Micro hard disk interface

Thread Starter

boby4u

Joined Jun 1, 2007
26
once upon a time I had a media player named creative zen vision m.
I loved it but after connecting that to the usb of my friend`s pc it was dead.
now I have disassembled it.only a small ic is brown so it`s motherboard became out of order.
but it`s mini hard disk drive(toshiba) with 30gb capacity is compeletly healthy.
I have put it out.now I want to use it but really don`t know how.
the hdd has a 50pin output i think it`s IDE port.look at the picture i have captured.
excuse my webcam for it`s poor quality.





now I want to know if there is any IDE to usb adaptors so I can use this hdd.
one important notice is that, it had a connector (THIRD PICTURE) with 44 pins that was connected to this IDE socket
and the other side to it`s motherboard.6 pins were free,not connected to anywhere.
please inform me how can I use this mini hard disk as an external portable storage device.

thanks
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
USB is supported by a fairly elaborate communications protocol. It would not be as simple as a hardware adaptor. There just about had to have been a microcontroller in between handling the data transfer.

There are any number of readily available microcontrollers that will handle USB comms, but you will have to be able to do some hardware assembly and programming to be able to make the little drive work again as an external portable.

Have you put the drive onto a computer's IDE cable to establish that it's still good? The 50 pins in the connector makes me think of SCSI instead of IDE.
 

Thread Starter

boby4u

Joined Jun 1, 2007
26
thanks for your reply
this is the link for the mini hard disk user guide.

http://sdd.toshiba.com/techdocs/MK3006GALuserguide.pdf

I don`t know wether it is IDE or SCSI
these are the spec for this disk:

Data Transfer Rate:
Buffer to Host- PIO 16.6MB/sec
Buffer to Host- Ultra DMA 100MB/sec
Maximum Internal 131.1 - 283.3 Mbits/sec

Interface Connector
Drive Side Connector MCD-D50 Series by DDK Connectors
Recommended Host Side Connector MCD-D50 Series by DDK Connectors

now I see it needs a circuit board like a ram reader board to transfer data to the
computer.
the slot is smaller than the ide of my mainboard and dose`nt fit there.
the interface signals are in the pdf file but I think I would not be able
to write an assembly code for programming the microcontroller.
it seems hard to me.
I called the agency of my media player he told me that there is some kind of
mini hard reader for notebooks that has a usb output .
I look forward a pre-prepared circuit, I wish I could find it somewhere.

thanks
 

ashokcp

Joined Mar 8, 2007
50
That looks like a std laptop 2.5" ide hdd. This has 44 pins interface. Other pins are presumably, master/slave, cable select, etc., You could try search in the name of external hdd casing, or usb casing. I use a casing called Zippys with 120GB HDD. There are plenty of these available, and, very inexpensive. Here in India, it is available for about Rs.800 (US$20) for transcend. There are some chinese ones at half the price. I hope this info will be useful to you. In case you require any details I will be glad to provide you with.
 

Gadget

Joined Jan 10, 2006
614
Thats what I thought at first as well, but it looks like a socket on the back of the drive rather than then standard 2 rows of pins
 

ashokcp

Joined Mar 8, 2007
50
The PIO, UDMA are all making it clear it's an IDE drive. SCSI drives normally sport transfer rates from (good old) 40 MB/s, 80, 160 etc., towards the Ultra SCSI2.
It could be better if there is another image as you say that it's not clear though.
 

ashokcp

Joined Mar 8, 2007
50
Hi Gadjet, I didnt notice the socket. After a close look at the picture, and, your msg, I realised this. I went thro' the .pdf, and, on search landed up on one of this.



1.8" USB 2.0 Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure for Toshiba 1.8" Drives

Hard to find drive enclosure to fit Toshiba 1.8" drives with female connector. Keep in mind that Toshiba 1.8" drives are not same as regular Hitachi 1.8" drives. Hitachi 1.8" drives have the same pin configuration as the 2.5", while Toshiba 1.8" drives use their own special pin connectors.

And, that explains the female connector in the drive.
 
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