Which pins on a harddrive are for power

[jeffreyd]

I need to know what pins on the hdds motor are power i just want to use the motor

 

[sminlal]

I'd suggest that you plug the drive in and use a voltmeter on the motor pins to see what's what.

 

[fzabkar]

A HDD motor has three windings. The motor controller IC spins the motor by energising each pair of windings in sequence. You can't just apply 12V to a winding and expect the motor to turn.

The following datasheet describes how it all works.

L7250, SMOOTH, spindle motor + VCM controller, ST Microelectronics:
http://wandrew.regruppa.ru/PCInfo/TechDoc/L7250(Smooth).pdf
http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/SGSThomsonMicroelectronics/mXyuswx.pdf

Datasheets for HDD motor controller ICs:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/HDD_Motor_Control.html

 

[sminlal]

The following datasheet describes how it all works.

Very interesting - thanks for those links! You're a fountain of knowledge - I wish you were sitting on my bookshelf so I could refer to you any time I wanted!