Broken serial data connection

A piece of plastic on the serial data connection (7 pin) on my WD1200JS hard drive broke off and I am unable to establish a connection with my computer (not recognised by computer). Is there a way around this and/or a way to transfer data to a new HD?

 

If your computer is a desktop then you should be able to buy / scrounge an old plug-in card that has a 7 pin Serial connection ( and probably a Parallel printer connection on it, as well) for next to nothing. Long before the days of USB, all computers were fitted with this type of card.
If it is laptop, then you will have to look for a PC card (PMCIA in the olde days ) with a serial connection. Bazza.

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WD1200 JS is a 120 GB SATA drive, I believe.

I think you are in for some delicate plastic surgery if you want to recover your OS. You will have to solder some temporary connections to make the transfer to a new drive. If you do it very well perhaps you can save the drive and encapsulate the bodge in resin.

 

Thanks, studiot. I missed the point that a hard drive was being discussed. Bazza

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The pins are there; however the L-shaped piece above it is gone and a connection cannot be made. The pins go into the USB cord, but no amount of jiggling seems to get a connection.

 

Please note that I found the 'L' shaped plastic piece embedded in the SATA cord connector.