Miniature Hitachi Travelstar HDD to USB

RobertKaucher

I have friend with a miniature HDD from inside a JVC hand-held camcorder. The HDD has a ribbon interface. Does anyone know if there is a USB adapter for these devices?

veritas_libertas

When you say miniature, do you mean smaller than a laptop HDD? Is it maybe a Compact Flash HDD?

RobertKaucher

It is about 2/3 the size of a laptop HDD and was plugged into the device via a ribbon cable. It very clearly has platters and spins. It is not a flash based disk.

veritas_libertas

RobertKaucher wrote: »

It is about 2/3 the size of a laptop HDD and was plugged into the device via a ribbon cable. It very clearly has platters and spins. It is not a flash based disk.

Right. They do make HDD's work in CF slots, and I was wondering if this was one of those. I was going to post an example photo, but Google Images failed me...

RobertKaucher

I'll post some photos, Google has failed me as well. The first shows it next to a laptop drive.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6IAC_cu-e0RaVl2dUJwTW5Kd3M
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6IAC_cu-e0ROGRrcENuQ05vUGM

veritas_libertas

Your second link 404'd on me for some reason. Interesting looking hard drive. I've never seen one like that before.

RobertKaucher

I had forgotten to set it to public. You should be able to see it now.

WafflesAndRootbeer

Yes, the adapters do exist, but they are not common products. You will have to dig for them on the net. They are ZIF to USB/SATA adapters or at least that's what I believe should be the appropriate one based on what you've said here.

RobertKaucher

Thanks, Waffles! One of my friends had one and we were able to rescue the guy's videos. The JVC camcorder had been at the bottom of a large lake when a boat sank!

Here is what the adapter looked like with the ribbon cable.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6IAC_cu-e0RYWRfdVhkSkFqZFk

NoTime2Burn

Gotta love them ZIF hdd's. Had to deal with an older macbook air that had one with a smaller ssd.