The 1.8-inch hard disk drive is what Apple uses inside the iPod. It’s an increasingly popular form factor in disk drives, and now Addonics is offering a $14.99 kit that lets those drives connect to computers.
The kit converts the 1.8-inch hard drive’s connectors to ones that will fit on an interface used by 2.5-inch IDE drives instead. Such drives are commonly used in notebook computers and some small desktop machines. Addonics also sells a 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch converter kit that can make 1.8-inch drives work in a regular desktop computer.
Addonics describes one potential use for the kit: To help iPod users read data off their drives, in the event of some sort of failure that would prevent the iPod from working normally.
Addonics also sells an external drive enclosure that supports the conversion kit — its Pocket ExDrive.