Looks to me like the card reader has the same USB 2.0 header as you'd find on a motherboard, which would mean it's easily converted to a regular USB 2.0 cable with an adapter like this. There is one issue though: that 9-pin connector carries two USB 2.0 lanes, so you might need two cables for every port on the reader to work.
A cable (or two) like this should do the trick though:
Buy USB 2.0 2.54mm 5 Pin Internal Header to USB Type A Adapter Cable 50cm for $9.99 with Free Shipping Worldwide (In Stock)
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That's a 5-pin, which will fit half of that connector. You'll also find variants with a 9-pin internal connector, however AFAIK those just leave half the pins not connected to anything, as the regular USB 2.0 connector has insufficient data lanes to connect all the pins.
Taking a second look at the drive, an interesting discovery: the drive itself has a 50-pin connector, but the flex cable connected to it leaves off the 6 pins on one side. And, taking a second look at those 50-pin adapters,
they seem to actually leave 6 pins off to one side disconnected! Seems I have my solution, which is that 50=44.
An even simpler solution - if the BIOS supports it! - is that the laptop actually has a CF card slot built in! Eh ... yeah. I kind of thought that was an expansion card slot? Yep, I'm an idiot. Cant check for BIOS options until I've put it all back together though. Then the next challenge becomes getting my hands on a suitable CF card, plus either getting my hands on an USB-installable XP image with the required drivers baked in or figuring out how to bypass the password on the current install (WXP Enterprise with a domain login, sadly nobody remembers the password).