Hey guys. Hoping someone can help me out here... Doing a little job fixing a friend's Dell Latitude laptop. Loaded with the sasser virus and what I'm thinking is more than her fair share of bots. I've given up on trying to solve it from a software stance, so I'm gonna wipe the drive. First, obviously, I need to get off necessary data. So here's my question: Does anyone know anywhere I can find/order an ATA5-to-IDE converter online? The HD is an IBM Travelstar 40GN IC25N020ATCS04 with what Hitachi (who now makes the model) calls an ATA-5 interface. A few summer's ago, at a help desk job I had, I found and purchased one for a customer. Now I can't find anything. Anybody have any ideas? I've looked about everywhere... Note: This is NOT a normal 40-to-44 pin 2.5"-to-3.5" IDE converter.

What exactly is it you require? ATA5 is part of the IDE specification, as it ATA4 or ATS3. There is no conversion necessary. AT Attachment. A disk drive implementation that integrates the controller on the drive itself. There are several versions of ATA, all developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee: ATA: Also known as IDE, supports one or two hard drives, a 16-bit interface and PIO modes 0, 1 and 2. ATA/33:Also called Ultra ATA, Ultra DMA, UDMA and DMA-33, supports multiword DMA mode 3 running at 33 MBps. ATA/66:Version of ATA proposed by Quantum Corporation, and supported by Intel, that doubles Ultra ATA's throughput to 66 MBps. ATA/100:Version of ATA proposed by Quantum Corporation, and supported by Intel, that supports 100 MBps If you are looking to connect the laptop disk to a desktop, you can get converters to do so, but it will still be IDE/ATA. Its just the physical connections that are different. A search of Google will bring up many suppliers. Stuart

Thanks, Stuart. Guess I got my terminology wrong... It is the physical connection that's the issue. The Travelstar has a card-like connection to the laptop. Hitachi's website only states an "interface" as ATA-5... not sure what the physical connection would be called. It looks like a circuit board sticking out of the drive, i.e. it doesn't have pin connections. If Dell uses/used the connection type for their laptops and IBM based an entire line of laptop HDs on it, I would think that a converter wouldn't be an issue, but I've googled my butt off looking for something that'll work. Anybody come across anything like that? Pardon the poor description, but I'm not the most tech-details-saavy guy.

Have a look at this thread, see if there is anything ther that can help you: http://zurich.csail.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/2003-10/0722.html Stuart

Stuart, AHA! THAT brings back memories. I do remember having to take off some casing when I dealt with this issue last. Please forgive my forgetfulness... it has been 2 years since I did any IT/Help Desk stuff.