Hard Drive knackered need recovery of data

Hello,
My PC just turned itself off then when it came back on my secondary hard drive was not being recognized,so the smart arse that I am thought I would just disconnect then reconnect it,simple.Well it should have been you c the pins that are on the HD snapped off when I was disconnecting the bugger(well really only 1 pin,1 at the far end)now I dont think there is any chance of it being detected now.What I want to know is is there any way of having it recognized in XP just so I can get my data off it.Cheers:cry

 

I hate to say it, but I think you're dead Hooking the drive up with a missing pin could (theoretically) damage the motherboard or IDE controller....

 

Ah well it wasnt any major stuff,just movies and music really,a bit of a bummer thow.Dont really want to fork out for a new HD either,but should get 1 for around £30 me thinks.Thanks for the fast reply.

P.S
I was actually using the hard drive for months with 2 pins on the other end of the HD missing without any problems,suppose I was taking a bit of a chance there.

 

Could be fixed with a bit of precision bodging I guess. I've just had a look at one I took out of a PC earlier (old 40gb quantum fireball). On that you can see the other end of the pins where they are soldered to the circuit board. I don't know if you can see the pins on yours without dismantling the drive. Theoretically, you could remove the damaged pin and replace it with something of the same size, possibly part of a sewing needle or similar. I've repaired more complicated things than that so I reckon it could be done if there was no other way.

Edit - OR, get a spare ribbon cable and establish which wire you need to connect. Then cut & extend this wire, and solder it direct to the circuit board in contact with where the pin broke off. With the cable attached to the rest of the pins, it may just get the drive working for long enough to recover what you need to.

 

Ah ha I managed to get it going again,I managed to get to the bottom of the connection pins on the HD and they havnt snapped off just pushed way down,so I gently(hmm)pushed it back into position,now Im set to go.Cheers.

 

Ooh, maybe that's what happened to my DVD-RW. I always wondered how I managed to break off a pin in the middle of a forest of pins. I'll check that out today as I didn't throw it out yet and maybe I'll get lucky. Thanks for the tip!