Dear Ask-a-Nerd.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Dear Nerds,

I have a 200GB/7200rpm/8M Samsung SATA 1.5Gbps hard drive sitting here. I haz no particular skillz or desire to build a whole system around it. Is there any way I could hook it up to my current system and use it as an external HDD?

Sincerely,


Idjit

http://peripherals.about.com/od/removab ... intext.htm

Ah. Yeah, I found that page earlier. Problem is that I've got a Samsung Sens G25 http://www.itechnews.net/2007/07/21/sam ... tebook-pc/, which is a mutant. It's made like a huge-mongous laptop, but it's only semi-portable, in the sense that it doesn't have a battery like a laptop. Is there any way to make the necessary connections w/out breaking into the case? I'm thinking not...

Um, yes, very nice. Quite fucking nice. Sure you don't want to break into the case?

[FBM]

Um, yes, very nice. Quite fucking nice. Sure you don't want to break into the case?

I'd love to dive into that laptop.

But am I right in assuming there are no adapters that could make the external ports on this thing serve to hook up the drive?

[Calilasseia]

Temporary derail ...

Having found out about the bug photos purely by accident, this creature (which someone else has identified as Arilus cristatus is known as the Wheel Bug, courtesy of that strange thoracic protrusion which resembles a gear wheel. That bug is begging for a Photoshop steampunk makeover.

Now, back to our scheduled thread.

As to the internal hard drive to external hard drive conversion, it would require a lot of work. I don't know about SATA hard drives, but I suspect that with regard to power input, internal drives intended to live inside a desktop PC case have the same power connector as the older PATA drives (the ones that used to be called IDE or EIDE in the days before SATA existed). The power connectors for hard drives and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives have 4 wires attached to them, and each wire carries a different voltage. Which means you'd have to replicate that power supply to the drive, and the only way I know of doing that is to buy yourself a full-blown PC power supply unit and plug it into that. Then, you have all the fun of finding a way of interfacing the data connector to the outside world in such a way as to enable you to plug it into a USB port. Now, if SATA ports are compatible with USB ports signal wise, then this might not be a problem, but if they're not, you're looking at designing some fairly intricate electronics to provide the interfacing. Possibly involving putting together your own circuit board (and designing the thing from scratch using appropriate software), interfacing a brace of interesting ICs together to provide the signal conversion, and then testing the damn thing to make sure it doesn't blow up on you, preferably using a drive that you don't intend to use long term. Then, you've got to parcel the whole thing into a box, and provide it with an external power cable to run the PSU. If the drive is a fast spinning one, you might consider sticking a big fan on top of it to keep it cool, and building some nice ventilation slots into the box the whole setup will live in.

Frankly, it's so much work that I'd wait until you find yourself needing a second PC to put it in, and save it for that.

[FedUpWithFaith]

Looks like a souped-up dead leaf mantis.

The head is too small for a mantis, as far as I know.

DSCF0008a.JPG

Have your seen/read The Mist? They look like they could be the baby version of the bugs in that story. Collect a few and see if they grow and kill you.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Temporary derail ...

Having found out about the bug photos purely by accident, this creature (which someone else has identified as Arilus cristatus is known as the Wheel Bug, courtesy of that strange thoracic protrusion which resembles a gear wheel. That bug is begging for a Photoshop steampunk makeover.

Now, back to our scheduled thread.

As to the internal hard drive to external hard drive conversion, it would require a lot of work. I don't know about SATA hard drives, but I suspect that with regard to power input, internal drives intended to live inside a desktop PC case have the same power connector as the older PATA drives (the ones that used to be called IDE or EIDE in the days before SATA existed). The power connectors for hard drives and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives have 4 wires attached to them, and each wire carries a different voltage. Which means you'd have to replicate that power supply to the drive, and the only way I know of doing that is to buy yourself a full-blown PC power supply unit and plug it into that. Then, you have all the fun of finding a way of interfacing the data connector to the outside world in such a way as to enable you to plug it into a USB port. Now, if SATA ports are compatible with USB ports signal wise, then this might not be a problem, but if they're not, you're looking at designing some fairly intricate electronics to provide the interfacing. Possibly involving putting together your own circuit board (and designing the thing from scratch using appropriate software), interfacing a brace of interesting ICs together to provide the signal conversion, and then testing the damn thing to make sure it doesn't blow up on you, preferably using a drive that you don't intend to use long term. Then, you've got to parcel the whole thing into a box, and provide it with an external power cable to run the PSU. If the drive is a fast spinning one, you might consider sticking a big fan on top of it to keep it cool, and building some nice ventilation slots into the box the whole setup will live in.

