# Alternative to powering my hard drive that has a broken power pin?



## pizza (Apr 5, 2013)

I have a hard drive that no longer powers on anymore because i accidentally broke one of the 4 power pins  on the drive. Before this happened it was fully functional its an IDE western digital from 2007 and all i want to do is take the data off. A tech told me i could use an ide power cord, cut it and connect the yellow cord to the power point or little piece of metal thats connected to the power pin where the broken is on the electric board. Now, my question is will this idea work or will it fry the drive.


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 5, 2013)

Yes it will work.You would have to be a very good soldering guy though.Just make sure it is on the the right pad for it to work.Remember when you flip over the drive anything on the right(your right)will be on the left(your left)And read what is printed on the pcb broad under neath,You could take an old plug(those extension ones would work great) and take the white part off so the male pins are exposed cut the wires down from it,Solder it to the drive and affix  it so the pins will go into the plug from your power supply.Or use mare connectors.Seeing as you only want the data off the drive.

here is some info for the molex 4 pin power plug for you .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molex_connector

just remember yellow to yellow black to black red to red.

Also make sure you have male female extension like this http://www.coolerguys.com/powerext.html    cut the male part off and solder the rest to drive.This way the male part will go into your female part from your power supply.  

Here is what i mean in pictures.


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## pizza (Apr 5, 2013)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Yes it will work.You would have to be a very good soldering guy though.Just make sure it is on the the right pad for it to work.Remember when you flip over the drive anything on the right(your right)will be on the left(your left)And read what is printed on the pcb broad under neath,You could take an old plug(those extension ones would work great) and take the white part off so the male pins are exposed cut the wires down from it,Solder it to the drive and affix  it so the pins will go into the plug from your power supply.Or use mare connectors.Seeing as you only want the data off the drive.
> 
> here is some info for the molex 4 pin power plug for you .
> 
> ...


 i dont know how to solder but the tech told me i could try to tape the yellow cord to the little metal circle on the board. but if i have to solder then ill just have to pay someone.


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## Athlon2K15 (Apr 5, 2013)

hold the power wire to the solder point really tight and hot glue it in place.


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## pizza (Apr 6, 2013)

AthlonX2 said:


> hold the power wire to the solder point really tight and hot glue it in place.



so went to this guys computer store to buy the power cord, and he didn't have one and they told me that trying to put the cut wire on the power point could cause a short in the electric board. But do you think he just wants to make money because he was saying well he could open up the drive and take the data off for me for a very cheap price?


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## cadaveca (Apr 6, 2013)

pizza said:


> so went to this guys computer store to buy the power cord, and he didn't have one and they told me that trying to put the cut wire on the power point could cause a short in the electric board. But do you think he just wants to make money because he was saying well he could open up the drive and take the data off for me for a very cheap price?



Yes, he's pulling your leg a little. 


I mean, he's right, you could do it wrong, and short it out, for sure.

But not if you are careful, and only if you do it wrong.

I mean, there's 4 wires, 4 solder pads, should be pretty easy. 


I'm gonna jump out on a limb and say you're young? Soldering is pretty simple, really, lots of youtube guides, and it makes sense to practice on old electronics you don't need, just so you get used to how it works...solder irons can be had for as little as $5.

I could fix this in about 30 seconds..well, OK, 10 minutes for the iron to heat up. 



BTW what you need is a 4-PIN MOLEX-to-4-pin MOLEX power adapter. You'll remove the wire for the broken pin, attach it to the pad that's right there...


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 6, 2013)

Her read this from 20004 topic........http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/164116-31-broken-hard-drive-soldering-advice

 i can`t believe i am posting a link to Tom`s..........


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## pizza (Apr 7, 2013)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Her read this from 20004 topic........http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/164116-31-broken-hard-drive-soldering-advice
> 
> i can`t believe i am posting a link to Tom`s..........



so i went and bought the 4 Pin Molex Power Cord Extension Cable adapter at a pc shop, and i guess ill try the next step.


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 7, 2013)

pizza said:


> so i went and bought the 4 Pin Molex Power Cord Extension Cable adapter at a pc shop, and i guess ill try the next step.



Try to take it to some place that does repairs if you can,I some times wish there was a conductive tape for such a quick and needed repair ,(I wonder if muffler tape has enough metal in to tape the cable on it). Just make sure you don`t use to high a heat from the soldering gun  and also DO NOT TOUCH THE PADS TOGETHER ......Forgot to mention the 12v rail should be labelled on the pcb with an arrow or a 1 kinda of like that pic above.

