Broke Plastic Sata connector away from Sata Prongs. Working again, but need advice.

mingsoup

Golden Member
May 17, 2006
1,295
2
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Hi. I broke the sata plastic tab away from the stata metal prongs on a ST3250823AS. I was able to take the broken plastic part and put it back against the prongs on the hard drive, and reset the SATA cable. Windows booted back up and everything is looking okay. This happened because my case is pretty tight (P180) down in the hard drive bay, I should be using a right angle sata cable really. Anyways, it seems to be working okay again. How can I test if it is truly working again. How can I test througput? I'm downloading SeaTools now for a run.

What would you do? Do they sell replacement controller boards or connectors? Should I glue it back? How can I test to see if my fix is actually stable for the time being? I don't want to throw this hard drive away.

Thanks.
 

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
6,298
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Don't bump your case or it may fall off again.

They don't sell replacement PCB as far as I know, often people have to track down a new one for a failing drive to recover data and they just buy a new drive of the same model.

You've now got a very good reason to keep important stuff backed up. The drive may work fine for years or may fail tomorrow, not really any way of knowing. Just to be safe keep your photos/music/etc on DVD so if the drive craps out you don't lose everything.
 

GiganticPanda

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2008
4
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I did this recently too. There are a bunch of ways to test the speed of the drive, but really as long as the pins are getting good contact the drive should work. As far as securing that connector in place so it does not fall off, well I just used some epoxy and glued it in place. So far its worked really well, and as a plus you will never lose that cable again. As a less permanent alternative, I have read that many people have used a type of locking connector made by western digital with good success, a little bit of looking on newegg.com should find you something.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
I almost broke off the connector off my brand new WD Caviar Black drive I just got in today. I would have been so pissed at myself.
 

pm

Elite Member Mobile Devices
Jan 25, 2000
7,419
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I glued mine back on with super glue... still working and holding just fine. GiganticPanda's suggestion of epoxy is a good one too - although I think super glue is a bit more precise/delicate for stuff like this.

Alternatively, RMA it back under warranty to the manufacturer.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
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Originally posted by: pm
I glued mine back on with super glue... still working and holding just fine. GiganticPanda's suggestion of epoxy is a good one too - although I think super glue is a bit more precise/delicate for stuff like this.

Alternatively, RMA it back under warranty to the manufacturer.

I opened this thread fully expecting to post my solution of superglueing it back together as I did to mine when I broke it off a raptor...seems I was beaten to the punch :)
 

mingsoup

Golden Member
May 17, 2006
1,295
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Thank for the replies. Seems like you guys have gotten by just fine. See, I was able to just fit the broken plastic back next to the prongs and reclip, and the things seems to hold.