IBM hard drive, 60GB manufactured in 2001, removed from older computer. This
is a personal computer, not used for business, but it may have some data
worth recovering. I broke off the last two pins on the IDE connector (the
row of pins nearest the power connector). Question: is there any means of
repairing the IDE connector, or otherwise recovering the data from this hard
drive? I am willing to pay a reasonable amount even though I am not certain
I even need the data. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Sure, they're standard sized pins, just with a bit unusual
bend at the end in some cases (dont' recall these minute
details about that drive, but I think I would if it were
very unusual). Any electronics repair shop (or a friend
who's experienced and has steady hands) should be able to
solder a new pair of pins on... even better if it's
someplace that is apt to have a spare hard drive lying
around so they can cannibalize a couple pins off of it
instead of hand-bending two straight pins, though that would
work fine too if the technician had attention to detail.
More difficult would be if the pads are pulled up where the
pins had been soldered down, then depending on what's
visible, maybe repairing that or trying to trace it back and
find another point to tie in a jumper wire if the signal
timings can be met. I'm a bit too lazy at the moment to
look up the ATA pinout to determine what those two pins are,
especially since it's not even clear yet that the circuit
board pads are damaged in any way... odds are good it's just
the pin itself.
There might also be the possiblity of some kind of temporary
makeshift connection, if a ribbon cable IDC (insulation
displacement connector) were opened up, a couple wires could
be put into the pin slits then after snapping it back
together, the two wires would be wrapped around the edge of
the plastic on the circuit board connector and tacked-down
on the solder pads for the pins and just soldered enough to
have reasonable contact to copy off that data, not a
permanent solution. That is a more of a hack job and
whether any particular person would think to do it depends a
lot on their repair methodology. I wouldn't pay a lot to
get it repaired though, what I mean is that it shouldn't
cost much to have it made functional enough to copy off the
data, but even so there might be a certain minimum bench fee
at a repair shop, who knows how much, maybe $50.
