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How Can You Straighten HDD Pins? 66

Posted by michael from the uh-oh dept.
racerx509 writes: "I just did something thats probably going to cost me much. I was reinstalling my hdd after trying to ghost the partition for another pc, when I jammed the cable in wrong. The cable is keyed and the keyed side was in correctlty, so I figured that it was going in right. However, I have severly bent several of the pins. The HDD will no longer detect even after I attempted to straighten the pins. Pin #11 has receded into the aperature and pins #15 and #16 are seriously bent. I've straightened them out with tweezers as much as I can, but it looks like this drive is gone. I would replace it, but i have some very important data on it. Does anyone know of a way I could straigten the pins and pull receded ones? If not, what about a good data recovery service in the Atlanta area?"
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How Can You Straighten HDD Pins? More

How Can You Straighten HDD Pins?

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  • get the connector or controller board replaced (Score:3, Informative)

    by mayoff ( 29924 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2002 @12:58PM (#3149831) Homepage
    A data recovery service should be able to replace the connector; they'd probably just replace the whole controller board. You might also be able to get it done at other computer repair shops, or by sending it back to the manufacturer.


    • Depending on the drive, you may be able to replace the controller board yourself.

      I like to dig into old dead drives. Collect screws and parts, make clock faces out of the drive platters, and particularly collect the NIB [wondermagnet.com] magnets [dansdata.com].

      On some drives, the ribbon that connects the controller board to the electronics inside of the drive housing is attached to the controller board with a press-fit-type connector.
      You may be able to buy a new drive of the same make and model and just swap controller boards.

  • use the force (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2002 @12:58PM (#3149839)
    the magnetic force, that is.

    the connector pins are metal, therefore magnetic. just use a strong pencil-style magnet and you should be able to pull those sunken pins out thru the plastic just fine.

    • Some may say that "putting a magnet next to a HD is a bad idea" but think about the magnetic fields that already exist in the case from the power supply, nearby speakers/fans and even interference from the magnetic charge already on the disk. Putting a magnet, even one strong enough to pull a metal pin like these, near your HD presents no danger whatsoever.
    • Hmmm. I personally wouldn't do that. Maybe I'm just really old
      school, but I've always tried to keep magnets and computer
      components away from each other. :)

    • hmmmmm (Score:1)

      by Tom7 ( 102298 )
      Er, not all metal is magnetic. If they're made from copper, for instance, they won't be.

      Anyway, if they are actually still connected to the PCB, I doubt a magnet would be strong enough to straighten them...

    • Re:use the force (Score:5, Informative)

      by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2002 @01:39PM (#3150251)
      uhm, guys. it was a joke.

      guess it wasn't obvious enough. I didn't figure ANYONE would dare take a magnet even within 10 feet of a drive!

      have to admit - moding it to 'informative' is even funnier than my actual post!

      • Remember, there is a magnet within your hard drive... there is one (or two) magnets that are used in conjunction with the arm to go back and forth.

        • And they are probably much stronger than the pencil magnet that he suggested using. I use them to stick things to my cubicle walls.

      • Actually, a magnet is generally not so destructive to data as you would expect.

        Back in the old C=64 days, the club newsletters would swap stories alot, one of these stories happened to be from a club treasurer who had a few disks that were duplicates. The guy took a 5 1/4 floppy and did everything to try and destroy it.

