How to get data off MP3 player HD that never had a windows format

[TechNoob4Ever-1331358]

Ok so let me introduce you to my little hard drive:

Seagate ST1.2 8GB Compact Flash, P/N 9AN417-220. It came out of a Creative Labs Zen MicroPhoto MP3 player. This MP3 player has it's own format and it's not a windows format, nor is it one that Windows can recognize when the HD is connected as an external HD. I have no idea what the name of this format is.

The MP3 player no longer powers on and the internal circuitry is falling apart anyway so it's not worth keeping. But the music and files are.

Now, when I attempt to sync the Seagate to my computer as an external hard drive using the following adapter ("1.8-inch ZIF LIF (iPod) Hard Drive Enclosure Case for Toshiba Hitachi Seagate Samsung Drives with ZIF-40 Connector")...

...the drive simply overheats and never spins up. When I test this adapter with a Toshiba MK3006GAL hard drive, which has the same number of pins as the Seagate, the drive boots up and syncs with my computer and does not overheat. This leads me to believe that this particular adapter is either the wrong one for my Seagate, or I am connecting the Seagate to the adapter incorrectly. However, there is no other way to connect the Seagate to the adapter because if I flip the hard drive over the other way, it can't go on because the drive is physically too big that way and bumps up against the adapter's circuit board.

So my question is, then, how can I get the files off of this hard drive onto my computer?

 

[popatim]

You need a Compact Flash adapter for the microdrive (ie - one compatible with microdrives), not a 1.8" harddrive adapter. I hope you didn't burn out the microdrive.

edit - as for data recovery I dont know it its the same as the zen micro video player or not but if it is then the only way to get the data off is to buy another working player and put your drive in it and then connect it to the pc. There is no software that can read the zen's file system (at least not the zen video player)

 

[TechNoob4Ever-1331358]

You need a Compact Flash adapter for the microdrive (ie - one compatible with microdrives), not a 1.8" harddrive adapter. I hope you didn't burn out the microdrive.

Ok I was beginning to suspect this.

edit - as for data recovery I dont know it its the same as the zen micro video player or not but if it is then the only way to get the data off is to buy another working player and put your drive in it and then connect it to the pc. There is no software that can read the zen's file system (at least not the zen video player)

But there are apparently programs that can read an unformatted, raw hard drive? I thought that if raw drives could be read, then drives formatted to non-windows file systems could also be read.

 

[fzabkar]

The numbers of pins don't make sense to me.

Your photos appear to show an adapter with a 40-pin ZIF CE connector and a 50-pin CF (CompactFlash) connector. The USB port provides the +3.3V power via a 3-terminal LDO regulator IC (U1).

According to pages 31 and 32 of the manual, the Toshiba MK3006GAL HDD has a 44-pin ATA interface.

TOSHIBA Hard Disk Drive Specification 1.8 inch HDD MK6006GAH/4006GAH/3006GAL Rev. 04:
http://www.mtcusa.com/hdd/toshiba/mk3006gal.pdf

However, your Seagate ST68022CF drive has a 50-pin CF interface, while the ST68022FX has a 45-pin flex cable.

ST1.2 Series Installation Guide ST68022CF, ST68022FX, ST66022CF, ST66022FX, ST64022CF,
and ST64022FX:
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/iguides/ce/ST1%20Series/100375653a.pdf

ST1.2 Series Product Manual ST68022CF/ST68022FX/ST66022CF/ST66022FX/ST64022CF/ST64022FX:
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/external/photo/100375652a.pdf

Here is a pinout for a 40-pin 1.8" ATA/SATA ZIF connector (not sure if it matches yours):
http://pinoutsguide.com/HD/ata_sata_zif_pinout.shtml

 

[TechNoob4Ever-1331358]

The numbers of pins don't make sense to me.

Your photos appear to show an adapter with a 40-pin ZIF CE connector and a 50-pin CF (CompactFlash) connector.

I was a dum-dum and didn't realize that the CF one had 50 pin holes. Now that I know that, I can buy a CF adapter to connect it to my computer, but there's still the other half of the equation: will I be able to recover the files...

 

[fzabkar]

I can't answer your question.

In any case, you still haven't explained how you managed to get your 40-pin/50-pin adapter to work with a 44-pin Toshiba drive.

 

[TechNoob4Ever-1331358]

I can't answer your question.

In any case, you still haven't explained how you managed to get your 40-pin/50-pin adapter to work with a 44-pin Toshiba drive.

Oh, I just counted the Toshiba MK3006GAL's holes; there are 50. And my adapter has 50 pins as well. If the Toshiba only uses 44 of them, then I'm assuming that in this particular application, 6 are not required. Boots up and syncs with the computer just fine, so it is what it is.

 

[fzabkar]

OK, that explains it. It appears that there's something wrong with Toshiba's documentation because it definitely shows a 44-pin connector. But that's what one would expect of a 2.5" IDE drive ???

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[fzabkar]

Here's another error:
http://www.webteufel.com/HP/ThinClient/HP-Compaq_T5730/MK3006GALUserGuide-Rev02.pdf

Page 6 shows a photo of a 50-pin connector and describes the connector as "MCD-50 Series by DDK Connectors". Obviously that's 50-pin, yet the very next page lists the pinout for a 44-pin 2.5" IDE interface.

 

[fzabkar]

Just to confuse things even more, DDK has 44-pin and 50-pin versions of its MCD-D50 connectors.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080128170341/http://c1158x6k.securesites.net/English/products/print/mcd_d/index.html