Snapped SATA Connection on HDD, Can i replace with this?

[+Byt Subscriber¹]

Hey All,

When pulling out a sata cable from a hard drive, i was a bit to forceful and have broken the plastic connection from the hard drive, as you can see here...

I'm wondering if i can unscrew the circuit board from the back of this hard drive and replace it with a known good working one off a drive of the same make?

This is the current drive...

This is the spare drive...

And here they are side by side, will the circuit board on the right hard drive work on the one on the left?

I haven't done anything like this before to a hard drive so im very worried about this.

Thank You!

[n_K]

Nope it probably won't work.

You could probably get a replacement header, desolder the old one and replacement it but afaik it's all SMD soldering, so probably easiest to get someone else that's skilled to do it.

[+Byt Subscriber¹]

Balls, is it safe to just plugged a sata cable into it as it is? just be careful not to bend it?

[briango]

It won't work. You need to find another drive or PCB that's exactly like what you have. The firmware # also needs to be the same.

I would plug it in and see if it works. If it does, copy what you need off the drive.

[Detection]

Balls, is it safe to just plugged a sata cable into it as it is? just be careful not to bend it?

Yea so long as the contacts are still connected to the board, make sure they don't touch

[+Byt Subscriber¹]

If i try and replace the board, with that spare drives one, is there a chance it will corrupt / blow up the drive beyond repair?

[Phemo]

I'd probably say to attempt swapping the PCBs if they were both 500GB drives, but since one's 500GB and the other is 250GB, no, it won't work at all. The BIOS will see the drive as being a 250GB drive since that's what that PCB's firmware is for, so even if it did manage to function, your data would likely be screwed. I wouldn't bother.

Do you not have the old piece of plastic that snapped off? I'd personally attempt to glue it on and if I had to, glue a SATA cable in place.

[floopydoodle]

You don't want to touch the srews on a hard drive. Without the correct torque on the screws it will destabilize the whole hard drive and it won't work at all.

Maybe you could glue a sata cable to the surrounding plastic as it seems the actual connector is intact.

[Detection]

If i try and replace the board, with that spare drives one, is there a chance it will corrupt / blow up the drive beyond repair?

Yes.

[+Byt Subscriber¹]

I do have the plastic bit, it looks awkard to get it back in place and i dont want to get glue on the pins!

I have found this spare drive... its a 500GB but its firmware says HP12 though, hmmm im tempted to try, its only because this is my main machines hard drive thats all, i do have a backup, i just want to save myself the time of reinstalling everything if possible.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

i accidentially snapped a SATA connector, what i ended up having to do was Super Glue the plastic back aganst the metal, then transfered the data off it quick to another drive

[ToneKnee]

Super glue should be fine since it's the back of the pins that need to be glued rather than the other side that needs to stay clean. I would try gluing. :p

[goofyinthehead]

just plug it in and use it. what are you afraid of? Once it's in place you're not going to be moving it around are you?

[Japlabot]

Just plug in the other drive (or any other drive you want to replace it with) without changing any PCBs around, then just restore your data from backup.

[PaulNY]

i accidentially snapped a SATA connector, what i ended up having to do was Super Glue the plastic back aganst the metal, then transfered the data off it quick to another drive

I did something similar, I hot-melt glued a sata cable onto the drive and its been working perfectly for years (its on my secondary system with non-important data, so I was fine experimenting)

[+Byt Subscriber¹]

Just plug in the other drive (or any other drive you want to replace it with) without changing any PCBs around, then just restore your data from backup.

Thats the last resort imo, i want to try and fix it first, if it doesnt work, then ill restore the data onto a new drive, not one of these spares.

[XP1]

It won't work. You need to find another drive or PCB that's exactly like what you have. The firmware # also needs to be the same.

Depending on how long you have used the drive, finding the nearly exact PCB match may not work either, especially on modern drives. Modern drives store unique calibration data. As the drive ages, the calibration data becomes even more unique. The best chance to do a PCB swap is when the differences between the calibration data are as small as possible (in other words, when the drives are brand new).

If i try and replace the board, with that spare drives one, is there a chance it will corrupt / blow up the drive beyond repair?

They don't even match. Of course, you are gonna have a bad time.