        He put a strong speaker magnet to it, left it in the back of his car on a hot (100+ degrees) day, stuck it in the microwave, ran over it with his car, stuck it in the freezer, and besides having to replace the case that held the media because it warped so bad when he put it in the back seat of his car, the data was pretty much recoverable...he finally destroyed it by letting his dog chew on it :) And that was a 5 1/4 disk with little or no protection. Harddisks have metal enclosing the media and newer drives (like my Quantum AS Plus 60) suspend the media in a liquid. All of this helps to make the drives more reliable and less succeptable to damage.
      • Have you ever disassembled a hard drive? I've taken apart about ten of them (and hung the platters on my wall, looks kinda neet).
        How do you think all the parts in the drive move? There's a magnetic motor, and then there are usually 4 magnets that help move the arm - 2 on top, 2 on bottom. Then the actual arm itself has a big electromagnet on it. These magnets are *very* strong, and sit less than 5cm away from the platters. Yet they don't seem to affect data on the drive.
        I think the whole "magnets near computers" thing is largely over exaggerated. When I was younger, I took a magnet from a science kit and ran it over a floppy - it didn't do a thing. It probably has to be either extremely strong, or very localized to affect the data.
        I'd say not to worry about magnets around your computer - just don't run it through an MRI.
      • Once I and a friend of mine tried to destroy a harddrive.
        We removed the cover, and while the computer was reading data, we dropped a fridge-magnet on the data disks.
        It still read fine.
    • I hope this isn't too serious of a suggestion... Think about it. Magnet + HDD == Not much fun.

      --Robert

  • this happened to me.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fist_187 ( 556448 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2002 @01:01PM (#3149874) Homepage
    depending on what type of drive, of course, (some have pins that are less accessible than others), you can do this:

    snip the end off of an old IDE cable and break (or dremel) the plastic off of the part of the drive that protects the pins. then you a steady hand or a friend who's good at precision soldering. you can solder each of the pins on the drive to the wires of the IDE cable.

    then its just a matter of buying a new drive and connecting the 2 together and running
    "xcopy /e /y c: d:"
    to migrate the data. of course, you can still use the drive with the cable hard-wired, but i wouldnt rely on that for any real length of time.

  • Oops (Score:1)

    by rogerl ( 143996 )
    I hate it when that happens.

    And, as a lesson...Always make backups before doing upgrades, installs, un-installs, etc.
    • And, as a lesson...Always make backups before doing upgrades, installs, un-installs, etc.

      Based on his original post, I'd say that's the real irony behind the whole thing. He was trying to ghost the drive!
      • I'd say that's the real irony behind the whole thing. He was trying to ghost the drive!

        My nightmare on this was doing much the same thing, but instead of damaging pins I forgot to rejumper the drive. IDE chain with two master devices = thoroughly horked partition tables on both.

        I was able to recover one of them using a package called Hard Drive Mechanic that basically examined the drive looking for the start and end of the partitions, but the "working" disk that had several partitions of different types and some intermediate empty space was unrecoverable and had to be completely wiped.

        That sinking sensation when you plug the drive you were going to back up back into its original system and it's completely dead is just no fun at all....

  • Ho-To fix broken pins. (Score:5, Informative)

    by hazen_vs ( 244808 ) <.hazen. .at. .potentia.ca.> on Tuesday March 12, 2002 @01:08PM (#3149939) Homepage
    Check out AMP here [amp.com]., they make connectors of all sorts, probably even make the same part.


    1.Disconnect the Controller ie: remove it from the drive case and unplug the header, (the armature connection.
    2.Ground yourself (get rid of any static on your hands) or wear a geek strap.
    3.Un soulder the eide connector (that is if it's the seperate type) and then get a new one. They cost about 2$us ea.
    4. Re-soulder the new connector


    Depending on the style of connector (make, type of drive) It may be a seperate EIDE connector, however if you can determine the part number and make you can probably purchase one from either Digi-Key or Newark Electronics, they are usually made by either AMP (div. of Tyco electronics) or one of two other connector manufacterers. although I'm pretty sure AMP makes them too. But for your sake you should contact the drive manufaterer and ask them directly as they may actually give you the part number of the connector you need and were to buy it.

    Hopefully you didn't fry anything by attempting to plug it back in.
    And if you did follow the first post. and replace controllers but be sure to get the exact model you already have, then you pull a switch a roo with the controllers and image your old data and RMA the drive.
  • ...always keep a collection of different sized paperclips handy. When cut to the right length, they've replaced more than one broken pin (disclaimer: my brother once fried a motherboard that way) but on the upside, I've used paperclip "pin-shims" for broken SCSI and PS/2 male connectors.
  • Just drop by any half-decent electronics shop and buy a 40-pin connector. Remove the old guy, solder in the new one, then cross your fingers and plug it in (not in that particular order).

