Panasonic IDE / EIDE HDD Connector for CF-30 CF-19 CF-74 CF-52 CF-K30JG001

Words as expected.

My Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 has an easy to remove hard drive. It's in a "caddy" or aluminum frame that has the drive inside (and often a drive heater). The caddy is easily removable, and when inserted plugs into a proprietary connector, probably unique to Panasonic products. The drive in mine is an ESATA - the solid state version of a spinning SATA drive. As far as the Toughbook or the caddy are concerned both drive types are identical. Yes, there a few slightly different settings for electronic drives but that is not relevant for this discussion.The SATA drive itself connects to standard SATA connectors inside the caddy, which are brought "out" to the proprietary connector for ease of plug in and removal. It's a good system and works. However, when you want to connect the SATA inside the caddy to a different computer (in my case to back up the laptop using my main pc's software) it is necessary to remove the drive from the caddy. It's not all that difficult but doing it constantly will wear the parts, and it does take time, and one must remove two micro phillips screws - not something you want to do routinely.This tiny device - the Panasonic CF-K30JG001 - (a few of them would fit inside an empty pack of cigarettes) connects to the Panasonic connector on the caddy, and replicates the SATA connectors of the drive to outside the caddy. It brings out the two connectors; both the power and the data connectors for SATA. It does NOT create a standard IDE connector. Thus, it appears you are connecting directly to the SATA/ESATA inside the caddy. The device is NOT a cable, it is a small circuit board with a Panasonic connector on one end (to mate with the caddy) and standard SATA/ESATA connectors on the other end. It has NO IDE capability, it's SATA/ESATA only (on the CF-K30JG001).When used with the Vantec CB-ISATAU2 (also on Amazon) those "brought out" SATA/ESATA connectors will connect to a USB2 port and establish the disk in the caddy as one or more drive letters on the "host" machine. I say one or more because each partition on the disk is given it's own drive letter. BTW: The Vantec unit does connect to IDE as well as SATA (all parts are in the box).Thus to use: Remove the caddy from (in my case the Panasonic CF-19) the Panasonic computer. Connect the little adapter to the caddy. (it's a bit loose so I add a rubber band to hold it tightly in place). Then from the Vantec unit connect both the power and data SATA connectors to the little adapter. Plug the other end of the SATA cable into the IDE part of the Vantec (look for the little L keyway - it only goes together one way. Add the power adapter (that runs on AC) to the Vantec power cable attached to the little adapter. Plug it in. Note that the power cord has an ON/OFF switch. Lastly plug in the USB2 cable into an available port on the PC - directly is best. Wait a few moments and (for me Win 7 - other op sys supported too) you will see one or more new drive letters.This sounds more complex than it really is. The parts fit together only the right way, unless you force them brutally. Just double check where the SATA power cable plugs into the old style 4 pin Molex connector (look for the little notches to align it correctly). Plug it in upside down = fried disk drive, THAT is the "bad power supply issue reported about many IDE/SATA interface devices (including the Vantec). Once you are REALLY sure about the plug/socket orientation - paint some red nail polish on the top side of each part of the connection. Next time you connect, you will KNOW without inspection proper mating orientation.NO instructions come with the little adapter and none are needed, the Vantec has a useful manual. In the Vantec be sure you are reading the EXTERNAL setup instructions, not the how to connect internally (when the drive is still in the PC).Take care to establish an environment that will not have any cable coming loose when you don't want it to. Also remember to use the windows "remove device" function to "disconnect" the device and free the drive letters when you are done.Cheap it aint, but I got tired of taking that darn ESATA out of the caddy to back it up. btw: I use Shadow Protect software and that would not allow a wifi or network connected drive to be backed up. Of course I only have Shadow Protect workstation version (cheep) - their server version probably would allow a wifi backup.Don't be in too much of a hurry to back up - about 21 Gig took me about 24 minutes - USB2 is not rocket ship fast, but not too bad. But, it does allow me to move files from my main machine to the laptop quickly. Lastly the little adapter fits inside the Vantec box, so all the parts remain together and nothing gets lost.Order carefully, Panasonic makes at least 2 models that look very similar and each covers a few DIFFERENT Panasonic computers.I really like the unit and took off a star because of the price.