OKay wow does WD website change alot or something.....Anyways try using this software http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en To clone or copy to another drive when you get it going. would be the easiest way.


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## pizza (Apr 7, 2013)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Try to take it to some place that does repairs if you can,I some times wish there was a conductive tape for such a quick and needed repair ,(I wonder if muffler tape has enough metal in to tape the cable on it). Just make sure you don`t use to high a heat from the soldering gun  and also DO NOT TOUCH THE PADS TOGETHER ......Forgot to mention the 12v rail should be labelled on the pcb with an arrow or a 1 kinda of like that pic above.
> 
> OKay wow does WD website change alot or something.....Anyways try using this software http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en To clone or copy to another drive when you get it going. would be the easiest way.



i forgot to mention this guy at a junk shop that sells soldering irons told me that i may need a desoldering tool and a soldering tool.


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 7, 2013)

pizza said:


> i forgot to mention this guy at a junk shop that sells soldering irons told me that i may need a desoldering tool and a soldering tool.



Uhm no that is if you want to take the whole plug off ,Just put some solder on the wires first then do one at a time over the pads with just the heat from the gun to solder them.You could try just using electrical tape to hold the wires in place long enough to get your data off it.


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## jihadjoe (Apr 7, 2013)

I wouldnt trust the tape not to come off.
Just solder it, it's easy. Heck they taught us to solder back in high school.


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## Frick (Apr 7, 2013)

jihadjoe said:


> I wouldnt trust the tape not to come off.
> Just solder it, it's easy. Heck they taught us to solder back in high school.



Well yes and no. You sort of have to know a bit before doing anything. You can break things if you're not careful. There is actually a pretty good place to start right here on TPU:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17004


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## pizza (Apr 7, 2013)

Frick said:


> Well yes and no. You sort of have to know a bit before doing anything. You can break things if you're not careful. There is actually a pretty good place to start right here on TPU:
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17004



im going to buy the right solder tomorrow but untill then i was going to test on a junk hard drive cuting off the red 5v cord and glueing the metal wire to the little metal circle on the pcb board. But i have this fear that it will spark lol


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 7, 2013)

make sure it has no power going to it first.


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## pizza (Apr 8, 2013)

H82LUZ73 said:


> make sure it has no power going to it first.



 Great! when i cut the 5v red wire and touch the solder point with it, it powered up just like you guys said it would!

i have a usb to ide to sata adapter to transfer the files and at first the drive powered up but did not start making loading noises until i placed the jumper into the slave mode. But i cant deny that soldering it would be allot better because i wont have to hold the wire.

one partition has 40 gigs and the other has 15 so its going to be though with out soldering that's for sure !


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## de.das.dude (Apr 8, 2013)

dont you have people there who does electronics works? have them solder it for you.
if you were in my country, i'd do it for free if you sent it to me 

it wont take more than 10 seconds!


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## pizza (Apr 8, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> dont you have people there who does electronics works? have them solder it for you.
> if you were in my country, i'd do it for free if you sent it to me
> 
> it wont take more than 10 seconds!



i know what you mean but these guys in my local area keep saying "well we dont wanna take a risk with something sensitive like that so call a pc repair shop!" its mostly tv repair shops that i know of to call because if you try to bring it to a tech no matter what their going to try to sale their data recovery services.

and as i look at YouTube tutorials on soldering, it does look kind of easy though.


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## pizza (Apr 8, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> dont you have people there who does electronics works? have them solder it for you.
> if you were in my country, i'd do it for free if you sent it to me
> 
> it wont take more than 10 seconds!



Ok, so i was able to get a tv repair guy to do a quick solder but for some reason the drive is not showing up in my computer 

he also put blue tape on the board so the soldered cord cant move


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## Black Panther (Apr 8, 2013)

Can you upload a photo of the soldering job?


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## pizza (Apr 8, 2013)

Black Panther said:


> Can you upload a photo?



ok so i finally see my data after restarting the pc But, when i click on many folders windows is saying "the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable"


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## Jetster (Apr 8, 2013)

Just replace the board


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## pizza (Apr 10, 2013)

Jetster said:


> Just replace the board



would hooking the ide drive to an ide computer be better than using a ide to sata usb adapter because of so may conversions ?


