[cctalk] Re: ATA-3 50-pin IDE

On Mar 26, 2023, at 13:20, Paul Berger via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: I have seen lots of laptop drives that would fit a 50 pin connector that is about 2mm pitch Looking at the back of the drive from the left there are 44 pins in a group then 2 pins missing and the remaining 4 are for selecting master and slave. Paul. > On 2023-03-26 4:33 p.m., Steve Lewis via cctalk wrote: > Is anyone familiar with the 50-pin IDE interface, which I think is called > ATA-3? It is from around 1997-2002. Normally IDE is 40-pin, or in > laptops might be a 44-pin. > > But in a COMPAQ Presario 1220, I've come across its hard drive that is > using this 50-pin interface (two rows of 25-pin that are quite > small/tightly spaced - moreso than even PCMCIA). > > I believe it is different (electrically) than the 1.8" 50-pin interface. I > ordered a CF-to-50-pin adapter that is intended for those 1.8" drives, and > it won't work on this ATA-2 port (system won't boot with it inserted). > However, all my CF cards are larger than 2GB - so I'm not sure if that was > the issue (don't think so, I think even with 8GB or larger it would still > at least try to boot). > > > The 2GB drive in this Presario (with the "weird' 50-pin IDE) contains > Windows ME and Office 2000. That's cute, but I'm not so interested in that > - I was hoping to image that drive for archive, then install something else > (OS2). But I can't find any "ATA-3 to normal 40-pin IDE" adapter. > > I think the "6 extra pins" on this 50-pin (relative to normal 44-pin laptop > drives of those days) -- 2 of those pins (5-6) aren't used (maybe a kind of > key) and the 4 others (1-4) are vendor specific. So I may just be out of > luck here in upgrading or replacing this drive with a more modern > solution. But wanted to run it by the crew here before giving up. > > Thanks, > > -Steve / v*