MHS: HDD pin missing

[Oni Lukos]

I scored a free 500GB Ultra ATA Seagate Barracuda hard drive from my school because it was broken. I figured, "Okay, it probably wasn't formatted properly. I'll fix it." My teacher said I could have it, so I take it home, and find that one of the pins is missing. It's pin 21, "DDRQ" according to Wikipedia, "DMARQ" according to Seagate. Is it possible to replace the pin? Or is the whole hard drive just junk now?

[diablohead]

Could you not get a 21pin head off another item (broken or cheap hdd) and rewire it up? I dont know.

[Oni Lukos]

Nonono, the head is 40 pins (well, technically 39), but the 21st pin is missing. Appears to have been broken off. I think the head is directly attached to the circuit board, too.

[Robert]

It may be easier to simply solder a wire to the broken pin spot on the PCB and mangle a cable directly connecting it to said cable that way.

[merku]

You could always try a radio shack if you live in the states. Or find a shop that sells electronic hardware.

There’s also the possibility, you could raid the pin from another hard drive, through you risk the chance of breaking it doing so.

I’d say your chances of finding a replacement are around 15%

[Robert]

It would in general be a lot more work trying to fix the broken pin, especially given the way a hard drive board is mounted with the pins stuck between the board and the metal case. Plus all the extra risk of damaging a ribbon cable or something by removing the board. I say go for the "jumper wire" plan; it's just safer and easier. At worst it's just stuck to a cable permanently, but sooner or later it would be stuck to one anyway, right?

[Oni Lukos]

Yeah, but the only spare ribbon cable I have appears to have wires cross over for some reason. I'm not exactly in the mood to use one that I can't unuse.

Also, would it be feasable to stick a conductor in the slot for the missing pin so that it contacts the part of the pin that's intact?

[Robert]

onilukos said:

Also, would it be feasable to stick a conductor in the slot for the missing pin so that it contacts the part of the pin that's intact?

Yeah, if the pin is actually still coming from the PCB at least a little, you might be able to extend it outward. But that might be too tight a space to work in, so it's hard to say. Unless, of course, you're brave enough to remove the PCB to do it. (And rationally one could say "I invested nothing so I won't lose anything.")

[Oni Lukos]

I meant in the slot for the pin in the ribbon cable.

Eh, I'll see what I can do.

Also, I appear to have a spare 40-conductor ribbon cable o.O But it's 40-conductor and not 80, so I dunno if that'd work.