power on this board?

What's the part number? It looks like there is a regulator (that's the black thing between the two orange things (capacitors)) but one can't tell from the picture what the output is.

Looks like a parallel ATA to compact flash adapter. My guess is that it converts +5VDC to +3.3VDC for compact flash that is not 5 volt tolerant. Looks like a SOT223 package. Could be similar to:

Is CF here 50-pin IDE?

that 50 pin connector is PATA ATA 6

I guess just from looking at a picture, you can be sure there's a voltage regular on it but even if you see a voltage regulator, it may be conditional, it may not be conditional..

And just looking at a pic it's not possible to tell, is that right?

I suppose in the case of the pic I posted, it's fine for 3.3V HDDS, it won't feed them 5V. But a 5V hard drive, if there are any 5V HDDS with that 50pin IDE interface, then one can't know if it'd feed them 5V or just 3.3V

If I put the molex connector in it, would I be able to test if it is conditional and see either voltage coming out, without plugging a hard drive in?

regular

It's not for a hard drive, it's for compact flash. It allows you to use a compact flash as a disk drive. You should be able to check the voltage output using a DMM. What are the markings on the four pin SOT device?

PATA connectors are 40 pins for 3.5" drives, and 44 pins for 2.5" drives. However, if you count the missing pins on a 2.5" drive it is 50 pins total. The last four are usually used for setting the master/slave/CS config. The problem with the adapter in that picture is that it's the wrong gender to interface with a 2.5" drive. I've no idea what that would plug into, as most motherboards that I've seen have male connectors, not female.

here's a 2.5" pinout. 40+4 for power + 4 more if you count the 2 pairs of master/slave pins. 48pins in total.

I know 2.5" and 3.5" have pins on the back.

I have in my hand a 1.8" HDD.. it is female on the back, and 50 pin.

Toshiba MK6006GAH

so it'd plug into the adaptor.

In the laptop I saw it in it had a little cable which was male on the end that went into the hdd. the other end of the cable was just stuck in with no connector.

you write "It's not for a hard drive, it's for compact flash. It allows you to use a compact flash as a disk drive. You should be able to check the voltage output using a DMM. What are the markings on the four pin SOT device?"

i'm wondering if this type of 50pin CF and the 50pin IDE connector are the same..

though the device itself would be different 'cos the hdd is the still famous common spinning type, not ssd.

I'm not an electronics geek.

What is the 4 pin SOT device?

I plan on getting some adaptors and testing the voltage before I try plugging my hdd in.

If it's 50 pins, it could be a SCSI adaptor of some type.

Ken