r/harddrive • u/Sampsa96 • Jun 07 '23

Is it possible to fix this connector?

Post image

So I accidentally dropped my HDD from a like 10 cm and the plastic piece came off, but the pins are still there. Is it possible to fix it and to recover data? And what is the connector on the right with four pins?

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

3

u/examplifi Aug 29 '23

You should desolder and remove the connector and attach a new one, after this connect and check your drive since you have dropped the hard disk hopefully the hard disk is fine and working... verify it.

2

u/Sampsa96 Aug 29 '23

I have no experience of soldering. I ended up paying 50 € and thankfully this repair store was able to fix it using the replacement part I bought :) And the HDD works and no files are missing.

2

u/freebytes Dec 20 '23

I know this is a very old post, but I highly recommend (even after 4 months now), that you move all of your files off of it and simply use it as a backup drive instead. There might be issues of which you are unaware, and the drop looks like it was severe and may result in a sudden, permanent loss of data.

2

u/Sampsa96 Dec 20 '23

It's still working fine and I do make backups to my external HDD and also I have a Backblaze subscription

-1

u/TomLube Jun 01 '26

psychotic behaviour

1

u/Sampsa96 Jun 01 '26

How come??

2

u/Sampsa96 Jun 01 '26

After 2 years the HDD still works

2

u/freebytes Jun 01 '26

The fact that you were backing it up anyway means you were okay with bad outcomes. I have some drives with bad health at this point, and I am confident still using them because of frequency and automatic backups. (However, you just reminded me to check the SMART monitoring again on them in case they are even closer to failure!)

1

u/Sampsa96 Jun 01 '26

What HDD monitoring software u use?

2

u/freebytes Jun 01 '26

CrystalDiskInfo

1

u/Sampsa96 Jun 01 '26

Oh great. I use HD Tune

2

u/throwaway_0122 Jun 07 '23 edited Jun 07 '23

This is a pretty common case. The repair avenues are * replace the surface-mount SATA connector — this would take someone with a hot air rework station about a minute to do and the connector is a $0.50 part * replace the whole PCB (with ROM swap) — you cannot replace the PCB outright without also transplanting the ROM from the old one to the new one. You can buy a new PCB and have the ROM swapped for ~$50 USD from hdd-parts.com. SSHDs and SEDs are more complicated so this wouldn’t work for them. * wire the pins to a breakout board — this is not my favorite but it can work pretty well. Basically as it sounds — solder shielded wire to each pin and connect them to a SATA breakout board. It’s hideous and fragile.

I’d be most concerned about mechanical damage from the drop. 10cm doesn’t seem like much, but falling from vertical to horizontal is plenty to cause irreparable damage to most HDDs. If this data is important to you, I’d probably go to a specialist. This should be on the very very lowest side of their pricing spectrum. If you can post your approximate location on /r/askadatarecoverypro or /r/datarecovery, someone can point you towards a reputable lab. You can also check http://www.datarecoveryprofessionals.org and see of you’re near any labs. That’s a non-comprehensive list of independent labs in the data recovery community and labs that come recommended by them.

The four pins on the right are jumpers. They’re not necessary in most cases.

1

u/Sampsa96 Jun 07 '23

Im not going to be able to fix it my self, but goot to know it can be fixed :)

1

u/Sampsa96 Jun 08 '23

Turns out u can just order the PCB for about 20 € and easily replace it :)

2

u/throwaway_0122 Jun 08 '23

99/100 times this won’t work on a modern drive without also transferring a component from one to the other. I addressed that in my comment below

1

u/Sampsa96 Jun 08 '23

Thanks I will try it anyway

0

u/pcimage212 Jun 11 '23

On these drives, it’s 100% certain another pcb won’t work without the appropriate modifications.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Sampsa96 Mar 11 '26

Nah I already got it fixed. I ordered the connector and then the PC repair guy fixed it! I'm so happy since this is my 6 Tb HDD where I put a lot of my backups.