[Ham-Computers] RE: Removing Hard Drive Ribbon Cable Somewhat Easily??

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

Try http://www.newegg.com

Type in "round ide cable" as the search term.  Lot's to choose from, but all do basically the same thing.  Belkin is a well known "brand name" supplier if you like brand names.  Vantec, Coolmax, Thermaltake, and Link Depot are the more well known of the "generic" brands.  For what you need, any $5.00 cable should suffice.  If you want the old fashioned "flat" ribbon cable, they're also available - just search for "flat ide cable".  Round cables, especially shielded ones are the way to go these days.  Newegg has pics of most products and they're representative of the actual product, so what you see should be what you get.

For just about anything NewEgg is a great source.  Often, they're cheaper than my wholesale vendor(s).

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Removing Hard Drive Ribbon Cable Somewhat Easily??

*** snip ***

Thanks, Aaron and Frank.  Frank has a practical idea, except nobody is handy.  It's a long drive to get a suitable guy and some computer brains or finesse is needed. It reminds me when my son was helping in a computer lab at a local junior college, answering questions, etc. 
He told someone he needed to put a 5 1/4 floppy in the drive before continuing.  The guy did, but missed the slot and the floppy was wadded up in short order.  I did use that approach when I retrieved my HRO-50 from a high shelf and a SX-28 from a bottom shelf.  I'm going to limit myself to one SX-28 on a moderately high shelf or a table top.  Enough non-computer stuff.....

Aaron - since it is a Dell, the cable has pull tabs.  The tabs are not strong enough for a straight pull, but will certainly help when used with the ribbon cable. I'd really like to get replacement cables with pull tabs, but can't find any.  Any suggestions as to a source?

Jim