Once you ensure a good connection, you will have to connect it directly on the IDE bus with an adapter, since it has no partitions and you need to boot to DOS. The connector pins where the ZIF cable terminals make contact are all the way inside the connector, so if you don't push it in completely, you will not make a good connection. To connect the other end of the ZIF cable, make sure you push the cable ALL THE WAY inside the on-board connector, so that when you close down the latch it should not come off. It should be tight enough so you can lift the hard drive by the cable. You insert the edge of the cable (you shouldn't have to push) and while holding the cable in, you need to press and fold the black latch backwards. The drive comes out of the box with this latch raised, ready to receive a ZIF cable. The ZIF connector on the Samsung hard drive has a thin black latch. Do not use solder, as it will quickly spread across several terminals shorting them which is a real pain in the neck to clean up. If this is the case, just heat the terminal solders with a soldering gun. Upon pin-by-pin continuity test I found that one of the pins on the ZIF connector had a bad solder on the board and actually was not connecting. When I first connected it, the drive started spinning but the computer did not detect the drive. If you bought one of those chinese 1.8" 50-pin ATA to ZIF adapters of eBay, I suggest you check the continuity on each pin before connecting to the hard disk. So I found and bought this Samsung HS082HB 80GB 5mm disk. There were even some intermediary companies that would buy it and send it to you but you can imagine the costs). (evidently Toshiba came up with a 100GB and even a 120GB drive at 5mm but at this time it was only sold in Japan. the largest 5mm-high hard disk is 80GB but comes with a ZIF connector so you need to connect it with an adapter. However it wasn't available anywhere in the US (mostly discontinued). the largest 5mm-high hard disk with a 44 pin connector is 60GB. But even if you do, this will be a less-thanperfect job, since you have to get rid of the rubber protective frame, which will cause any impacts (especially on the back cover) to be transmitted directly onto the drive, needless to say there will be an ugly gap on one corner when you close the back cover.
Building A Modified ZIF Adapter to Upgrade Cowon A2 Hard Drive by BaTu When I first attempted this project I did some research on two things: 1) Is it really possible to fit in a 8mm disk in A2? 2) What is the availability of 5mm disks? My findings are: - there is just too much work/modification involved fitting a 8mm disk in and it's practically not possible.