Using old laptop drive

[Ron]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Anyone take an old drive out of an unused laptop and use it for backing
up on the road? I have a ten gig drive in a Sony Vaio subnote which I
assume is a 1.5 inch one. Presumably I could get an enclosure with power
supply and run it through USB port, or connect
with Delkin Bridge?????????? Anyone have experience doing this? Anyone
rigged up a portable power supply???

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Ron wrote:
>
> Anyone take an old drive out of an unused laptop and use it for backing
> up on the road? I have a ten gig drive in a Sony Vaio subnote which I
> assume is a 1.5 inch one. Presumably I could get an enclosure with power
> supply and run it through USB port, or connect
> with Delkin Bridge?????????? Anyone have experience doing this? Anyone
> rigged up a portable power supply???
>
> Thanks.

You can buy enclosures for 2.5" drives that are USB 2.0 and are powered
through the USB port. (I don't know if 1.5" drives would adapt.)

-Dave

 

[ECM]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I use an old 2.5" 6 GB drive in a Sabrent enclosure from Newegg.com
with my Delkin Bridge. The Delkin doesn't have near enough power to run
the drive, though; it'll just sit there and click. My enclosure is
powered from the USB bus, so I found a battery charger called the USB
Pocket Power Bank. It charges my NiMH AAs (does a good job, too -
includes a "recycle" cycle to rejuvenate old batteries) and then uses
them to supply up to 1000mA through a USB port - more than enough to
power the HDD:

http://store.yahoo.com/semsons-inc/pocpowban.html

Also useful to power other USB devices like my Palm.....

Alternatively you can get an enclosure with it's own power supply -
check around, they tend to be expensive. Also, there are devices I saw
recently at CompUSA that you can slip an old notebook HDD into:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=317410&pfp=BROWSE

- so actually a bit cheaper than the Delkin bridge, a card reader, and
an external enclosure all together.

ECM

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Sorry, not possible.
Keep the computer and get a card reader to plug into the computer.
There are i-pod like units that can read flash cards and back them up to an
internal hard drive but good ones are still in the $500 range.
Most likely they will be half that price by the end of the year . . .

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 15:56:34 GMT, "bmoag" <apquilts@pacbell.net>
wrote:

>Sorry, not possible.
>Keep the computer and get a card reader to plug into the computer.
>There are i-pod like units that can read flash cards and back them up to an
>internal hard drive but good ones are still in the $500 range.
>Most likely they will be half that price by the end of the year . . .


See the many interesting storage
and backup devices at

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/


Most of these are built around small
notebook sized hard drives. A unit
with a 20G hard drive included can
be had for about $170.

"Drive-less" units can be had for
around $70 to $80.


rafe b.
http://www.terrapinphoto.com

 

[Ron]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Thanks guys. Was hoping....The computer is truly on its last legs -- bad
power supply, ports not working correctly. I never use it. I will yank
the drive an put it in an enclosure and simply use it for backup off my
computers. Found an enclosure on eBay for well less than twenty bucks,
including postage. Having done this with a standard size drive I'm sure
I find use for this one. I do have some other portable devices,
including a flash drive and hard drive MP3 player I can use, as well as
another tiny Vaio.

rafe bustin wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 15:56:34 GMT, "bmoag" <apquilts@pacbell.net>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Sorry, not possible.
>>Keep the computer and get a card reader to plug into the computer.
>>There are i-pod like units that can read flash cards and back them up to an
>>internal hard drive but good ones are still in the $500 range.
>>Most likely they will be half that price by the end of the year . . .
>
>
>
> See the many interesting storage
> and backup devices at
>
> http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/
>
>
> Most of these are built around small
> notebook sized hard drives. A unit
> with a 20G hard drive included can
> be had for about $170.
>
> "Drive-less" units can be had for
> around $70 to $80.
>
>
> rafe b.
> http://www.terrapinphoto.com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Ron <rgood@netzero.com> wrote:

> Anyone take an old drive out of an unused laptop and use it for backing
> up on the road?

Yup. I put my old iBook drive in a MacAlly USB/Firewire enclosure.
It stores an extra backup of photos while I'm on the road. But they're
copied from the computer, not over a USB bridge.

