Travel Technology - Need help finding an external drive enclosure

Something happened to my laptop. While I was surfing, Vista produced a BSoD and when I tried to restart the laptop it just hung. I've gotten as far as getting to the Fujitsu start-up menu by pulling the battery and leaving it unpowered for 3 minutes. But for some reason there is a BIOS password and I did not set one. Naturally Vista won't boot or allow me to boot from a CD either. I have a feeling the laptop will need to be sent back to Fujitsu.

Before this happens I need to copy all the information off the hard drive, just in case. From the Fujitsu website I pulled the following specs on the laptop:

LifeBook P7230 Notebook
Hard drive: 80 GB (4200 rpm) P-ATA Ultra DMA 100; shock-mounted, and protected by intelligent shock sensor technology, 2.5"

Here are the specs (I think) for the drive from the Fujitsu website (http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/storage/hdd/mobile/mhw2080at.html):
Interface: ATA-7

Do I simply need any generic enclosure that supports PATA and 2.5" drives?

Yup, that's all you need!

Here's wishing you a successful data recovery!

Great, looks like I'm headed to MicroCenter. Sadly I didn't get the on-site service policy so it appears I'll be without that laptop for a bit.

You can also get an IDE-USB cable. Lots of companies make them, here's a versatile one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002) that handles 3.5", 2.5", and SATA drives. The cables are not as good as the enclosure if you want a permanent external drive, but they are great if you regularly connect lots of hard drives to your computer.

You can also get an IDE-USB cable. Lots of companies make them, here's a versatile one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002) that handles 3.5", 2.5", and SATA drives. The cables are not as good as the enclosure if you want a permanent external drive, but they are great if you regularly connect lots of hard drives to your computer.

Nice, just ordered that one. Any better deals than Fatwallet for Newegg?

If nothing helps you then you should try Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery (http://www.stellarinfo.com) Software. It is a file and partition recovery utility which recovers data from formatted hard drive or data lost due to software malfunction, viruses or even sabotage. This recovery software has helped me out.
A free demo version can be downloaded from: http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm
If the demo shows you the preview of the recovered data then get the full version to save it.

You can also get an IDE-USB cable. Lots of companies make them, here's a versatile one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002) that handles 3.5", 2.5", and SATA drives. The cables are not as good as the enclosure if you want a permanent external drive, but they are great if you regularly connect lots of hard drives to your computer.

Interesting gadget! I really like how it connects ATA or SATA. Just wondering though, all of my enclosures have a double usb connection. This is presumably because the drives have more power requirements than one usb plug can handle. I know my enclosures dont work with only one of the usb plugs connected. I only see one usb plug on this device. Am I missing something?

Thanks for the link!

Edit: Never mind ... just saw the power supply in the pictures. :D

THAT'S NOT A 2.5" DRIVE!!! It's a 1.8". Don't take the thing apart for no good reason! Here's the enclosure you need. Microcenter IS NOT going to carry one of these (I don't think).

I just got a few of these in and they work great... I had an iPod drive I'd swapped out with a larger model and put the old drive in here. No issues and I can read it just fine.

http://www.cubeternet.com/servlet/StoreFront

The P7230 has a 50 pin ATA interface so this (http://www.cubeternet.com/servlet/Detail?no=26) is the housing you want. Honestly they're all so cheap I ordered one of each to have 'em on hand just in case.

[EDIT: Duh... no doubt the OP knows this by now considering the original post was in October.]

If nothing helps you then you should try Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery (http://www.stellarinfo.com) Software. It is a file and partition recovery utility which recovers data from formatted hard drive or data lost due to software malfunction, viruses or even sabotage. This recovery software has helped me out.
A free demo version can be downloaded from: http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm
If the demo shows you the preview of the recovered data then get the full version to save it.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Amigo! Please, DO look at the dates before you post... this thread is 30 days old!

You can also get an IDE-USB cable. Lots of companies make them, here's a versatile one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002) that handles 3.5", 2.5", and SATA drives. The cables are not as good as the enclosure if you want a permanent external drive, but they are great if you regularly connect lots of hard drives to your computer.That's cool -- I just ordered one. There are SO many times I could have used this...

Ebay will have what your looking for and for less than any type of store.