Laptop Hard Disk Power Connection

minesweeper · 02-27-2003, 11:24 AM

Hi,

Does anyone know how the power is supplied to the hard drive of a laptop? I have one and the only connection it has is the IDE cable. So can I infer from this that the power is supplied from the motherboard through the IDE and not from a PSU?

If this is the case, will it be so simple as to plug in the IDE and away we go, everything works fine?

ober · 02-27-2003, 11:47 AM

I don't do much work on laptops, and don't own my own, but I have a hard time believing this. There almost has to be some sort of other power sources, UNLESS, some of the pins of the IDE are for power!?

minesweeper · 02-27-2003, 11:55 AM

Yeah well that's what I was thinking. I am half inclined to plug it in and see but I thought I would post and see if anyone had some experience with them and could give a definitive answer.

TravisS · 02-27-2003, 01:16 PM

How new is your laptop? Are you sure it's the normal sized IDE cable, and not the new serial (

) conectors? The serial ones are smaller than standard IDE by a lot, and I'm pretty sure they also supply the power.

I don't work on laptops either, so that's my best guess

scott27349 · 02-28-2003, 08:37 AM

power is supplied through the ide on just about all laptop hard drives, they done it that way to conserve power.

TravisS · 02-28-2003, 01:08 PM

scott, do you know if standard desktop IDE channels supply power too? This sounds kinda intersting to me, I've never worked on a laptop before.

scott27349 · 03-01-2003, 12:24 AM

yes they supply power, but they only cut on the chipset so to speak.for the most part the only reason for a power cable on a BIG desktop hard drive is to actually turn the disk inside the drive because it uses so much power. its somewhat like a lan crossover cable. they tell you to hook up 8 wires, but only 4 of them are used (all 8 of them were used in legacy devices). anyway, theres a big differance in laptop hard drives and desktop hard drives.

02-27-2003, 11:24 AM	#1
minesweeper Funniest man in this seat Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 801	Laptop Hard Disk Power Connection Hi, Does anyone know how the power is supplied to the hard drive of a laptop? I have one and the only connection it has is the IDE cable. So can I infer from this that the power is supplied from the motherboard through the IDE and not from a PSU? If this is the case, will it be so simple as to plug in the IDE and away we go, everything works fine?
minesweeper is offline

02-27-2003, 11:47 AM	#2
ober 5\|-\|1+\|-\|34\|) Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 4,429	I don't do much work on laptops, and don't own my own, but I have a hard time believing this. There almost has to be some sort of other power sources, UNLESS, some of the pins of the IDE are for power!?
ober is offline

02-27-2003, 11:55 AM	#3
minesweeper Funniest man in this seat Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 801	Yeah well that's what I was thinking. I am half inclined to plug it in and see but I thought I would post and see if anyone had some experience with them and could give a definitive answer.
minesweeper is offline

02-27-2003, 01:16 PM	#4
TravisS Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 536	How new is your laptop? Are you sure it's the normal sized IDE cable, and not the new serial () conectors? The serial ones are smaller than standard IDE by a lot, and I'm pretty sure they also supply the power. I don't work on laptops either, so that's my best guess
TravisS is offline

02-28-2003, 08:37 AM	#5
scott27349 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 98	power is supplied through the ide on just about all laptop hard drives, they done it that way to conserve power.
scott27349 is offline

02-28-2003, 01:08 PM	#6
TravisS Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 536	scott, do you know if standard desktop IDE channels supply power too? This sounds kinda intersting to me, I've never worked on a laptop before.
TravisS is offline

03-01-2003, 12:24 AM	#7
scott27349 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 98	yes they supply power, but they only cut on the chipset so to speak.for the most part the only reason for a power cable on a BIG desktop hard drive is to actually turn the disk inside the drive because it uses so much power. its somewhat like a lan crossover cable. they tell you to hook up 8 wires, but only 4 of them are used (all 8 of them were used in legacy devices). anyway, theres a big differance in laptop hard drives and desktop hard drives.
scott27349 is offline

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Strange hard disk	GanglyLamb	Tech Board	20	03-01-2003 04:05 AM
hard disk space and spyware	oldmancan	A Brief History of Cprogramming.com	5	01-23-2003 01:24 AM
truely Cleaning a hard disk	xds4lx	A Brief History of Cprogramming.com	29	01-23-2003 12:37 AM
how to store a node on hard disk	ALLRIGHT	C Programming	3	05-13-2002 10:11 AM
program to check hard disk transfer rate	shadow99er	C Programming	3	03-01-2002 05:04 PM