Notebook HD adapters

Since my notebook is having problems connecting to the hard drive and because the screen has died, I'm obviously having problems wiping the drive before I send it back to HP.

I know that Vantec has a 2.5" IDE to USB 2.0 adapter, but the HP drives are on that little tray with the "teeth" adapter attached to the IDE connector. With an under warranty machine, I really don't feel like removing the HD from that tray. Does anyone know of any other adapter that will allow me to go from USB to the HP "teeth" adapter so I can wipe my drive from my desktop?

 

Removing your HDD will not void your warranty. No one makes an HP specific adapter - talk about a tiny market share.

 

The little HP adapter can be removed from the HDD. After you remove that, you'll be able to purchase a 2.5" IDE to 3.5" IDE adapter and use it on the HDD.

Here is an adapter that will work:

http://www.cablesonline.com/44pinto40pin.html

When you look at a 2.5" IDE HDD, you will see 4 pins that are separate from the standard 40pin interface. If you look at the adapter in the hyperlink above, you want to make sure that you connect the end of the adapter that has the power opposite of those 4 separate pins. If you don't, you'll fry your HDD.

Once you have this converted connected, you can connect your laptop HDD to any standard 3.5" IDE channel. Realize that Laptop HDD's are automatically set to be the primary master of the channel and, for the most part, they only like to work when they are the only device on the IDE channel.

If I didn't describe everything clear enough let me know and I can go into more details. If you have any other questions let me know.