motor doesn't spin. I hear nothing.

> I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't
> get the motor spinning on any one of them.

That likey indicates that the drives arent getting power.

> I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside
> down, it would have worked the other way.

> Any idea to read that drive?

You do realise that the laptop drive gets its power on the pins on the
end of that connector dont you ? The 2.5/3.5" adapter shoud have a
power connector on pins at the end of the connector and you need to
connect that to the PC molex power connector, the nylon 4 pin connector.

If you had that initially, you may have killed the drive by connecting it backwards.

> The reason why doing this is I've got a laptor with password on Windows,
> and password on BIOS. So I want to format the drive with the PC, then
> put it back in the laptop, and in some way, clear BIOS password as well.

Its rather more complicated than that if the ATA password has been set on the drive.

XYLOPHONE <> writes:

> I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive. Motor doesn't spin.
> I hear nothing.

Laptop drives can be very quiet so you might not hear them spin up.
But there is a slight vibration you can usually feel.

> I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't get the motor spinning on
> any one of them.
> I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside down, it would have
> worked the other way.

If you connected the drive wrong the first time, the adaptor may
be broken now. It's been a while, but this happened to me once, one of
the leads on the adapter blew, but a little solder fixed it... And
after that I at least knew which way was not the right way.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc XYLOPHONE <> wrote:
> Hello,

> I'm trying to connect a laptop IDE hard drive onto a PC and
> read it.

> I'm using an IDE laptop to desktop drive adaptor. I connect this
> adaptor into the laptop drive's pins, and then the PCs power connector
> and IDE cable to it.

Ok.

> I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive. Motor doesn't spin.
> I hear nothing.
> I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't get the motor spinning on
> any one of them.

Suspicuous.

> I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside down, it would have
> worked the other way.

Thoretically this should not kill the drive because most manufacturers
disconnect the ground pins on the other side of the connector to
allow this. But you should avoid it nonetheless.

> Any idea to read that drive?

First, it is possible the PC has an issue, e.g permanent reset or
the like. The drives should auto-spin (unless they were explicitely
set not to) if you just apply power and not connect the IDE cable.

It is possible you did kill them all with the reversed adapter, but
I doubt it. Also notice that laptop drives can be very quiet.

> The reason why doing this is I've got a laptor with password on
> Windows, and password on BIOS. So I want to format the drive with the
> PC, then put it back in the laptop, and in some way, clear BIOS
> password as well.

Ah, do you have perhaps a _drive_ password in the BIOS? E.g.
ThinkPads do this as theft prevention. It basically makes the drive
and PC worthless. You can get access to the data, but expect to pay a
lot. In this case you can also forget aboit clearing the BIOS
password, its in the TPM and very difficult and expensive to clear,
possibly several hundred or thousand times the machines residual
worth. This could also explain why the drive does not spin.

Arno

Arno wrote:
> In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc XYLOPHONE <>
> wrote:
>> Hello,
>
>> I'm trying to connect a laptop IDE hard drive onto a PC and
>> read it.
>
>> I'm using an IDE laptop to desktop drive adaptor. I connect this
>> adaptor into the laptop drive's pins, and then the PCs power
>> connector and IDE cable to it.
>
> Ok.
>
>> I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive. Motor doesn't spin.
>> I hear nothing.
>> I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't get the motor spinning
>> on any one of them.
>
> Suspicuous.
>
>> I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside down, it would
>> have worked the other way.
>
> Thoretically this should not kill the drive because most manufacturers
> disconnect the ground pins on the other side of the connector to
> allow this. But you should avoid it nonetheless.
>
>> Any idea to read that drive?
>
> First, it is possible the PC has an issue, e.g permanent reset or
> the like. The drives should auto-spin (unless they were explicitely
> set not to) if you just apply power and not connect the IDE cable.
>
> It is possible you did kill them all with the reversed adapter, but
> I doubt it. Also notice that laptop drives can be very quiet.
>
>> The reason why doing this is I've got a laptor with password on
>> Windows, and password on BIOS. So I want to format the drive with the
>> PC, then put it back in the laptop, and in some way, clear BIOS
>> password as well.
>
> Ah, do you have perhaps a _drive_ password in the BIOS? E.g.
> ThinkPads do this as theft prevention. It basically makes the drive
> and PC worthless. You can get access to the data, but expect to pay a
> lot. In this case you can also forget aboit clearing the BIOS
> password, its in the TPM and very difficult and expensive to clear,
> possibly several hundred or thousand times the machines residual
> worth. This could also explain why the drive does not spin.

