[rescue] SCSI/IDE laptop adapters

[Michael Parson]

On Sun, Aug 26, 2007 at 07:56:40AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> From: der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
>> Date: 2007/08/25 Sat PM 08:12:40 CDT
>> To: port-sparc at netbsd.org, port-macppc at netbsd.org, port-mac68k at netbsd.org, 
> 	rescue at sunhelp.org, cctalk at classiccmp.org
>> Subject: [rescue] SCSI/IDE laptop adapters
>
> <snip>
>
>> I did some searching and found there was a company that made an adapter
>> that fit next to a modern (thin) laptop drive, so the result was a
>> somewhat thickish "disk" that still fit within the old laptop form
>> factor - but which spoke SCSI to the host even though the disk was IDE.
>> Most of them were fairly expensive, but there was one that looked
>> reasonable.  The vendor that was said to carry it, though, no longer
>> does (I phoned them and asked), so I wrote to the manufacturer.
>>
>> They offer to sell them to me at US$65 apiece, quantity 10.  I'm
>> willing to pay that rate, but I have no need for more than maybe two.
>> So I'm wondering if people would be interested in buying these off me
>> (at my cost, which probably means about USD 70 including shipping, at
>> least within US48+CA).
>
> That price is pretty reasonable, IMHO, but...
>
>> The device in question is the Century CHB25INT, as described in
>> http://online.century.co.jp/BittradeTest/e_shop/chb25int.html.
>
> As I read the description, I am concenred about what size
> drives the adapter really takes, and how big the resulting
> "new drive" is. They seem to have mixed the descriptions
> between their 2.5" adapter (above link) and their 3.5" adapter
> (http://online.century.co.jp/BittradeTest/e_shop/chb35int.html) - they
> refer to the 3.5" part in the 2.5" description.
>
> As I recall, for most installations, you would want an adapter that
> would attach to a 2.5" laptop drive and increase the thickness of the
> drive+adapter to no more than 17mm. This adapter would take a 9.5mm
> drive and make it a 21.5mm thick drive - which may be fine for some
> applications, but for drives that need to be installed in HD trays, it
> may be too big...

I have one of these adaptors in my Tadpole Sparcbook 3GX.  It makes
a 'low profile' (9.5mm?)  2.5" drive about the same thickness as the
older, thicker (12 mm?) drives, which is how thick the drive was that I
pulled out of it.

For $70, put me down for one, I paid, I think $125 for the one I got.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org