hard drive pins...

so I bent one of my hard drive pins all the way to the bottom of the plastic thing and I kind of bent it back, but it's not all the way straight and won't connect to the IDE cable.

Should I try to finish fixing it myself, or is the risk of the pin snapping too great? Should I have my PC Club fix it? Also, how reliable is harddrive disk recovery service?

Thanks.
chexy

I would say to try some needlenose plier from the get-go, but there are professional pin straightening tools out there too. (Once saw ones for CPUs at least)

dmorris will have the definitive answer though. )

i can also post n00dz if need be. (aka pics)

Yeah, wouldn't hurt.

[quoteebfdb7db17="Tholek"]Yeah, wouldn't hurt.[/quoteebfdb7db17]

i'll post them tomorrow because artificial lighting sucks.

Just use some needlenose pliars like Tholek suggested, just be extremely careful and bend just enough to get the cable to connect. Don't overbend and wiggle back and forth, you'll break the pin.

If you end up breaking it, which would really suck, it's not impossible to solder in a replacement pin. Of course, that depends a lot on the design of the controller card, and the types of screws used, but it's really something you want to avoid.

Yeah do not wiggle it back and forth too much like dmorris said.

chex, u mentioned a hd recovery system, i got a computer thats fried, and i feel like trashin it but really need the info on the hd but the hd is like 30 gig and not worth keeping, how would i come about gettin it off there?

[quote585cc3bcd3="kdollar"]chex, u mentioned a hd recovery system, i got a computer thats fried, and i feel like trashin it but really need the info on the hd but the hd is like 30 gig and not worth keeping, how would i come about gettin it off there?[/quote585cc3bcd3]

Is it the drive, or the computer that's fried? If it's the drive, you'll have to pay serious money to have someone recover your files. If it's the computer, and you can remove the drive, you can either put it in another computer, assuming it's a 3.5" drive, or if it's a notebook drive/you don't have another computer, you can buy an external HD enclosure. Once you get the drive up and running again, you can simply browse to the files you want to copy and move them to your new drive.

Another thing, (and this is in general as a last ditch effort for data recovery) if the card is damaged, you can sometimes do a controller card switch with another drive from the same model or series. (Like a dead drive off eBay with a good card)

That's only really worth it if you have some state secrets on there or something. )

I heard you could use the tip of a mechanical pencil that's empty. Supposedly the hole that the lead comes out should fit the pin nicely. Haven't tried it myself though

[quote75ad1115db="compuguru"]I heard you could use the tip of a mechanical pencil that's empty. Supposedly the hole that the lead comes out should fit the pin nicely. Haven't tried it myself though[/quote75ad1115db]

I could see that working on a CPU pin, but an IDE pin would be too big, I think.

[quoteff61b75716="doylnea"][quoteff61b75716="kdollar"]chex, u mentioned a hd recovery system, i got a computer thats fried, and i feel like trashin it but really need the info on the hd but the hd is like 30 gig and not worth keeping, how would i come about gettin it off there?[/quoteff61b75716]

Is it the drive, or the computer that's fried? If it's the drive, you'll have to pay serious money to have someone recover your files. If it's the computer, and you can remove the drive, you can either put it in another computer, assuming it's a 3.5" drive, or if it's a notebook drive/you don't have another computer, you can buy an external HD enclosure. Once you get the drive up and running again, you can simply browse to the files you want to copy and move them to your new drive.[/quoteff61b75716]

the comp that is fried, maybe the motherboard or power supply, i could replace the power supply but dont have time to rebuild and build a computer all day much less spend money on a pw and have to buy a motherboard if thats not the problem.


so the hd is fine! how do i recover files, the only way is to put it in another comp?? what were u thinking chex?

well there is a company that will recover files for $100 which isn't bad... but that's a last resort for me.. I'm probably going to take it to PC club since the pin is pretty bent.

also, I bought a new 300GB hd for the computer i was building, and the damn thing still won't start up and it's PISSING me off.

Supposedly the motherboard was bad, so I returned it and got a new one (one that actually supports intel core duo2), and the damn thing still won't work. so i'm extremely pissed

what kinda hd is it (the one you just got after the return)?