Way to repair a broken IDE pin on a hard drive?

[brinstar117]

Well my 15 gig Quantum lct drive has a broken pin, it's out of warranty so I can't RMA it. Has anyone had a sucessful attempt at repairing a broken pin on a hard drive? If so, how did you do it? Thanks!

 

[gopunk]

i think your drive can still function without that one pin... dunno how to fix it though

 

[FluxCapacitor]

I've never heard of anyway to fix that. Only possible thing would be to resolder a new IDE connector to the hard drive.

How'd you manage to do that anyway?

 

[Bozz]

In most cases it can very easily be fixed but this depends on the connector. A lot of connectors are not plastic anymore but are made of bakelite and if so it's more difficult.

BTW you wont be able to RMA a drive because of a broken pin. It's like buying a new car and then returning it under warranty because you crashed it and expecting them to fix it.

The technique is to get a soldering iron and apply it to the pin where it meets the PCB on the other side of the connector. Using a set of tweezers pull the broken pin out of the 40 pin socket housing. Get a power diode (such as a 1N4007) from an electronics store and cut part of the lead off, long enough to replace the broken pin. Push this from the front of the housing through to the back and bend the pin down so it makes contact with the PCB. Solder it into place. Get some 5 minute araldite and liberally apply some on the back of the connector where you inserted the new pin to hold it in place firmly. Let the 5 minute araldite set for about 40 minutes (paradox? 🙂) and bend the pin from the front of the connector into perfect alignment with the rest of the pins.

Good luck!!

Cheers