How to repair a hard disk if a pin has been broken?

Asked By daniel 450 points N/A Posted on - 05/16/2011

Hello everybody,

I have a Maxtor 160 Gigabyte ID HDD. I kept so many important files in it. Last day I opened the id cable of that HDD which is used to connect it to the motherboard. At the time of opening the cable, one of the id pin was accidentally broken by me. 

When I reconnected the hard disk with the motherboard, I was not working. My system failed to boot any data from that hard disk. It’s a very big problem for me. I have so many important files in it.

I will be in a big trouble if I fail to recover the data from it as I kept a lot of important files of my office work. Is there any other way to recover the data from my hard disk or is there any solution to repair it? I showed that hard disk to a mechanic who use to repair such electronic devices. 

But, he said that he would fail to repair that hard disk. But I think there must be a way to repair it. Friends, has anybody ever experienced this sort of difficult problem? If you solved it. Please help me?

I will be very thankful to him.

Thank you for reading my problem carefully.

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• Question Category: Windows XP

Best Answer by onepaudavid

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Answered By onepaudavid 5 points N/A #92419

How to repair a hard disk if a pin has been broken?

Hi Daniel

Hope this works for you. Things needed for this task. Parts/Tools Required:

1. IDE drive with broken pin. Please don't break one just.

To see if this works.

2. Sewing needle or pin.
3. Tin foil.
4. Wire cutters.
5. IDE Cable.

The thing to do is to get an electrical connection between that little stub where the pin used to be and the IDE Cable. 

So, the first thing to do is get something that will contact the pin stub better than the hole on the cable. I cut out a tiny Piece of tin foil, folded it over 2 or 3 times and set it on top where the pin used to be, careful that it don't touch other pins. Don't want to short circuit the other pins prepping the cable.

Now you need to add something to the cable that will contact the tin foil better than the hole on the connector there. I stuck a sewing pin in as far as it would go and then snipped it off with wire cutters, leaving about 1/8th of an inch or so extra. 

Then I just hooked it back up! The sewing pin touches the tin foil which touches the broken off pin on the hard drive and the connection is made.

I don't know how trustworthy this really is, but I used it for months this way with no issues whatsoever. (The pin I broke was on-crucial and the drive worked fine in windows safe mode. 

Because of that, I knew I could always get the data off if this modification failed. Please be really careful what you do with this.) And the best part was that I rescued my data and it didn't cost me a dime.

Answer: http://ww25.arem.us/stuff/hdd/

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• Posted on - 05/19/2011
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Answered By brixton 0 points N/A #92420

How to repair a hard disk if a pin has been broken?

First option Replacing the 40 pin connector.

I hope that this will help you to recover your files. Replacing the 40 pin connector with a new one through soldering. This is the Simple and Easy solution for your problem. If you are not sure to solder, take it to a service shop and get it done. This will not cost much.

Second option Replacing only the broken pin with a new. First remove the part of the broken pin from the HDD PCB.

1. Select a suitable pin on the old CD drive or HDD.

2. De-solder that pin alone.

3. After de-soldering pull out that pin from that PCB.

4. Then you need to pull out that pin from the 40 pin connector.

5. Once the pin gets out reverse the procedure on your HDD.

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• Posted on - 07/18/2011
• Question Category: Windows XP