Hot Swappable IDE (Make your HD, a USB Drive)

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Apr 29, 2008. 8:44 AMrupertoshe says:

Help pls..............,////
How did the IDE cable connect to the usb, is there something like a converter in the external CD ROM drive that does this thing and what do we call that thing? Why i ask this is because, I am confused how did a 40pin IDE cable transform into a 4pin usb cable and still be read by the computer. I mean can you post another instructable how it does it. Thank you and pls post it here so i can find it.

Dec 8, 2008. 7:48 AM

boyrock375 says:

with the external cd drive uses an external chip that came with the external cd drive so just unhooked the cd drive and pluged in the hard drive

Nov 24, 2008. 8:12 AMgbaughma says:

All this turns out to be is gutting an external USB CDRom (which has a USB/IDE converter and power supply inside of it) and replacing it with an IDE hard drive. You can find USB HDD Enclosures for about $15 nowadays.

Dec 30, 2008. 3:34 PMimkwl12345 says:

wait wat where? lol i want one! where can i get one and im guessin u can plug the HD into it and a power supply and then you can plug it into the computer so its basicly having a 120 GB usb stick. or external HD

Dec 31, 2008. 7:04 AMgbaughma says:

OR.... why use a PC at all?

I just found a box that is an external laptop drive enclosure, BUT it plays media files as a stand-alone unit, even with a remote!

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GP-MED25-BLK&cat=CSE

Dec 31, 2008. 7:01 AMgbaughma says:

Some of them, you don't even need to plug into the power supply. The smaller laptop USB enclosures are powered off of the USB port.

Check out:

http://www.geeks.com/products_sc.asp?cat=1027

Jan 5, 2009. 7:23 AMths (author) says:

This was posted on 2006, 3 years after it make sense that stuff are cheaper ;p like a USB enclosure.

Sep 28, 2008. 3:13 AMDerin says:

they cut 34 wires(sarcasm)

Aug 10, 2008. 10:25 AMUnit042 says:

This is a good idea, but each step could use a bit more detail. From what I understand, the USB external CD-ROM drive has a built in power adapter and IDE to USB signal converter, and we are simply taking out the CD drive so that we can use the converters for our hard drive. Am I correct, or did I miss something? (Not being sarcastic)

Aug 8, 2008. 10:57 PMabadfart says:

dude its ok u should see my Spanish

Feb 11, 2008. 1:25 PMBC-45 says:

you guys should tells us how to bild a hard drive adapets with the energy thing that turn in to a USB connetion sow we can make are own portalble USB hard drives that would be cool

Jan 22, 2008. 7:17 AMCeltic Davey says:

Any way 2 do this without the old CD drive? I've seen cables on the net that go from IDE to USB can 1 of these be made @ home? I no there cheap but Im interested in making my own I can get power from the transformer from my old PC just need a data cable

Jan 28, 2008. 11:44 AMironsmiter says:

ok, reviving an old instructable... but here goes. the short and sweet, yes. you can. hook up the cable, hook up the power, and plug it in. Even for a ghetto hack, you'll probably want to at least create a plastic cover for the circuit board side of the drive. Can let the drive body take care of the rest. to do this with a cheap usb/ide cable, you're going to need different supplies, depending on your harddrive. If it only takes 5 volt(most 2.5" HDD's with a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter OR the 2.5 to usb cable) you MAY be able get away without any external power supply. just plug the cable into the drive, and then into usb port, and the OS should find it(may need to install the software that came with the cable) If the HDD can run off only the 12 volt power.. all is not lost. A 12V wallwart can drive the power(just wire into a molex connector correctly). If the HDD requires both 5 and 12 volt.... you'll need a power supply, and a box to put it in. Basically what you would be doing is making your OWN homebrew external cddrive.