Doesnt explain why NONE of the laptop drives spin in the desktop system.

Its MUCH more likely that none of them are getting any power for some reason.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Fred <> wrote:
> Arno wrote:
>> In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc XYLOPHONE <>
>> wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>
>>> I'm trying to connect a laptop IDE hard drive onto a PC and
>>> read it.
>>
>>> I'm using an IDE laptop to desktop drive adaptor. I connect this
>>> adaptor into the laptop drive's pins, and then the PCs power
>>> connector and IDE cable to it.
>>
>> Ok.
>>
>>> I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive. Motor doesn't spin.
>>> I hear nothing.
>>> I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't get the motor spinning
>>> on any one of them.
>>
>> Suspicuous.
>>
>>> I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside down, it would
>>> have worked the other way.
>>
>> Thoretically this should not kill the drive because most manufacturers
>> disconnect the ground pins on the other side of the connector to
>> allow this. But you should avoid it nonetheless.
>>
>>> Any idea to read that drive?
>>
>> First, it is possible the PC has an issue, e.g permanent reset or
>> the like. The drives should auto-spin (unless they were explicitely
>> set not to) if you just apply power and not connect the IDE cable.
>>
>> It is possible you did kill them all with the reversed adapter, but
>> I doubt it. Also notice that laptop drives can be very quiet.
>>
>>> The reason why doing this is I've got a laptor with password on
>>> Windows, and password on BIOS. So I want to format the drive with the
>>> PC, then put it back in the laptop, and in some way, clear BIOS
>>> password as well.
>>
>> Ah, do you have perhaps a _drive_ password in the BIOS? E.g.
>> ThinkPads do this as theft prevention. It basically makes the drive
>> and PC worthless. You can get access to the data, but expect to pay a
>> lot. In this case you can also forget aboit clearing the BIOS
>> password, its in the TPM and very difficult and expensive to clear,
>> possibly several hundred or thousand times the machines residual
>> worth. This could also explain why the drive does not spin.

> Doesnt explain why NONE of the laptop drives spin in the desktop system.

Hmm. The password thing does not. However a damaged PC controller
could.

> Its MUCH more likely that none of them are getting any power for
> some reason.

It is. That being the obvious first thing to check, I refrained
from commenting on it.

Arno

Arno wrote:
> In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Fred <> wrote:
>> Arno wrote:
>>> In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc XYLOPHONE <>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>
>>>> I'm trying to connect a laptop IDE hard drive onto a PC and
>>>> read it.
>>>
>>>> I'm using an IDE laptop to desktop drive adaptor. I connect this
>>>> adaptor into the laptop drive's pins, and then the PCs power
>>>> connector and IDE cable to it.
>>>
>>> Ok.
>>>
>>>> I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive. Motor doesn't
>>>> spin. I hear nothing.
>>>> I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't get the motor spinning
>>>> on any one of them.
>>>
>>> Suspicuous.
>>>
>>>> I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside down, it would
>>>> have worked the other way.
>>>
>>> Thoretically this should not kill the drive because most
>>> manufacturers disconnect the ground pins on the other side of the
>>> connector to allow this. But you should avoid it nonetheless.
>>>
>>>> Any idea to read that drive?
>>>
>>> First, it is possible the PC has an issue, e.g permanent reset or
>>> the like. The drives should auto-spin (unless they were explicitely
>>> set not to) if you just apply power and not connect the IDE cable.
>>>
>>> It is possible you did kill them all with the reversed adapter, but
>>> I doubt it. Also notice that laptop drives can be very quiet.
>>>
>>>> The reason why doing this is I've got a laptor with password on
>>>> Windows, and password on BIOS. So I want to format the drive with
>>>> the PC, then put it back in the laptop, and in some way, clear BIOS
>>>> password as well.
>>>
>>> Ah, do you have perhaps a _drive_ password in the BIOS? E.g.
>>> ThinkPads do this as theft prevention. It basically makes the drive
>>> and PC worthless. You can get access to the data, but expect to pay
>>> a lot. In this case you can also forget aboit clearing the BIOS
>>> password, its in the TPM and very difficult and expensive to clear,
>>> possibly several hundred or thousand times the machines residual
>>> worth. This could also explain why the drive does not spin.
>
>> Doesnt explain why NONE of the laptop drives spin in the desktop
>> system.
>
> Hmm. The password thing does not. However a damaged PC controller could.