> I have a ten gig drive in a Sony Vaio subnote which I assume is a 1.5 inch
> one. Presumably I could get an enclosure with power supply and run it
> through USB port, or connect with Delkin Bridge?????????? Anyone have
> experience doing this? Anyone rigged up a portable power supply???

The Delkin web page shows the bridge being used to burn CDs, of all
things.

The deal is that USB is powered, but the power coming from the bridge
might or might not be enough to run your hard drive and its enclosure.
Some enclosures have a DC 5v in plug, which you can power from a wall
wart, or a battery. It all depends on the enclosure you get, and whether
you can plug it into a wall or use a battery with it.

I'm waiting for USB 2 versions of the various sync products.

 

[ECM]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Paul Mitchum wrote:
> Ron <rgood@netzero.com> wrote:
>
> > Anyone take an old drive out of an unused laptop and use it for
backing
> > up on the road?
Snip
> The Delkin web page shows the bridge being used to burn CDs, of all
> things.

The Delkin can burn CD's, but only if you've got a more recent external
burner - within the last 3-4 years. It needs to actually "plug-n-play"
with a WinXP or Win2K computer, no special drivers need be installed,
in order for it to be compatible.

> The deal is that USB is powered, but the power coming from the bridge
> might or might not be enough to run your hard drive and its
enclosure.
> Some enclosures have a DC 5v in plug, which you can power from a wall
> wart, or a battery. It all depends on the enclosure you get, and
whether
> you can plug it into a wall or use a battery with it.
>

Too true - the Delkin Bridge has 2 AA batteries - not near enough to
supply power through it's USB port.

> I'm waiting for USB 2 versions of the various sync products.

The one from CompUSA I mentioned in my last post - the Mediagear
FlashHD-to-go enclosure - claims to be USB 2.0. For some reason, the
link I posted earlier isn't working right now, but you can still see a
small pic of it at:

http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?N=200000+406768+10&Ne=500000

ECM

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Ron wrote:
> Anyone take an old drive out of an unused laptop and use it for
backing
> up on the road? I have a ten gig drive in a Sony Vaio subnote which I

> assume is a 1.5 inch one. Presumably I could get an enclosure with
power
> supply and run it through USB port, or connect
> with Delkin Bridge?????????? Anyone have experience doing this?
Anyone
> rigged up a portable power supply???

Get a Vosonic VP3310 or VP300. Shouldn't cost more than $85. It can
take a laptop HDD and has a built-in CF/MMC/SD card reader. So you can
backup your CF/MMC/SD cards on the move to your laptop HDD. Also plays
MP3

- Siddhartha

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:14:47 -0500, Ron <rgood@netzero.com> wrote:

> Thanks guys. Was hoping....The computer is truly on its last legs -- bad
> power supply, ports not working correctly. I never use it. I will yank
> the drive an put it in an enclosure and simply use it for backup off my
> computers. Found an enclosure on eBay for well less than twenty bucks,
> including postage. Having done this with a standard size drive I'm sure
> I find use for this one. I do have some other portable devices,
> including a flash drive and hard drive MP3 player I can use, as well as
> another tiny Vaio.

Though it is possible, by the sounds of it the laptop has had a hard life. I
wouldn't trust the old hard drive to last long. You can buy new 40 gig laptop
drives for a very reasonable price these days.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

In article <JrmSd.9686$BB.3418@fe03.lga>, Ron <rgood@netzero.com>
wrote:

> Anyone take an old drive out of an unused laptop and use it for backing
> up on the road? I have a ten gig drive in a Sony Vaio subnote which I
> assume is a 1.5 inch one. Presumably I could get an enclosure with power
> supply and run it through USB port, or connect
> with Delkin Bridge?????????? Anyone have experience doing this? Anyone
> rigged up a portable power supply???
>
Why go to all that trouble when you can pop down to the local camera
store and buy yourself a Apacer Disc Steno? Not only can you back up
cards more than once, but you can use this as an external CDR
burner/reader during the rest of the year. CDRs cost peanuts these days
- I usually buy a spindle of 100 800mb discs for around $19.