Jan 30, 2008. 3:00 PMCeltic Davey says:

cheers man

Dec 30, 2006. 9:14 AMMr.Devious says:

Sigh, I commend your effort of making this, but... You know what, this is common sense, just common sense and a small amount of tech. knowledge. This is not a hot swapable ide drive, you cannot unplug the ide cable and attach another hd while the interface board is on can you? Nah, didn't think so, all this is, is a ide interface board turning the hd into a usb drive, thusly, it's hot swappable usb and nothing more. And everyone should know most usb devices are hot swappable. Please try to make an instructable next time that isn't based amoung common sense please. And if you get pissed off at me, don't this is what's called contructive critisism

Mar 22, 2007. 10:51 AMths (author) says:

I'm able to remove the USB cable without putting the drive off, so how do you call that ? you said yourself, HOT SWAPPABLE USB

May 14, 2007. 11:23 PMinertia18 says:

The HDD will not function if did not put or format it with copy system file option coz the computer will not recognize it. pls refer to another intructableson this:)

Oct 5, 2007. 7:07 AMths (author) says:

if you use windows, you will be able to see the drive under Computer Management and Disk Management, and you are able to format it , partition it or do whatever you need to do to it, if you need a tutorial How to use Computer Management there is plenty of tutorial on google.

Apr 16, 2007. 3:41 AMbinnie says:

its just a cheap way for a removeable hdd but using an old hd from a comp

Dec 19, 2006. 1:48 PMmark101 says:

looks great!

Aug 1, 2006. 2:32 PMalexdcd says:

Or save the cost and get a usb to ide adapter and keep in ur repair kit or desk, i live in England and bought one from maplin electronics, but a good stateside alternative would be http://www.usbgeek.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=0208

Nov 2, 2006. 6:13 PMARVash says:

sure.. but the point is you don't have to buy anything. just find a chucked CD drive.

Aug 1, 2006. 4:57 PMXsimonXcoreX says:

I just looked at that site and that thing looks awesome. What about power? Does the usb cable supply the power for the HDD for both laptop HDDs and desktop HDDs?

Aug 1, 2006. 7:32 PMmikesty says:

Nope, only for laptop drives it supplies power. For the desktop, you can either buy their external adapter or make your own or just extend the molex out of the case. $12 is a pretty good price, I'm looking to probably buy four of them for a project in the near future.

Aug 1, 2006. 4:16 PMwperry1 says:

I've got one of these and they are great to have around. you can even connect to laptop drives and CD-ROMs

Aug 6, 2006. 9:23 PMtrebuchet03 says:

've never had a problem running my machines without the covers on... I mean yes... if you spill your not so dry - dry martini into an open running box... its going to cause trouble... but as far as assembling a system and testing - its never caused me trouble....

Oct 13, 2006. 7:09 PM

zachninme says:

Ditto, although my new computer has a little switch that prevents you from running the computer without the cover. Nothin a little duct tape can't fix :-P. But mann, the dell's are so compact, and yet roomy... I hate it! Use'st to the roomyness of cases ment for homebuilt computers... Wow that went off-topic... But... yeah. Good instructable!

Aug 8, 2006. 9:25 AMths (author) says:

I dont know why you said that you never had trouble with a pc without cover, noone wrote something about the PC cover ? The only thing with cover in it, is the step 6, and I wrote (close the cover, if you want). It wasnt about a PC, but about the External CD ROM.

Aug 14, 2006. 8:59 AMSilas says:

This is pretty neat..
I've took the liberty to add this instructable, to the makezine.com group.

I've done a related instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/EGIH4S56QXEQHOA2V2/?ALLSTEPS

Aug 2, 2006. 7:40 AMths (author) says:

I can connect this thing on any computer, any laptop, anything with USB HD support, even Playstation 2 and Xbox, without modifying anything. Without having to get power from the power supply.

Aug 1, 2006. 12:04 PMmdmoose29 says:

very cool idea. simple but works well. this could come in handy for someone like me running a shuttle xpc that only has one disk drive! :)

Aug 1, 2006. 11:46 AMths (author) says:

Yeah I know this picture is blury, my camera had hard time. What I did here I just remove the old cable for the IDE, and I put mine, and I add the extender for the power (but I know some External USB drive doesnt allow to remove that cable, so you will need to leave the cover open)

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