Question Sata port damaged - fixable?

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Ketchup

Ketchup

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Sep 1, 2002
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I did a quick Google search, and all I find are links for internal damage. My problem is that the physical Sata port on the drive is partially broken. It's a standard 3.5 inch spinner. I am checking on the warranty but I believe I am past it. Anyone know a place that fixes something like that? The drive is all backed up, just trying to see if repair would be cost-effective.
 
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Shmee

Shmee

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What model is the drive? I don't know of any service that would do this, and it most likely would not be cost effective. Likely not covered by any warranty, even if active, due to the physical damage.

If it were a nice, larger capacity drive, such as a multi TB WD Black/Gold, then it might be feasible/worth it by swapping out the logic board if the part and labor are less than the cost of a new drive. For most drives though, they are cheap, and it would probably make more sense to get a new one.
 
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Soulkeeper

Soulkeeper

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Nov 23, 2001
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Chances are the read/write heads were parked when it dropped and they weren't broken.
The pcb on the drive can be replaced, if the sata connector cannot be resoldered/replaced.
There are several companies that can do this, but it can require a specific revision and bios version be matched to your drive.
Personally i'd only go that route if you have important data on it because it will likely cost more than a replacement drive.

I don't know if i'm allowed to link to it, but i'm selling a lightly used Toshiba MD04ACA500 5TB.
 
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Ketchup

Ketchup

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In my case, the drive didn't drop. The cheap plastic around the sata pins broke off. When trying to reattach the cord, the pins just bend, so apparently I am not getting them to the "just right" position manually.
 
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Soulkeeper

Soulkeeper

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If you have a soldering iron, and some patience, you can likely replace the entire connector.
Sometimes ebay has salvaged pcb's for cheap too, if you can find the exact part number (might not work).
 
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I

igor_kavinski

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Ketchup said:
In my case, the drive didn't drop. The cheap plastic around the sata pins broke off. When trying to reattach the cord, the pins just bend, so apparently I am not getting them to the "just right" position manually.
Click to expand...
Had that happen to me twice in the span of two or three days once. Made me really hate that connector. One was a 2.5 inch HDD that I had to cram into the really cramped HDD bay of a Latitude laptop. The pins got bent out of the connector. Still managed to wiggle them in and it worked. Other was a 3.5 inch drive. Again, trying to fit the HDD into an HP desktop's cramped HDD bay and the connector broke off. Made it work by putting a piece of paper between the pins and the SATA cable connector to help the pins make contact.
 
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Ketchup

Ketchup

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Appreciate that. Will give it some more tries this weekend. I went ahead and ordered another Western Digital today anyway. Don't want to run the risk of being without some of my data backed up (even though the less important data is on this one) for too long.
 
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Ketchup

Ketchup

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Ok, thank you. Never got into soldering, but may know someone who is. Would hate to lose an otherwise perfectly fine 4 TB drive. Even though I have a replacement on the way, would hate to lose 4 TB of space. I am sure I can still put it to use somewhere 😀
 
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mastertech01

mastertech01

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I recently found new
Toshiba MG04ACA600E 6TB 7200RPM 128MB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive on Ebay for 89.00. Pretty cheap fix.
 
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Ketchup

Ketchup

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Shmee

Shmee

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sdifox said:
It's a grey market drive, no warranty from WD. You don't even know if it is new.
Click to expand...
Yikes, I would rather buy an open box WD Gold (as I did for a good deal). At least those have the 5 year warranty from WD.
 
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mindless1

mindless1

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Aug 11, 2001
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sdifox said:
They are surface mount, so you need to desolder the existing one, then try to solder new one in.
Click to expand...
Soldering the new one in may be easier than desoldering the off as it might *require* a hot air rework station and might also dislodge some adjacent components in the process.
 
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