Laptop HDs in a tower?

[Kaitain]

I've been left with the task of getting all the data that presently resides on a pair of 2 1/2" laptop ide hard discs onto the tower PC destined to replace the laptop.

Now, I'm familiar with wedging 3 1/2" HDs onto a 2 1/2" ide port, from my days as an Amiga user, however I have no recollection of the reverse being attempted.

What I need to know is this: 2 1/2" drives were powered from the IDE interface; when fitting a 3 1/2" device onto one of these, additional power was supplied direct from the PSU via a conventional molex connector and the system worked fine. Do the 3 1/2" IDE channels provide enough juice to spin up a 2 1/2" drive w/o causing damage to either the mobo or the drive?

This would make setup of the newer system so much easier. They only need to survive for about an hour before they can be returned to their intended function.

Alternatively: I remember hearing about a way of linking 2 SCSI interfaces together to form a sort-of-network a la laplink. Both computers have SCSI-2 ports - can anyone direct me to a FAQ on this sort of link?

TIA

[Jazz]

Yea they make a 3.5 to 2.5 dongle. They are about 10 bucks and they use a molex plug to give the laptop drive power. Funny looking adapter but i have used them before and they work well.

[Aedan]

Been there a few times doing data recovery.

Try Simply Computers . They have a cable that has a 2.5 inch IDE interface one end, and a standard IDE pinout with a molex connector at the other. Part number is BID210, and can be found at http://www.simply.co.uk/shop/search.asp?query=BID210 - price when I looked was 3.99 ex

Just ensure you plug the cable in the correct way around!

AidanII