    Just be careful when moving the circuit board away from the steel casing. As long as you don't expose the platters you should be fine.
  • The real problem is that pin that you pushed back through the plastic. If you can get at the back side of the connector and push the pin back out (WITHOUT opening the actual HDD case (where the platters are), that should suffice (well, that and VERY CAREFULLY putting the cable on so as not to bend, recede or BREAK any more pins!).

    Of course, if any of the pins snapped you now have some really fun soldering to attempt (to either reattach the pin or hook the cable directly to the drive as someone else suggested).

    If the drive isn't big and the data isn't important, you might want to just get a new drive (especially if the pins are broken). Otherwise I have a bunch of drives with bent pins (including one where to put the cable on I had to have it at a 45 degree angle to get it over the bent pins on one side of the connector) that are working fine (provided I dont try to remove and reattach their cables).

  • Very, very carefully cut away the plactic IDE male receptor shielding leaving only the pins behind; then trim the other pins very carefully to the same length as the one that is pushed back. Then slide the cable back on very carefully in the correct orientation. Superglue that puppy on there as soon as you get it working.
  • Buy an extension IDE ribbon. Usually, the pinout is reachable on the bottom of the HD (i.e. you can see where the plug is soldered onto the controller board. By looking at the controller board you can figure out which plug-pin is which lead on the board. Plug your extension cord to the HD. Cut the wires of the ribbon that you know don't work. Solder said cut pieces onto the board pins directly. Mount HDD. Remove all data ASAP. Throw away HDD.

    I've done something pretty close in the past. The HDD is still mounted on a 486, still chugging along. Don't consider my past luck any sort of good omen for yours. You may fry the HDD, your controller and/or the motherboard.
  • tried to plug the damn cable in
    the wrong way (IDE) and one of
    the pins was pushed back into the
    plastic...

    first I actually thought the bastard
    was broken off, but figured won't
    hurt if I try to pull the pin out
    just in case...

    And the sucker actually came out and
    I still use this HD today...:-)

    so, just grab a good tool and pull
    the pin back out...

    remo
    • which
      browser
      are
      you
      using
      to
      post
      your
      c omments?

      I guess the value of the data on the disk dictates how adventurous the Asker feels - and considering he was going to ghost it (I take it that the ghosting was not complete) it could possibly be pretty significant. A data recovery specialist may not be a bad suggestion in this case. Just cause you can doesn't mean you should.

  • A good electronics supply house will not only have connectors but will have tools to pull pushed pins. Hey, sh*t happens and it's been happening for years. If the pin is pushed too deeply, you can't get a connection to the cable connector which means the drive won't work.

    Pull the pins and since you've straightend the bent ones, you should be okay.
  • I've done this before and got things working again. For bent pins I've always seperated them just enough to get a header over one of them and used the header to straighten and seperate them. Basically, just slide something between them if they're shorted and use the header to do the actual straightening.

    Pins that receded are more iffy, if they're no longer exposed I don't know what to do. If they're still exposed use tweezers or a pair of needle nosed pliers to pull them out. Use a header to straigthen them. The problem here is that they may now be loose, I've never had this happen but if it did I'd try a drop of glue at the base of the pin.

    Remember, the pins are fragile (as you've already found out) so a lot of force isn't necessary.

  • If none of the other good advice here works... (Score:4, Informative)

    by fooguy ( 237418 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2002 @01:46PM (#3150322) Homepage
    If you're not handy with a soldering iron, or some of the other approaches listed don't help, this one is pretty easy and has worked every time I've done it:

    -Buy a harddrive of the exact same make and model
    -Unscrew and disconnect the controller board from the drive. It should be held with about 4 tiny screws and one ribbon cable. Don't snap this cable too you ape!
    -Transplant the controller board, reconnecting the tiny cable correctly and actually screwing all the screws back in (I'm not good about screws).
    -Plug it in and go to town.

    Back in the old days (circa 1998) I worked in a computer store while I was in college. For some people, the two or three hundred dollars for another drive (to throw away) was cheaper than data recovery when they'd screwed it up.