Nope, the drives will spin up even when the PC controller is
completely dead and clearly the boot drive is still working fine.

>> Its MUCH more likely that none of them are getting any power for
>> some reason.

> It is. That being the obvious first thing to check, I refrained from commenting on it.

On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:00:01 +1000 "Fred" <> wrote in
Message id: <>:

>Nope, the drives will spin up even when the PC controller is
>completely dead

Not always true.

Thanks for all your replies.

The main issue here is to be able to use the laptop. I don't care
about
data on the drive.

To give more clues, here is in more details what I notice.

- The drive works when I put it back in the laptop.
- Booting the laptop with a different drive, known to boot on another
laptop, gives a blank screen with cursor in top left corner, and
freezes, probably because wrong BIOS setting since different type/
brand, but BIOS is not accessible.
- Booting from floppy or CD fails. BIOS probably bypasses those boots,
and is not accessible.
- Booting with the original drive brings XP, but asks for password in
all cases (safe mode, command line as well).

So I can't even just get to a DOS prompt, because I once found on
Internet a way to clear BIOS password using DEBUG commands, in the
case just a floppy boot would allow to attempt. I did not consider
opening the laptop and trying to find the CMOS battery or jumper,
because I don't know exactly where it is and don't want to damage
anything by accident.

I'm also puzzled about the adaptor, why no power is felt. I know
laptop drives are quiet, but I really felt nothing, not even a tiny
vibration. The adaptor has a 44-hole female end that matches the 44
pins on the laptop drive. However there are 4 more pins on the laptop
drive that are not covered by the adaptor, which are separated from
the rest by a space. Since IDE is normally 40 pins, I assume the power
is already included in the 44-pins covered, and the 4 extra pins (not
covered by adaptor) are for jumpers. (Anyways, if this had been power,
how would I connect since it's not covered by adaptor?). The other end
of the adaptor gives a standard 40-pin male IDE which is into the IDE
cable to controller, and there is are extra 2 wires for power that
lead to a separate white plastic connector that connects to the
standard large 4-hole power connector. However only 2 of these are
wired: the red and the black, as opposed to other desktop devices
which uses 4 wires for power. I assume it's enough to power the laptop
drive.

Again, thanks for any advice on the laptop issue, and the adaptor
mystery.

On Jul 16, 3:00*pm, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
> XYLOPHONE wrote
>
> > I'm trying to connect a laptop IDE hard drive onto a PC and read it.
> > I'm using an IDE laptop to desktop drive adaptor.
> > I connect this adaptor into the laptop drive's pins, and
> > then the PCs power connector and IDE cable to it.
> > I turn on the PC, but hear no power in the drive.
> > Motor doesn't spin. I hear nothing.
> > I tried with many laptop drives, and I can't
> > get the motor spinning on any one of them.
>
> That likey indicates that the drives arent getting power.
>
> > I tried the connector both ways, so if it's upside
> > down, it would have worked the other way.
> > Any idea to read that drive?
>
> You do realise that the laptop drive gets its power on the pins on the
> end of that connector dont you ? *The 2.5/3.5" adapter shoud have a
> power connector on pins at the end of the connector and you need to
> connect that to the PC molex power connector, the nylon 4 pin connector.
>
> If you had that initially, you may have killed the drive by connecting itbackwards.
>
> > The reason why doing this is I've got a laptor with password on Windows,
> > and password on BIOS. So I want to format the drive with the PC, then
> > put it back in the laptop, and in some way, clear BIOS password as well..
>
> Its rather more complicated than that if the ATA password has been set onthe drive.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc Trent <.****off> wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:00:01 +1000 "Fred" <> wrote in
> Message id: <>:

>>Nope, the drives will spin up even when the PC controller is
>>completely dead

> Not always true.

Well, when it is completely dead, then yes. But these things never
die completely and often assert some funky signals like a permanent
reset.

Arno