Broken IDE Pins. I'm screwed aren't I?

Rev

I put a new PSU in today and replaced my motherboard, when I put my slave drive back on and booted up again windows hung a few times before eventually booting up, I checked 'my computer' to make sure all three of my drives were registered and figured I was sorted until I clicked on my D drive (80GB hitachi) and windows said it wasn't formatted.

I know it is, and I was registering the E drive just fine. I unplugged it, figuring I hadn't done it properly the first time and noticed two of the IDE pins were broken.

I know I'm pretty screwed but is there any chance at all of me getting the data from the drive? I know the drive is screwed and I'll need a replacement.

It's basically the drive I keep all my photo's and things on, so mostly sentimental value but I'd really like to get them back.

Any solution that doesn't involve me paying a fortune to a data recovery service?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

wonderfullife_2

Hi
How are you with a soldering iron? Have you thought of trying to replace the broken pins with either wires or perhaps 2 pins from an old hd, and soldering them on. It might not last long, but it could get it up and running so you can get your old data off it.

Just a thought

Joe_Bloggs

Here is a picture and info on an IDE interface. Seven are ground and one is missing anyway. You may be lucky and are just missing a ground. Find out what signals are missing. You may be able to splice them into the older type of 40 pin ide cable from where they are soldered into the board. Keep wires short and reduce the data transfer mode in the bios settings just to be safe.
J_B.

wonka

There are data recovery agencies who could sort this out, such as Vogon. They tend to be expensive, depending on the problem.

In this case, all they would have to do is replace the IDE socket, which I'm sure shouldn't be that tricky for an electronics technician... can't believe it would be that tricky. Get a quote off them.

If it is too expensive, I'd be inclined to try it myself if I were you. As wonderfullife says, it only needs to be temporary...

Lorian

Are you able to post up a picture of the damage?

Are the pins broken or just bent down out of the way? They usually don't break unless you try to straighten them.

If you do then PM me, as I may not see the reply.

Rev

thanks for the replies.

looking at the diagram of what pin does, assuming I'm reading it right, pin 1 is totally gone, pin 2 is only half there and pin 20 is only half there.

The totally broken pin is a result of me trying to straighten it but I didn't even notice the half broken ones until that was gone.

Never even held a soldering iron

Joe_Bloggs

Looking into a 40 pin socket pin 1 is top right if the gap in the plastic surround of the socket is at the top. Pin 2 is imediately below. Unfortunately pin 1 (-reset) is a problem. You could probably get away without pin2 (ground) and 20 should be missing or cut down. On the particular drive I'm looking at, pins 2 - 40 are exposed on the top side of the PCB. Pins 1 - 39 are on the underside. This would require unscrewing the controller board to gain access. There may be a convenient via (a through hole) on the top side. The good news is the reset on the IDE cable is often marked in red on the outside of the cable and easily accesible.
This is probably a 5 minute job for an experienced electronics technician.
J_B.

Rev

yeah then I read it right, pin 1 is half missing and pin two is gone totally.

So does this mean I'm screwed?

Joe_Bloggs

If you were to find a similar bit of pin you could perhaps wedge it down the hole in the cable so that electrical contact was made. This would be very flaky but it might be enough to back up the information. Because the pin is on the edge of the connector there may be other brute force approaches.
Why not request a quote from a local PC repair shop.
J_B.

Rev

Yeah, I'll have a call round today and see.

Thanks for the help folks.

ABH_3

I've always thought that this here represents good value for data recovery, much cheaper than relying upon ontrack et al.

HTH