    Good luck.
    • Swapping the controller card normally will work, but be aware that usually you'll end up with some problems due to the difference in the bad track mapping on the new vs the old drive.

      Specifically, a lot of drives have their defect map hard-coded into eprom at the factory and as a result if you swap boards, the sectors which wer bad and were redirected to a good spot on the new drive won't be where it expects them.

      Use this as a last resort only.

  • Can't you use a nose plier [jewellerytools.com] and straighten the pins ? That is the manual way to do it. I guess you must be able to get a nose plier from radioshack [radioshack.com]. And if you can remove the plastic casing you will be able to push the receded pins (pin #11 in your case) out. This happened to me once and I was able to straighten it out with a nose plier, but I didn't have any receded pins :-(.
    Good luck, Hope this helps.
  • BE STATIC SAFE: Earth your self.

    Use the *right tools* and the *right technique* fine tweezer nose pliers, like these,
    http://www.internettrains.com/xurtweeznosp.html

    Clamp the Drive, and place the end of the pliers past the bend, and just squeeze, DO NOT try to bend the pin back you are more like to break the pin.

    You can also use the same pliers to pull the regressed pin.

    Depending on the value of the data, you could also do do what Data Recovery Companies do. Use a Donor Drive of exactly the model and swap the electronics, this is surprisingly simple to do, usually 4-6 screws and an film edge connector.

    STATIC SAFE: Earth your self.
    • Obviously this guy screwed up the pins on the drive I doubt he was static safe to begin with.

      To simple straighten pins, I've used a small screwdriver.

      As far as data recovery in Atlanta area I'd suggest the yellow pages. There are bound to be plenty.

  • Identical drive board (Score:3)

    by hansendc ( 95162 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2002 @02:41PM (#3150842) Homepage
    When I've lost the drive electronics once, I just swapped the drive's circuit board with an identical one. Usually a few screws on the bottom come off, and voila!

    The trick is finding an IDENTICAL drive to swap boards with. I was lucky that I bought several drives at once with identical revisions and close serial numbers. But, it might be worth a try.

  • Yup... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Whatchamacallit ( 21721 )
    If you have a good soldering iron, make sure you get silver solder, not the plumbing stuff. Radio Shack is probably the easiest place to find some. Take an old IDE cable and plug it into the connector with the broken pins (preferrably NOT an ATA66/100 but an older ATA33 cable as the wires are bigger). Then determine with a multi-meter which pins are fubar, i.e. no continuity (open, no connection).

    Then carefully determine which small wire in the ribbon cable is the right one(s) and cut it loose from the drive side of the ribbon cable. An Exacto Knife should work well. Go SLOW and be as careful as you can. You can separate the wires in the ribbon cable. Watch out for exposing adjacent wires you don't want to short it out.

    Then strip the remaining insulation off the IDE wire(s) and solder it to the control board where the connector is attached. Hopefully, it will be easy to get to it and you won't have to disconnect the control board from the drive. If this is the case, try to prop it up so it doesn't short out against something like the computer case. Lay the board on something non-conductive like small piece of wood.
    • Oh yeah, some soldering tips.

      1. Pre-heat the soldering iron.
      2. Apply some solder to the tip.
      3. Wipe the tip with a damp sponge.
      4. Place the tip on the contact point and let it get good and hot before you apply the solder. You want a little bubble of heat to build (a second or two).
      5. You know it's right when the solder gets very shiny. It should not appear dull or flat. This would indicate a cold solder joint where there could be an air bubble in the middle.

      I recommend picking up some stuff from Radio Shack to practice on for a few minutes. Get a board and solder some wires through the holes. Do about 20 or so till you get the hang of it.

      It's not that hard, really. You could send the drive out but it's not cheap. Most services charge at least $300.00 to just evaluate the possibility of data recovery then most charge about $1,000 - $2,000 for the actual recovery process. You could save your self some money doing it yourself.
  • Since you wanted to replace the drive anyway, I guess money isn't much of a problem here:

    I suggest you buy a same (similar might work) drive, unscrew the controller board and replace it with the one from the new drive. Presto!