Frankly, it's so much work that I'd wait until you find yourself needing a second PC to put it in, and save it for that.

Sounds like an awful lot of work to me when you could just buy something like this...

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149273

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Looks like a souped-up dead leaf mantis.

The head is too small for a mantis, as far as I know.

DSCF0008a.JPG

Have your seen/read The Mist? They look like they could be the baby version of the bugs in that story. Collect a few and see if they grow and kill you.

[disgusted]I've seen the movie[/disgusted] Nobody can put Stephen King on the screen. Too much dumbing-down to do.

[FedUpWithFaith]

Looks like a souped-up dead leaf mantis.

The head is too small for a mantis, as far as I know.

DSCF0008a.JPG

Have your seen/read The Mist? They look like they could be the baby version of the bugs in that story. Collect a few and see if they grow and kill you.

[disgusted]I've seen the movie[/disgusted] Nobody can put Stephen King on the screen. Too much dumbing-down to do.

Huh? What subtext of deep philosophical thought have i been missing in King's work? He's a prolific and great storyteller. But not exactly high-brow.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Huh? What subtext of deep philosophical thought have i been missing in King's work? He's a prolific and great storyteller. But not exactly high-brow.

Not philosophy, but style. Stephen paints with words. And Hollywood cartoonizes those paintings. You can't build up a mood in 90 minutes like you can in 300 pages. My opinion, of course.

[Feck]

Anyone know how to get subtitles attached (or running) with an .AVI I have a file .sub tell me how this works please because I cannot speak Mandarin or Cantonese

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Anyone know how to get subtitles attached (or running) with an .AVI I have a file .sub tell me how this works please because I cannot speak Mandarin or Cantonese

If you have a .srt file in the same folder, most players will pick it up. I've never had an issue.

[Feck]

Anyone know how to get subtitles attached (or running) with an .AVI I have a file .sub tell me how this works please because I cannot speak Mandarin or Cantonese

If you have a .srt file in the same folder, most players will pick it up. I've never had an issue.

VLC got it for me .

[AshtonBlack]

Anyone know how to get subtitles attached (or running) with an .AVI I have a file .sub tell me how this works please because I cannot speak Mandarin or Cantonese

If you have a .srt file in the same folder, most players will pick it up. I've never had an issue.

VLC got it for me .

VLC is teh bom.

[dj357]

Huh? What subtext of deep philosophical thought have i been missing in King's work? He's a prolific and great storyteller. But not exactly high-brow.

Not philosophy, but style. Stephen paints with words. And Hollywood cartoonizes those paintings. You can't build up a mood in 90 minutes like you can in 300 pages. My opinion, of course.

in the case of The Mist, I have to totally disagree with you there. while i do agree books are generally better atmosphere wise, The Mist is just a short story and the sense of atmosphere you get in the movie adaptation is just as intense as the short story. I agree if it had been based on a full novel the outcome might have been different, but The Mist is one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while and only departs from the original in the smallest ways. (the movie ending could potentially have happened at the end of the short story after they leave the diner)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Huh? What subtext of deep philosophical thought have i been missing in King's work? He's a prolific and great storyteller. But not exactly high-brow.

Not philosophy, but style. Stephen paints with words. And Hollywood cartoonizes those paintings. You can't build up a mood in 90 minutes like you can in 300 pages. My opinion, of course.

in the case of The Mist, I have to totally disagree with you there. while i do agree books are generally better atmosphere wise, The Mist is just a short story and the sense of atmosphere you get in the movie adaptation is just as intense as the short story. I agree if it had been based on a full novel the outcome might have been different, but The Mist is one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while and only departs from the original in the smallest ways. (the movie ending could potentially have happened at the end of the short story after they leave the diner)

I hated that movie.

[dj357]

I hated that movie.

in the words of many a creotard: "well......blah to you mister....mister...doody head!!"