Topic: Portable hard drives connector head broke off of the motherboard. HELP!!!

[ohcheap1]

[dweez]

This is a cruddy situation.  If you can find an identical model, you can try swapping out the PCB boards between the two.

If you can find someone with mucho skill, they might be able to hack some solder job directly to the pins leading from the PCB to the disk housing.


But that's an ugly mess.  When I've experience situations like this in the past I've normally had to suck it up and count it as a loss.

There are data recovery companies out there that have the resources to easily recover the data off something like this but they aren't cheap.

[brickbatz]

Unscrew the PCB and you have a regular hard drive. You can connect it to a PC or use an external USB docking station.

  $20.00 USD

Newegg

[dweez]

Ah, I didn't even notice that it does look like that PCB is "extra".  brickbatz's idea just might work.  Good eye brick.

[brickbatz]

It is extra. The PCB went bad on my 2 TB WD external hard drive. I unscrewed it and stuck it in a dock. It's connected to my media player and all of my movies still play as they should.

[smokester]

I can't see what connection the HDD has because the PCB is attached, but if you pull it off and check, you should be able to buy a USB adaptor for it off Ebay for couple of dollars. Something like this or this.

[ohcheap1]

Hhhmmm..... There is no USB port to connect to the docking station and Im assuming that USB is the only way to attach it? Ohhhhhh wait. So Im actually plugging in the PCB board? Smokes, I like this idea too. But Im guessing it would be best to take the drive with me to a computer shop to match up the heads on the drive to an adaptor. I feel insecure about doing it on the web only because I cant see if the head matches. Is it a standard size head? Obviously it would be cheaper but ANYTHING would be cheaper than having a pro do it. Lol

[smokester]

It looks like that PCB is just pushed on (sometimes they're screwed). If you rock the PCB gently from side to side (not up and down) it should just pull off revealing the HDD connection which should be fairly standard.

[dweez]

Odds are, it's a standard hdd with the PCB being a less standard attachment.

[ohcheap1]

[dweez]

Correct.  Based on the Model number in that image, this is the actual drive without the added PCB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152291

And based on the third image on that page (see image below), here are the connectors.



Which are identical to 3.5 Serial ATA connectors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2.5-inch_SATA_drive_on_top_of_a_3.5-inch_SATA_drive,_close-up_of_data_and_power_connectors.jpg).

So remove the PCB and you have a regular internal 3.5" SATA hard drive which you can use just like any other hdd.

[smokester]

You'll actually need this lead like I linked before as it has a pair of USB connections: one for data and one for power. Using a standard SATA lead would mean borrowing power from the PSU (if connecting to a tower) or buying another power adaptor.

[brickbatz]

I prefer an AC powered docking station. It only uses one USB port and doesn't rely on the machine for power.

[ohcheap1]

Damn Smokes! I need to update your hair dont I? Ha!!! Thanks again Gentlemen!

[smokester]

Damn Smokes! I need to update your hair dont I?

You'd need a very strong pair of glasses, perhaps even a microscope.

I prefer an AC powered docking station. It only uses one USB port and doesn't rely on the machine for power.

I don't disagree with that but it is quite useful having the adaptor/s as part of your kit. If friends' or other drives that are yours start to play up or fail, you can hook it up quickly and bounce the data off to something more stable and then put the adaptor back in its box.

And they're cheap.