HDD hanging on by a thread

[fustercluck]

Part of the connector for one of my HDD ports got broken off, not the pins, but some of the plastic. I think the plastic came off the HD and is lodged in the cable itself. It's barely hanging in there and I'm surprised it even boots up frankly. Already backed up all my important files...but I want to save this drive if I could, it's a 400GB. All I can think is to maybe use some kind of rubber band system to keep it in place firmly all the times, that cable is barely hanging in there. Any better ideas? Damn computer stuff is so sensitive...especially HDD connectors.

 

[imported_wired247]

epoxy?

go for the 20 minute stuff so it doesn't set before you're done working with it

 

[zerocool84]

Those SATA connectors break off easily if you aren't careful. If you have a steady hand, you can try to glue it on with just a little bit of superglue or like you said, secure it with something.

 

[fustercluck]

alright, sounds like glue to the rescue...going to be kind of a globby mess though...also will glue interfere with any kind of electrical currents or anything like that?

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: fustercluck
alright, sounds like glue to the rescue...going to be kind of a globby mess though...also will glue interfere with any kind of electrical currents or anything like that?

I know people frequently use hotglue on electronics and it doesn't interfere.

 

[fustercluck]

is epoxy hot glue? is epoxy what I want to get or pretty much any super glue will work?

 

[Modelworks]

Use hot glue, from a glue gun, the kind used for crafts with the sticks. It can be removed easily if you need to. Epoxy and super glue are permanent.

 

[wwswimming]

hot glue doesn't adhere very well, to the surfaces you're trying to fix.

is it a PATA drive or a SATA drive ?

i'd say this is a job for 2 part epoxy, not hot glue & not superglue.

with epoxy you have time to shape the glue around the parts you're fixing,
and some confidence that the glue will stick.

another option is to glue the connector (not sure if it's power or signal) to
the hard drive, so that you have "flying leads". that is, a hard drive with
a cable firmly attached, so it can still be attached to a motherboard and/or
power supply connector.

 

[ViRGE]

I've done the same thing before. Honestly, I just used some tape to keep the cable orientation correct. The cables I had were tight enough that this keeps the whole thing firmly attached.

AnandTech has an excellent article on this where they did the same thing, BTW.