    I frequently buy boxes of broken hardware at hardware markets, and usually there are more that one drive of the same type in there, and I have fixed a lot of drives this way...

    If you are really brave, you can even straighten the pins later (when you get the board of off the drive) and possibly have two drives then!

    Sorry for the poor grammar/spelling
  • For straightening get a pair of smooth jaw flat nose pliers. And as someone else said just squeeze the pin, don't bend.
    For the pushed in pin unscrew the controller board and see if you can push it back from the other side (don't pull on it!)
    If that doesn't work go the replace controller path, then DR service.

  • mechanical pencil (Score:2, Informative)

    by Pierre ( 6251 )
    I usually use the barrel of a mechanical pencil to straighten pins on electronic components.

    Just take out the lead, insert the barrel over pin and straighten it.
  • I actually just did something very similar to an 810 MB drive from an old Aptiva (Pentium 60!). Had to cut the plastic back on the connector and resolder the pin to the board. It's not very fun, but it's far from impossible.

    Pull out a DMM and check for continuity from the pin side to the board side, and if one fails fire up the ol' soldering iron. :)

    I wouldn't have attempted to do it, except that the drive was quite useless at that point - as I assume yours is from your question. You're really out nothing if you try it, unless you open the shell up. And FYI, the drive I soldered works perfectly.

    Beware of bridging! Easy enough to remove one if it happens, but make damned sure there isn't any bridging before you plug the thing in.

  • i was backing my data on to another hard drive, and when i was putting the hard drive back (it was an old uncovered one) i forced it in to the drive bay and it popped off a capacitor (oops), i had my friends resolder it on though :) then again i'm an idiot enough to flash my bios from windows (i swear the computer wouldn't reboot to dos, good thing i use linux now and there ain't no more bios updates for this motherboard), ah well :)
  • e-mail me and let me know what brand and model of drive you're talking about. I might be able to help.
  • Just go to Radio shack and buy a pair of hemostats. Hemostats are those tiny little pliers like things they use to hold your veins and arteries closed during surgery. They have tiny little thin jaws and a lock back at the handle. Just use those to grab the pin and gently pull it out and straighten it. They work a charm, plus can do double duty as a roach clip... I mean for holding small parts while soldering, yeah, that's it.
  • I went on a trip to Florida last year and took my IBM Thinkpad 600 and the original 6gb hd that I installed AOL on it. I was going for a week so aol was my best choice becouse I could sing up and then cancel with out paying when I was in my hotel room.

    Anyways I took the drive and just threw it in my suitcase. Everything worked fine, swaped my drive in Tampa and then came back to cold germany. On the was back I also chucked my hd in the case, well one of the pins bent slightly and I forced (like an idiot) the drive in to laptop. I ended up busting the connector on the motherboard.

    Long story short I ended up fixing the HD connector with tin foil and tape. but when I was putting the laptop together the pcmcia busted. all the frikin' pins fell out! somehow I fixed that too, but this time using nail clippers to trim the pins.

    Suprisingly my Thinkpad is still kickin' ass with the hd working (loud as hell!) and both pcmcia slots working!

    Last month a freind wanted to install windows on a webplayer and needed a laptop with a cdrom, he asked me and I gave him the look. uhh sure.

  • hemos (Score:1)

    by mbj ( 66388 )
    As in hemostats. A good pair of hemostats will get you in, get the grip you need and pull those sunken pins right out. They will straighten them too.

    I did the same thing to one of my Maxtor 60GB's the other day and the hemostats were a real life-saver.
  • carefully
  • Depending on how bent they are, a wire wrap tool might do the trick. Just ease it onto the pin you want to fix and gently bend back into place. Once all the pins are fixed, find a female IDE connector and plug it in, making sure all the pins go into the right hole. If they dont line up, just do some more work with the wire wrap tool.
  • Not sure if they're still around, but check out "Cherry Systems". They're in the Technology Park area in Norcross (near JCB & 121).

    They're not cheap, but they do a damn good job.

    --Xanlexian
  • Nothing a Leatherman or needle-nose pliers cannot fix.

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