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Non-standard hard drive connectors in Dells?

Forum Systems : Dell - Non-standard hard drive connectors in Dells?

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Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I had a hard drive fail on a Dell Dimension, less than 1 year old. I open it
up to remove the failed 160GB hard drive - and lo and behold both the power
and data connectors are ones I've never seen before. Usually they have a
Molex power connector and a 40-pin ribbon cable connector. But these new
data connectors use far fewer pins.

What are these connectors, and are these typical on large HD's or a Dell
proprietary connector? Are there any adapters available should I wish to
install a "standard connector" HD or mount the Dell HD in a different machie
to retrieve data?

Add a reply

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

They're likely SATA drives. Pretty much all new machines have SATA drives.

Why not get a new drive under warranty?

As for other drives, you can get an adapter to connect an 'traditional'
drive (PATA) to your SATA connector. You can also get a PCI SATA card for
other machines.

Tom
"DesignGuy" <dontbother@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:uyHCd.751789$mD.167808@attbi_s02...
>I had a hard drive fail on a Dell Dimension, less than 1 year old. I open
>it
> up to remove the failed 160GB hard drive - and lo and behold both the
> power
> and data connectors are ones I've never seen before. Usually they have a
> Molex power connector and a 40-pin ribbon cable connector. But these new
> data connectors use far fewer pins.
>
> What are these connectors, and are these typical on large HD's or a Dell
> proprietary connector? Are there any adapters available should I wish to
> install a "standard connector" HD or mount the Dell HD in a different
> machie
> to retrieve data?
>
>
>
>

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Did you order a Serial ATA hard disk for your computer?

Ted Zieglar

"DesignGuy" <dontbother@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:uyHCd.751789$mD.167808@attbi_s02...
>I had a hard drive fail on a Dell Dimension, less than 1 year old. I open
>it
> up to remove the failed 160GB hard drive - and lo and behold both the
> power
> and data connectors are ones I've never seen before. Usually they have a
> Molex power connector and a 40-pin ribbon cable connector. But these new
> data connectors use far fewer pins.
>
> What are these connectors, and are these typical on large HD's or a Dell
> proprietary connector? Are there any adapters available should I wish to
> install a "standard connector" HD or mount the Dell HD in a different
> machie
> to retrieve data?
>
>
>
>

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

DesignGuy wrote:
> I had a hard drive fail on a Dell Dimension, less than 1 year old. I
> open it up to remove the failed 160GB hard drive - and lo and behold
> both the power and data connectors are ones I've never seen before.
> Usually they have a Molex power connector and a 40-pin ribbon cable
> connector. But these new data connectors use far fewer pins.
>
> What are these connectors, and are these typical on large HD's or a
> Dell proprietary connector? Are there any adapters available should I
> wish to install a "standard connector" HD or mount the Dell HD in a
> different machie to retrieve data?

Probably a SATA drive - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA

Eventually these will replace PATA drives (the new name for the old IDE
drives with the molex and ribbon cable).

HTH,

Pete.

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"DesignGuy" <dontbother@nowhere.com> wrote:
>I had a hard drive fail on a Dell Dimension, less than 1 year old. I open it
>up to remove the failed 160GB hard drive - and lo and behold both the power
>and data connectors are ones I've never seen before. Usually they have a
>Molex power connector and a 40-pin ribbon cable connector. But these new
>data connectors use far fewer pins.

Could this be SATA (Serial ATA) connections?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"DesignGuy" <dontbother@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:uyHCd.751789$mD.167808@attbi_s02...
> I had a hard drive fail on a Dell Dimension, less than 1 year old. I open
it
> up to remove the failed 160GB hard drive - and lo and behold both the
power
> and data connectors are ones I've never seen before. Usually they have a
> Molex power connector and a 40-pin ribbon cable connector. But these new
> data connectors use far fewer pins.
>
> What are these connectors, and are these typical on large HD's or a Dell
> proprietary connector? Are there any adapters available should I wish to
> install a "standard connector" HD or mount the Dell HD in a different
machie
> to retrieve data?

Thanks to all who posted. After reading the Wikipedia entries and looking at
the photos, the drive is a SATA unit. I'd never seen one before, which is
what threw me for a loop.

Thanks again.

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

In article <uyHCd.751789$mD.167808@attbi_s02>, dontbother@nowhere.com
says...

> I had a hard drive fail on a Dell Dimension, less than 1 year old. I open it
> up to remove the failed 160GB hard drive - and lo and behold both the power
> and data connectors are ones I've never seen before. Usually they have a
> Molex power connector and a 40-pin ribbon cable connector. But these new
> data connectors use far fewer pins.

<snippety>

Welcome to the Wonderful World of SATA drives.

In other words, Serial ATA.

Sorry... I still prefer SCSI.

--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute.
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, ARS KC7GR,
kyrrin (a/t) bluefeathertech[d=o=t]calm -- www.bluefeathertech.com
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped
with surreal ports?"

Reply to Anonymous

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