x41 hard drive - HELP!

My wife's x41 stopped booting - power light comes on, fan turns on but that's it. No display so I can't see if I can boot into the BIOS or not. I'm not sure what's up but my first order of business is seeing if I can save the data on the hard drive (in hopes that the motherboard failed).

I thought I could put it into the 2nd hd bay of my t400 except the bay is SATA rather than IDE. Could I try putting the hd into my T400 and see if it boots? Or perhaps I should just buy a USB/IDE connector and hope I can get the data off it?

I do own 2 external USB hard drives - I'm going to check the connections to see if they would work or not. They are meant for desktop-sized drives - would the voltage ruin the proprietary laptop hd?

thanks!

 

The T400 uses a different drive connector. It's too big anyway. My guess would be you can probably buy some sort of USB case for the drive and get the data off that way. Unless someone's got a better solution?

 

I found the hard drive that's in it currently: FRU 39T2533 for IBM ThinkPad

No way I'd pay $270 for it. If I could figure out the connector/case then that would be easiest. I'm not sure I want to fix it or not. Mobos seem to be $145+, not sure if it would be worth the effort or not.

 

Maybe something like this would work: Amazon.com: Vantec CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter Supports 2.5-Inch, 3.5-Inch, 5.25-Inch Hard Disk Drives (Black): Electronics

I'm assuming that even though the laptop is a non-standard size/shape that the connection is still a standard IDE.

 

These drives use the standard IDE connection. You can get a second hand x41 for around 150 dollars mark.