[trains are bad]

I have an old laptop that I'm trying to turn into a picture frame. I already got DSL so that it will load completely into ram as soon as I boot. Then, I can grab the HDD and yank it out because it's not doing anything (it's far too noisy to leave running).

Bizzarely, there is an option in the BIOS to in 'power options' to turn the HDD off after a certain amount of time when on battery power. The option is there for AC power too, but it's greyed out! So as far as I can tell, there's no way to power down the HDD when on AC mode, unless there's some way of tricking the lapop into thinking it's running on battery.

 

[Wired_Gargoyle]

You may be able to only do this through the OS. Specifically, Windows allows you to customize the power profile to shut down a variety of things when running on battery/AC at certain times.

 

[trains are bad]

this thing has only 64mb ram. Hence running DSL. However I found out that in linux one can use hdparm -Y *device* to shut off the HDD, which should be all I need.

 

[BradJudy]

Is the laptop new enough to allow booting off of USB? If so, remove the HD, put DSL on a USB thumbdrive and boot from it.

 

[trains are bad]

O wow, as usual, the planets have really aligned to make his project impossible for me. First of all, the HDD sounds like a rattlesnake orgy, so there's no way I can use a conventional install.

Cool, I'll just go into the BIOS power saving options and tell it to sleep the hard drive as much as possible. Surely it won't need to spin the HDD when playing a picture slideshow. O wait, the BIOS power saving options won't allow HDD sleeping when on AC power.

Fine, I'll get an IDE-to-CompactFlash adaptor, and install on that. But wait, the computer DOESN'T HAVE AN IDE hdd interface, rather some ATA-5 interface, which I cannot find an adaptor for at any price anywhere. I have never seen such. It has 44 pins, but I don't know if they line up to normal IDE pins, so even if I felt like soldering 44 30 guage wires to the connector, I don't know if it would work.

Cool, I can just install onto a USB drive! But wait, the computer won't boot from a USB drive.

Fine, I'll install onto the HDD, use GRUB to boot from the USB drive. But wait, apparently GRUB can't see the USB drives even, contrary to every normal computer I've ever seen.


So apparently I might as well throw this thing in the trash, even after having spent $25 bucks on a nice shadowbox frame and matte.

 

[marvin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trains are bad /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fine, I'll get an IDE-to-CompactFlash adaptor, and install on that. But wait, the computer DOESN'T HAVE AN IDE hdd interface, rather some ATA-5 interface, which I cannot find an adaptor for at any price anywhere. I have never seen such. It has 44 pins, but I don't know if they line up to normal IDE pins, so even if I felt like soldering 44 30 guage wires to the connector, I don't know if it would work.

ATA-5 is a newer iteration of the original ATA/IDE interface and is electrically compatible with other ATA/IDE drives. The connector you have on there is a 44 pin IDC connector common to many notebook hard drives, which combines the 40 pin ATA/IDE interface with 4 more pins for power. Pinout is here.

This is probably what you're looking for. 44 pin IDC to CF adapter.

 

[trains are bad]

Quote:

This is probably what you're looking for. 44 pin IDC to CF adapter.

That doesn't look at all like the plug that I have.

The picture in that link actually looks like what I consider a 'normal' 44 pin 2.5" hdd connector. Like the connector on my IDE-to-usb adaptor.

The plug I have has 44 pins, but is a bizarre, strange plug, quite unlike the normal 2.5" laptop Ide plug.

I googled the model number of my drive and it said it was ATA-5

 

[devin_mm]

Do you need something like this?

Embedded 44-pin IDE-CF Adapters for Notebook from Addonics

If I am wrong maybe you should post a picture of the connection.

 

[trains are bad]

Well, I need a IDE-to-CF adaptor like that.

But, that kind of NORMAL ide plug like those adaptors have will not work. Because my HDD has some bizarre, DIFFERENT plug on it.

It's a plug that I've never seen before. But it has 44 pins. I would post a photo, but I don't have a digital camera. And I can't find a picture online anywhere, because I think I have the ONLY hdd on the PLANET with this connector.

 

[devin_mm]

what's the model number of the HD?

What notebook is this that you are using?

 

[marvin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trains are bad /img/forum/go_quote.gif That doesn't look at all like the plug that I have. The picture in that link actually looks like what I consider a 'normal' 44 pin 2.5" hdd connector. Like the connector on my IDE-to-usb adaptor. The plug I have has 44 pins, but is a bizarre, strange plug, quite unlike the normal 2.5" laptop Ide plug. I googled the model number of my drive and it said it was ATA-5

Hmm, is there an adapter on the drive? Also, you have the drive model or pictures of the connector on the drive?

 

[trains are bad]

the HDD is a fujitu

model:mhk2120at
ID:htin

Since I didn't anticipate any problems, I didn't think anything of throwing away all the laptop parts that have model numbers on them. But it was an IBM notebook with a docking station, and an external CD drive with proprietary connector.

Actually, if my wife comes home for lunch I can use her phono to take a picture.

 

[devin_mm]

Hmm... taking a look at the hard drive it looks like a typical 44 pin drive with four extra pins to select master/slave CSL etc....

Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[marvin]

Yep, datasheet for the drive says it's a standard 44 pin PC/AT connector. Only thing I can think of is that the hard drive is slotted into a cage with an adapter.

 

[trains are bad]

AHA

Indeed.

I have been duped.

The connection to the motherboard is indeed Strange and Terrible IBMness. As is the connection to the hard drive.

However upon closer inspection, it is possible to yank on said very strange connector, that is on the hard drive. It will come off, revealing a normal IDE interface. In other words, this hard drive featured an integral weird-plug adaptor, and I can apparently steal that to use for a IDE-to-CF adaptor. Since the weird-plug had much less insertion force, and the integral weird-plug-to-ide adapter had very high insertion force, I had only assumed it was integral with the hard drive.


So in other words, there is no thread here. Move along now. Nothing to see.....