Possible to connect this SSD to a SATA connector?

[jimmy2x2x]

I have this recovered drive from a dell mini 9 and would like to use it on a desktop pc

Anyone know what cable I would need?

Cheers

[HaRuMaN]

A motherboard with a PCIe slot.

[jimmy2x2x]

err how might that help?

[HaRuMaN]

AFAIK, that drive plugs into a PCIe slot.

[SNAAKE]

AFAIK, that drive plugs into a PCIe slot.

you should ban him for questioning you!

[HaRuMaN]

AFAIK, that drive plugs into a PCIe slot.

you should ban him for questioning you!

Rofl 

[MonMotha]

What you have there is very likely what is being called "mSATA".  Basically, it's SATA on a mini-PCIe slot.  I very much dislike this because they're not really compatible in any way whatsoever.  They just re-used the connector because it was convenient.  It would be like putting Ethernet on a USB connector "because we had a lot of them laying around" (hey, kinda like the JVS IO "standard").

If indeed this is mSATA, you could theoretically just get a special cable to hook it straight up to a normal SATA port, but I'm not sure anyone makes one.  They're intended to get dumped into specially designed laptops.  You could try hacking up a SATA cable and soldering it down to the right places on the connector, but uh, yeah.  Good luck: it's small, and it has to work at 3GHz.

If this is NOT mSATA and is in fact a real mini-PCIe card that just happens to have an SSD implemented on it (these were made, but I've never been able to find one - I'd kinda like one for my laptop, actually), then there's no way to hook it up to a standard SATA connector (because it's not SATA), but you could either put it in a standard mini-PCIe socket or buy a mini-PCIe to PCIe 1x carrier card.

Whatever you have, it's a Dell part.  Dell can probably tell you what it is specifically, but they probably won't give much help beyond "put it back in your Mini-9".

[lilshawn]

sigh... do I REALY have to do ALL the googling??


http://www.minipciessd.net/

[MonMotha]

None of those appear to be standard mini-PCIe size (either full or half).  They're all about "one and a half" size.  That's what was commonly used in the netbooks, but it won't fit in a standard mini-PCIe slot.  My recollection is that many of those are also not actually PCIe but rather mSATA or similar with a proprietary pinout.  At least nobody's ever been able to verify to me that they're actually standard mini-PCIe electrically.

[ark_ader]

Wow that looks cool.  How big is the capacity? 20gb?

[lilshawn]

What you have there is very likely what is being called "mSATA".  Basically, it's SATA on a mini-PCIe slot.  I very much dislike this because they're not really compatible in any way whatsoever.  They just re-used the connector because it was convenient.  It would be like putting Ethernet on a USB connector "because we had a lot of them laying around" (hey, kinda like the JVS IO "standard").

and then companies start wondering why the get damaged product back cause users plugged ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- into the wrong connector. THERE IS A REASON STUFF HAS DIFFERENT CONNECTORS ON THEM!!!

[jimmy2x2x]

Thanks for all the (various) information, I think I will leave it where it is

[lilshawn]

/btw they do have a mini sata to standard sata adapters available.

[rockyrocket]

So I just tried the same thing with the exact same drive, bought one of these adaptors..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/RunCore-70mm-50mm-Converter-Adapter/dp/B003BK4OZ8
And everything fits fine but it turns out the drive uses pata (it is infact described as a pata ssd) so no it did not work.
Shame as I had plans for it!.