can broken pins on a HD be repaired/replaced?

newbiesforever · 02-12-2009, 01:53 PM

I bought a new hard drive at eBay. The seller broke one of the connector pins while preparing it for shipping, but sent me a replacement that works fine (along with the broken one). Can a broken connector pin (not bent, but broken) be repaired or replaced? If either, I could have two new hard drives for the price of one. (In theory. In reality, I'm too nice not to send the seller extra money for giving me a free hard drive, minus anything I buy to fix it.)

MS3FGX · 02-12-2009, 01:57 PM

If you had an identical drive you could just swap the whole control board. Failing that you could desolder the header on the connector and replace it with another one from a dead drive, but it really wouldn't be worth the effort.

newbiesforever · 02-12-2009, 02:04 PM

Nope, doesn't sound like it. I guess the broken HD goes into my box of electronic junk. Thanks.

salasi · 02-12-2009, 03:17 PM

You do mean the data cable and not the power cable? And I'm guessing from the description that this is a PATA disk not SATA or SCSI?

If so, its not worth the bother. You'll never make it reliable.

If it was the power connector, you could potentially do something about it; go to where the four pins connect to the circuit board, and connect the appropriate gender of connector on a flying lead...still not convinced its worth it though.

jstephens84 · 02-12-2009, 03:58 PM

I would try just for the hell of it. Maybe some solder would due. Hell worst case it still won't work. In which you have lost nothing.

newbiesforever · 02-12-2009, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by salasi

You do mean the data cable and not the power cable? And I'm guessing from the description that this is a PATA disk not SATA or SCSI?

If so, its not worth the bother. You'll never make it reliable.

If it was the power connector, you could potentially do something about it; go to where the four pins connect to the circuit board, and connect the appropriate gender of connector on a flying lead...still not convinced its worth it though.

Yes, it's the data cable connection, and it's PATA.

jiml8 · 02-12-2009, 06:58 PM

I could do it.

But, IIRC, you don't even solder. So you won't be able to do it. Should it happen that the broken pin is a ground, then it is likely the drive will work anyway.

newbiesforever · 02-12-2009, 07:04 PM

I never thought to try it anyway. It's the upper leftmost pin.