Hard drive cases/connectors

[uwe@odb.rhein-main.de (Tim Vetter)]

John Kim wrote:

>Say, since you've overflowing with all this info on the TP drives, do you
>know where we can buy a case for it, or where we can buy the funky little
>connector inside the case?  (Actually, I've tracked down the plug at the
>drive end, it's just the cable and the TP plug I need)

Does this mean if we got hold of the TP-end plug we could connect up a drive
*without* the case?  Presumably the cable itself is trivial, just normal
ribbon stuff -- all that's needed is the plugs at either end.  I know it's
not a clean tidy solution having a naked drive rattling around inside your
portable, but I for one would tolerate it for the sake of hundreds of
dollars of savings on a drive expansion.

Furthermore, is it conceivable then that this would allow attachment of
arbitrary IDE drives, ie by running the ribbon cable outside the TP's
housing, or are the electrical characteristics of TP drives unique somehow
(aside from the normal considerations of power-draw).

Tim