[FeralCom]

I have a few old IBM 2.5” drives (720MB-1.2G). The ThinkPad I used them in is long gone and I have been trying to get old files off of them for a while.

I tried with a 2.5”-3.5” IDE converter years ago when the drives were still new with no luck. Today, I tried with a new USB adapter, which failed as well.

I believe the problem is the pinout. The drvies were originally connected to another adapter, which made the drives easily swappable. However, the adapter covered all pins including the extra four.

Physically, the pins look identical to pictures I can find of recent drives.

: : : : : : : : : : : ‘ : : : : : : : : _ : :

Any ideas on how to get these drives to mount without buying an old ThinkPad?

[Xaotic]

First a question, was a HDD password set on the drive? If so, then you need to both have a compatible Thinkpad or other laptop that allows entry of the password and knowledge of the passwords. Otherwise, data recovery in Canada or the UK is the only way to get the data.

The pinouts are standard. Interface wring in the caddy is a simple passthough to a more convenient interface with the laptop. Use either adapter, with pin 1 as the top pin closest to the block of 4 pins. If this doesn't work then the drives are probably dead. Shelf death does occur within all drives. I've seen it many times on far newer drives.

[FeralCom]

No passwords were set on the drives.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if one or maybe 2 of the 3 drives went out while in storage (even though they were stored in padded ESD containers). 3 bad drives would be a shock, but it’s not like 2.5” drivers were the most dependable things back then.

The pass-through is what I am worried about because it covers all pins (including the extra 4). I am wondering if I need to find a mini-jumper (or 2) to replicate the pass-through.

Anyone have any luck using older 2.5” IBM drives (under 3 Gig) with USB adaptors or 3.5” converters?