Apple Samsung 1.8" LIF Adapter

[Jared]

Has anyone ever found an adapter for these 1.8" Macbook Air LIF hard drives? Or at least knows the pinout to build a SATA connection?

I know this has come up in other threads, but I never paid that much attention before.

 

[pclab]

I don't know if it's the same HDD, but we here in Portugal have a "kids" laptop http://www.guiadastecnologias.com/index ... haes-2.jpg with a 1.8" Samsung ZIF drive.

I have a USB adapter which works very good with them.

 

[Jared]

No, it's not ZIF. I've got adapters for those. It's this stupid little LIF snap in connector. Looks like this picture:

Except the one I have here isn't an SSD.

 

[Jared]

I think this might be what I need: http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Macbook-22pi ... B00JOXFMWA

I'm pretty sure these are the 24 pin ones used only by Apple, and not the standard 22 pin LIF ones.

 

[Jared]

Yep, I just counted and it's definitely 24 pin. Ordered one on ebay so I guess I'll just wait for it to come in now. Good to know they have standard adapters for these now. I know some guys in the past had to custom solder onto these, but I'd rather not have to.

 

[Jared]

Just to update the thread that adapter from Amazon worked like a charm.

 

[LarrySabo]

Hope you you don't have to solder leads to the drive circuit board. Last night, I finally gave up on a Toshiba 220GB 1.8" drive that uses a 24-pin LIF connector. The connector had been ripped off the board by the customer. I attached leads under microscope okay but couldn't get the drive to spin up. The leads for 24-pin LIF have 0.8mm pitch, making the leads themselves maybe 0.6mm wide. Not sure what gauge wire that translates to.

 

[Jared]

Might be worth forwarding it to someone who does monolith recoveries and has a good wedge bonding machine.

 

[LarrySabo]

The customer didn't consider the data worth more than $300CAD + tax, so that wouldn't work. Plus, I don't think the connections themselves were the problem--they all looked okay under the microscope, no shorts or cold solder joints. I just wish I knew why it wouldn't spin up. There were just 7 lines to the SATA data connector and two to 3.3v power. I also connected the DAS/DSS connection to the supply ground, as recommended by fzabkar. Because of the HDA connector design, it's impossible to connect the board with the HDA contacts isolated, to see if the drive spins up. It's moot now, as I've removed all the leads and the customer picks up the drive in a couple of hours.

 

[Jared]

This might sound like a dumb thought (and I realize it probably is), but you are sure that you had the LIF cable in the right way at the other end right? I've been surprised once or twice to discover that contacts needed to be facing up instead of down on certain LIF connectors.

And you are sure it's a HDD too, had one just a few weeks ago that looked exactly like a 1.8" hard drive, but it was just a fancy metal case with an SSD inside. Threw me for a loop when I plugged it in and it wouldn't spin either. :lol: