Hard Drive Pin Broken, drive not recognised,suggestions

captainmustard

Hi,

I was moving a hard drive from 1 PC to another. There was 2 very delicate pins on the drive. These were damaged about 2 years ago and i had forgotten about them but during the move the pins snapped and i put the drive back into the PC i removed it from and its not recognised now. I have so many really important files on the drive and im in a panic now as not sure if they can be recovered, has this ever happened to anyone before.Is the data gone or could it be recovered? I have done a search and there is a few companies about that deal with data recovery, maybe i will have no choice but to pay for the service and get my data back but havent a clue as to how much it would cost and if its even possible to recover.

Wolverine_1999

What kind of hard drive is it? What you can do is get the exact same hard drive and remove the PCB from that one, and put it on the broken hard drive. Should be able to start with no problems then.

Lump

You might be able to wedge a pin type device in the hole as a temporary fix.... A thumb tac, with the varnish/alloy scrapped off it maybe... I'd be suprised if it works, but worth a try.

John

captainmustard

Its a 40 gig maxtor. (production?) date on it is 12 Aug 2002. So cant imagine there easy to find. Ive read that suggestion on a different site,but the data is very important to me, id rather not experiment too much, may damage it further! Is changing the PCB a difficult job? The PCB consists of the green board with all circuits etc,is that right? Seems 4 screws in this but dont know what lies beneath this, ie how its attached to hard drive.

Wolverine_1999

Can you tell me is it a Diamondmax 8/9? I have 2 40GB maxtors

The PCB is the green board. You need a funny looking screw driver (which i have), to take out the screws. It really is very simple to do.

Once the model makes match, that's all that matters.

captainmustard

I have the pins, i read on the same site ,cant remember what it was, that pins may need to be soldered back but if this was done the data cable head wouldnt attach correctly would it. The thumb tac suggestion sounds like an bit of an experiement if you dont mind me saying and would do if there wasnt so much info on it,hard drive is full. Ive left a message on www.data-recovery.ie, they say there is no recovery no fee, just waiting to hear back from them and see what the professionals say. Nothing wrong with sectors or anything,its def the pins as i had it working fine last night before i removed it.Oh me nerves!!

Wolverine_1999

Yeah they will do exactly like I've said It'll probably cost you as well from them though..

captainmustard

I was on maxtor.com and have tried to find out what model it is. I think its a Fireball 3 ATA/133 if that exists,thats what wrote on it anyway.

captainmustard

Yeah, def a Fireball 3.Was on maxtor and checking out different codes on drive, 2F040J0 from hard drive model drop down matches and brings me to Fireball 3 model

captainmustard

Cant believe it, warrantry expired on 14 Oct this year, just my luck really but done it expecting it to be out in 2003 or there abouts. Year warranty but 3 years and 2 months is great and even better if it was 05 October 2005 today

captainmustard

Right, Wolverine_1999 reckons data recovery co are going to do like he suggests, so im after a maxtor Fireball 3, 40 gig hard drive then.Will give recovery crowd a buzz again to see what they suggests. See what you mean bout the screw to Wolverine_1999, but i think i have some of them at home also

Wolverine_1999

Sorry I can't help you out there. I only have Diamondmax 40GB drives.

WizZard

Can you take a hi-res pic of the broken pins?

captainmustard

Recieved call from data recovery guy. Process he will take is as follows

Solder back the 2 pins that have snapped off and try recover the data then
If this doesnt work he will do as Wolverine_1999 suggested and replace board.

I told him i had sourced a drive and i would do this and he said the firmware will have to match also or it wouldnt read.Been as old as it is it may be harder to find correct match with firmware. Very very pricey, 300+ vat for solder and recovery or if parts needed and then data recovered would be 550.Maybe worth a try doing as Wolverine_1999 suggest and try sourcing a PCB. Cant damage it any further i suppose.The no recovery no fee is very appealing but price for actual recovery is alot.I asked if he solders it back and lets me know that recovery is possible as this is where fee comes in what happens if i dont want him to go any further and just give me the drive back.Unusual requests but would remove pins so i said it was 300 for a solder then and he said no 300 for solder and recovery.Have to decide is data worth that much and is it worth trying new PCB myself.

captainmustard

No not a the minute Wizzard,camera is at home.But the pins are snapped at the very bottom.

WizZard

Under the plastic? I could prob recover it for you by doing the same. Cut off the plastic, solder the pins back and attempt to recover the data normally then.

If I knew which pins they were I would be able to give a better estimate of success.
I don't *think* the firmware would need to be the same if you were replacing the PCB - I can't see any reason why this should be so...

Wolverine_1999

That's correct. The firmware does NOT have to be the same. I replaced a 200GB Maxtor PCB, with a 160GB Maxtor PCB, and all that was the same was the model series, Diamondmax 9. Firmware is only related to performance issues. I could actually see that the 200gb performed much worse with the older firmware from the 160gb.

captainmustard

The 2 broken pins are on the right hand side,the datacable and drive have a notch at the top and the broken pins are located on the right of these, ie the last 2 pins.Wolverine_1999, thanks for the firmware update,think i will try purchase a drive and replace the PCB myself,worth a try,if it works i save myself 300 at least and have a new hard drive also.will let ye know when i have the new drive.

captainmustard

Wizzrd im no expert but maybe Wolverine_1999 can confirm this, but the pins are actually part of the PCB, the plastic you refer to looks like it just a casing for the pins and once the PCB is removed the pins come with it, so replacing the PCB replaces the pins.

WizZard

Yes, that's correct. The pins are soldered to the PCB.
The plastic is just a casing/protection/socket.

However removing the plastic casing will allow acces to the bendy part where they connect to the PCB and faciliate easier soldering.

Don't forget to ground yourself properly before attempting the PCB switch, else you'll have two useless drives.

Wolverine_1999

WizZard wrote:

Don't forget to ground yourself properly before attempting the PCB switch, else you'll have two useless drives.

Just touch the radiator

captainmustard

Wizzrd, would you be confident the soldering of the pins would work and could you do this.Where are you located? Would i be better soldering the pins or purchasing a new drive and replacing them.The solderin seem like more obvious process.Would you be charging 300 for the soldering as well Wizzard?

captainmustard

but im not cold !!

Wolverine_1999

Soldering should be ok, even did it at college.... You have to be sure it is the same model/series if replacing the PCB though. Otherwise it may damage the mechanics of the Hard drive.

Wolverine_1999

whiteyq wrote:

but im not cold !!

Heh, our radiators are cold anyway :P

WizZard

whiteyq wrote:

Wizzrd, would you be confident the soldering of the pins would work and could you do this.Where are you located? Would i be better soldering the pins or purchasing a new drive and replacing them.The solderin seem like more obvious process.Would you be charging 300 for the soldering as well Wizzard?

Well I'd give it a go.
I'd be fairly confident it would work though. I'd need another drive from you to copy the data to.

I did a lot of SMC soldering in college, but only do it rarely now.

You have to understand that at any rate the drive is going to be classed as dead/gone after you attempt a repair like this. It's possible to replace the pins, but nobody could guarantee that it'd work for any length of time.

When doing data recovery all you care about is that the media you are recovering from can stay stable for long enough to get the data off - after that it's irrelevant to you whether it lives or dies.

I wouldn't be charging the earth, and definitely not €300

Wolverine_1999

Hah, €300. Bunch of cowboys...

captainmustard

ok so Wizzrd,ill give the soldering a try.Ill get myself an external drive to copy data to as have learned my lesson and need one. Do you do a no recovery no fee?:D

Would like to know how much it will cost,timeframe and where ya live as i will prob call with drives.Cant really trust ya if i dont know ya,ya might do a runner with my brand new external drive!!!

If it doesnt work then i can get myself another drive and replace PCB myself but will have spent the 300 or so at that stage or close to it and will be raging then.

WizZard

Well, no. I don't do a no recovery no fee. I'm not a large company with other sources of income.:p

I was going to use facilities at work to complete the soldering - cleaner and safer, but I can do it at home if you want. Alternatively I can use an external drive of my own to copy the data to, and when you pick up you can copy data to your new drive from it.

PM me for more details.

Capt'n Midnight

if you had some old PC equipment you could remove pins from it and put in the cable so they stick out

also which pins are gone ??
do you have a PIC of the damage ?
or know the numbers of the damaged pins - pin 1 is usually nearest the power connector (red stripe on data cable) one pin is usually missing (pin 20) to so a blank in the cable is supposed to stop you puttin in wrong way around. All the even pins on on the same row The odd pins are on the other row which usually has a notch for the bump on the cable.

http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_IDE.html

pin 20 is usually missing
Pins 2,19,22,24,26,40 are all ground
Could you force it to master/ stand alone if a problem with pin 28 = cable select
Anyone know if using an different I/O mode means you can ignore pins ??

If it's a one off you could also put in a trebble header cable and take a wire from the solder pad to the other header

captainmustard

The 9 pins beside the power connector are fine ie cable select pins. Then theres the small gap between cable select pins and where the cable plugs into the drive. The pins that are snapped are the top and bottom pins of the main set of pins so 1 odd and 1 even i suppose.The first in both rows. Dont know if im explaining it right here but where you plug a cable into the drive its the right hand sided pins of this set thats snapped, 1 at top and 1 at the bottom

captainmustard

Ive attached 2 images of the drive. Probably P0001490.JPG shows it clearer.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Pain in the arse alright.
I had this happen to me before... so I took a pin out of an old donor drive and soldered it on... I'm not sure how good the scalding heat from my soldering iron was for the PCB when I melted the remains of the original pin out... but to this day it still works like a little trooper!
Don't lose hope

captainmustard

Fair play to ya donkey.Positive thinking. I love it!

WizZard

That's not going to be too hard to replace

captainmustard

Donkey,did you remove the plastic casing and then solder out old pin and then solder in the new one ? Plastic casing is part of PCB and not entirely needed, i havent a clue bout soldering,electronics guys solder units in house in college were only time ive seen them. Just wondering how its done and is it complex.Seems to be a pricey enough job but cheaper than data recovery co so must be some hardship in it.

Wizzard is prob going to solder mine this Thursday,just waiting on my external harddrive to arrive to back up the data to.

captainmustard

So ya have seen the pics then Wizzard? Was it worse or better than you were expecting?

WizZard

Much better. It's not broken of at the base at all, just at the bottom of the plastic casing. There's still a couple of mil under that that can be soldered to
Or else I might just replace the pins completely

captainmustard

Yeah,there snapped just at the bottom of the plastic casing.Will the plastic casing have to be removed or what? so what your saying is you will just have to attach the pins and not totally replace them.Does that knock few quid off the price then! Have to ask, maybe i should just be happy your willing to do it for cheaper than the data recovery boys.

WizZard

The plastic casing will have to be removed. TDepending on how much of the broken pins are left I might be able to re-attach a leg, but it's probably better to replace the entire pin.

The price is very cheap as it is.

captainmustard

Theres 2 pins snapped Wizzard,just incase you might think it only the 1. Im happy with the price but have to at least ask.

DonkeyStyle \o/

whiteyq wrote:

Donkey,did you remove the plastic casing and then solder out old pin and then solder in the new one ?

That's exactly it yeah.

whiteyq wrote:

Just wondering how its done and is it complex.

It wasn't as much complex as it was tricky... you just have to be carefull not to melt the solder onto adjacent contacts (that can get messy very quickly :eek:)... make sure you're heating things properly to get the solder set just right to avoid dry solder problems.
I'm sure there's more to it than that, using different compounds in exact amounts or whatever, I'm not an expert with electronics and haven't studied soldering in any great depth.
I've got that dangerous "how hard can it be?!" attitude, I'm sure it'll get me in trouble some day

Capt'n Midnight

broken pins 1 and 2 - almost certainly by not pulling the cable straight out and instead pulling from one side.

pin 2 on the same row as the missing pin in the middle is ground so you may not need to do anything with it - bottom of pic

Try putting a spare pin in the IDE cable for pin one ( reset ) - top of pic

captainmustard

The 2 pins that have broken off are actually in the cable now.I tried shoving them back into the cable and then connecting the cable to the drive on the huge off chance it might work, but it didnt needless to say

captainmustard

Hi All,

Thanks to anyone for your contributions on this thread and just thought id give those people that contributed the latest.

I called to Wizzard's house last night with drive and he soldered a pin from a busted drive he picked up to my 'busted' drive. Just the 1 pin was soldered and he plugged it into a ide-->usb device (very very handy) and after some messing with jumpers the drive was recognised.

I got all the crucial stuff backed up to my laptop. I havent tried the harddrive in PC it was removed from yet but needless to say im over the moon and giant A+ to a good man, Wizzard, ya helped me out so much thanks again.

External drive on the way. Files on ipod just incase anything happens the laptop.

Lesson learned, back the f"*k up or else...

Cuddlesworth

whiteyq wrote:

Lesson learned, back the f"*k up or else...

Start a 3 page thread and amuse the hell out of me

BigEejit

page 3? ...

good stuff with fixing it to get data off ... just keep remembering to back stuff up ...and of course have a method of restoring as well

WizZard

BigEejit wrote:

...and of course have a method of restoring as well

Restoring data is over-rated.

Best place for storage is /dev/null

Glad I could help whiteyq.