ata-5 connections

[Guest]

The motherboard of my sister's laptop has failed and I want to reclaim the data from the hard disk which is a Hitachi DK23FB-40 with an ATA-5 interface. I have a cable to connect the drive to my PC's ATA port but the cable doesn't have a blank in the connector to correspond with the missing pin on the drive's connector. Which way round does the ribbon cable go? In other words, which end is pin 1? Is it the end near the Master/Slave selection pins or the other end?

 

[price_th]

Although there may be and indicator of pin 1 on the circuit board, that cable may not work with a laptop drive. If need be you can get a ATA to USB adapter for not too much money. Also try going to Hitachi's web site they may have a manual for the drive with that info.

 

[womble]

If I recall correctly most laptop IDE drives have the pins a little closer together than their desktop cousins, also the power might be supplied by a few pins.

Last time I did this I just had a dig around on Amazon/Ebay and came up with an adaptor that only cost a few pounds. I used a basic IDE/IDE one but there should be plenty of USB versions too.

Karl