I've salvaged a 1.8" HDD - Now What?

[Wyoming]

Well I found my old Creative Zen Vision: M lying around today, and its screen is completely broken so after some quick googling and a few tutorials later... I have a nice HDD in my possession:

Hitachi Travelstar 30 GB 4200rpm
Model Number: HTC426030G5CE00

So now what do I do? The thing has a zif connector, not something I'm at all familiar with but apparently I can get an adapter to USB from a hard disk enclosure.

I've thought about putting it inside an Asus EEE, these drives are obviously fairly rugged and it's also small enough that with some slight modification to the chassis I can get one inside...

Lastly, does anyone have any data on the read/write speeds for these things? If it's nippy enough I might use it as an external hard drive. Or as the basis for some sort of mod to make an incredibly small PC in some sort of household object.

[Funkstar]

It's going to be a loooong way from being a speed deamon thats for sure.

You should be able to get an adapter to convert it to a standard 2.5" or regular IDE connector.

[staffsMike]

No point using it the EEE is will be painfully slow if it works, especially if you are used to an SSD.
It'll be fine for an external hard drive though assuming you can get it to work.

[keef247]

couldn't you just of kept it in the creative and just used it as backup storage? would of saved alotta hassle...

[Wyoming]

couldn't you just of kept it in the creative and just used it as backup storage? would of saved alotta hassle...

In the creative you have to use the software of the MP3 player requiring me to turn it on, and select "removable disk" mode, which I have managed by random luck before but doesn't make it very useful as a backup. I can also only use 16 GB of the drive for data storage.

I've had a look at EEE mods with 1.8" HDDs, they're trickier than I first thought, and would apparently mean a high chance of bricking my EEE.

So I'm now looking at making something very, very small. A PC which is just a low lying box. No optical drives (I have an external drive I'll use) and all passively cooled (or just very quiet) to run 24/7 and it would only need a network port, a few USB ports and a VGA port for occasionally connecting a monitor. So I was thinking about a SoA system, which I can probably make with parts off the bay cheaply, and I already have some spare bits.

Any micro ATX boards for SoA going around, what good passive cooling can I get for a SoA CPU and what small, stable, quiet PSUs can I use?

[dave87]

I'd go the Mini ITX route, and use the 30gb as storage, perhaps a compact flash card as the boot drive. Then you would have the rest of the bits you wanted - Network VGA and USBs.

[TheAnimus]

Nano ITX is also an option, getting even smaller, Pico ITX!

[SiM]

Just sell it... its not worth the hassle...

[MadduckUK]

USB 2.0 1.8" Toshiba (iPod) Hard Drive Enclosure Case on eBay, also, Hard Disk Drive Cases, Laptop Accessories, Computing (end time 24-Jan-08 19:56:10 GMT)

1.8" enclosure something like that?

[capt_cornflake]

In the creative you have to use the software of the MP3 player requiring me to turn it on, and select "removable disk" mode, which I have managed by random luck before but doesn't make it very useful as a backup. I can also only use 16 GB of the drive for data storage.

Maybe the firmware can be replaced? There are various open source firmwares for MP3 players , although I have to confess I'm not familiar with any for Creative players.
I use Rockbox which would allow you to use as an external drive with no intervention (and get at the whole drive space), but there are no Creative ports.

Not sure if there is anything suitable, but may be worth a look

[keef247]

yer isn't their alternative firmwares for the creatives?
i have a 40gb zen you could have for a small fee if you want?

[Wyoming]

USB 2.0 1.8" Toshiba (iPod) Hard Drive Enclosure Case on eBay, also, Hard Disk Drive Cases, Laptop Accessories, Computing (end time 24-Jan-08 19:56:10 GMT)

1.8" enclosure something like that?

I'd get the blue version floating around on ebay, which is an asian import but specifies that it works with hitachi drives. That one only says toshiba and the drives may have different dimensions. Not a risk I want to take.

I may just gut the enclosure for the adapter and use it in some project, what's looking more likely is buying a Zif to IDE adapter and using it as a drive in a very small PC or as a spare internal hard drive.

I'm not going to sell it, without buying this stuff I don't know whether it's still working and thus can't guarantee its worth. The screen is broken, it's not useful even with a new firmware.

I've been looking at micro, nano and pico boards. The picos look too expensive and perhaps even too small. So it's a nano or micro. The micros seem much more affordable (I'm looking to build the system for sub-£100 or up to £200) and my main concern is not the width and length of the system, but the height. I'll use a motherboard tray from an old ATX case and I'll just make a custom case to go over the system. It just needs to house the motherboard (and attached components), PSU and the tiny hard drive.

I'm not looking for power, this thing will be used as storage (with some external hard drives wired down below my desk or into the bottom of my wardrobe) and possibly as a dedicated server for Teamspeak2/3.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

[Wyoming]

yer isn't their alternative firmwares for the creatives?
i have a 40gb zen you could have for a small fee if you want?

Thanks, but this player is from a pile of old PC junk I was looking through in my room. I bought a replacement player immediately after I broke the first.

[nick_1]

If you are looking at a small system for that drive I was tempted by one of these a while back:
(FX5620 VIA EDEN 1Ghz £296.51) LinITX.com - FX5620 VIA EDEN 1Ghz 6 NIC Firewall/Router Platform - 1xGigaLAN + 5x10/100
or
(Light CV860A 533 MHz Fanless £204.53) LinITX.com - Light CV860A (533 MHz Fanless) - 1 NIC

I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much though so I expect they are probably more than you want to spend. (And where is the fun in a pre/part built box!)

Also if you get one of those you'll need a the correct zif to 2.5" disk adapter like this one: www.span.com - IA18Z - Convert 1.8" HD (ZIF) to IDE (44pin laptop type). Includes 1x ZIF Cable - ATA Accessories - IDE Adapter Convert 1.8" HD (ZIF) to IDE (44pin laptop type). Includes 1x ZIF Cable

Nick

[baius]

(What's Green, plastic, has a round base (sometimes square), and is about a metre high - yes, that's right. A wheelie bin. THAT's "what"...)

No seriously, have you found a use for it, yet? I only saw one the other day and they're tiny... You could have a collection of HDDs up on your wall; eventually, when they fail on you, you could get the 'whole set':

• MicroSD
• MiniSD
• SD
• CF
• 1.8"
• 2.5"
• 3.5"
• 5" (if you can find one)

Yeah, you could get quite a display going... what do you think?