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 10, 2013)

pizza said:


> would hooking the ide drive to an ide computer be better than using a ide to sata usb adapter because of so may conversions ?



Does your board have a ide port to begin with ? If yes try that .Those ide to sata converters always seemed fishy when i used one to get data off an old maxtor 200 gig drive i had.One time it would show up then reboot 3 times and it would work.I would use the ide and lay the drive down on a static bag inside the case so the bottom is facing up.

You say that Windows is (7/8) is telling you the folders or corrupt could it be that you pulled the power plug when the psu was still plugged in ? 

Yes changing the board would be good,But finding one that would match up to his drive that is not in use still will be hard (2007) is not that old of a drive and most users (like me that still have an old 200gig) usually use them for storing music- backups of main drive.....It is worth a shot though.


(Sorry if it makes some sense and then not ,Just woke up and need my coffee )


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## Jetster (Apr 10, 2013)

pizza said:


> would hooking the ide drive to an ide computer be better than using a ide to sata usb adapter because of so may conversions ?



Buy a Identical drive used on e bay and switch the boards. I really doubt its the adapter


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## pizza (Apr 10, 2013)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Does your board have a ide port to begin with ? If yes try that .Those ide to sata converters always seemed fishy when i used one to get data off an old maxtor 200 gig drive i had.One time it would show up then reboot 3 times and it would work.I would use the ide and lay the drive down on a static bag inside the case so the bottom is facing up.
> 
> You say that Windows is (7/8) is telling you the folders or corrupt could it be that you pulled the power plug when the psu was still plugged in ?
> 
> ...



yea actually i did take the power cord out out the drive with out shutting down windows but i thought it was different this way?  now my drive is saying 96 gb unallocated in disk management, even though its a 160 gb drive. The 2 partitions are not showing up anymore is the drive slowly falling apart ?


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## pizza (Apr 12, 2013)

Jetster said:


> Buy a Identical drive used on e bay and switch the boards. I really doubt its the adapter



ok, so i am going to try and replace the board and i found a very similar pcb board online.
but i have a question, i have heard that with recent hard drives you cant just replace the eletric board but you have to take some of the chips off? im not sure if that is true in my case but here is my drive "WD1600AAJB-00PVA0" it came out in 2007 so i hope not. But if its true then i guess it is but is there a way that i can find out ?


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 12, 2013)

pizza said:


> yea actually i did take the power cord out out the drive with out shutting down windows but i thought it was different this way?  now my drive is saying 96 gb unallocated in disk management, even though its a 160 gb drive. The 2 partitions are not showing up anymore is the drive slowly falling apart ?



Well you fried the drive when you did that.


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## pizza (Apr 12, 2013)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Well you fried the drive when you did that.



actually in disk management its saying 149 gb again so i guess that was temporally.


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## winofiend (Apr 12, 2013)

pizza said:


> actually in disk management its saying 149 gb again so i guess that was temporally.



From the sounds of it, after reading this, it seems you were doing everything in a Live system. Touching live wires with solder and so on? Oo

And I bet you plugged the HDD back in, Live too? 

I did that by accident once with a non hot-swappable drive caddy on an old 80gb drive. It showed up as 80gb in devices, but everything on it was kaput. 

Good luck!!

oO


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## pizza (Apr 12, 2013)

winofiend said:


> From the sounds of it, after reading this, it seems you were doing everything in a Live system. Touching live wires with solder and so on? Oo
> 
> And I bet you plugged the HDD back in, Live too?
> 
> ...



yea i did and i stopped doing that and the drive seems like its trying to go back to normal after i stopped.


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## 95Viper (Apr 12, 2013)

pizza said:


> yea i did and i stopped doing that and the drive seems like its trying to go back to normal after i stopped.



Never seen a drive with corrupted data heal itself on a regular consumer drive...

Try and get your data, you wish to save, off the drive now.
If it is corrupt... run a disk check on it to fix it, as much as possible.
And, try again.

Sounds like you are going to end up frying something... unless, that is your goal; then, go for it.


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## pizza (Apr 22, 2013)

95Viper said:


> Never seen a drive with corrupted data heal itself on a regular consumer drive...
> 
> Try and get your data, you wish to save, off the drive now.
> If it is corrupt... run a disk check on it to fix it, as much as possible.
> ...



OK, so i took the advice to swap my pcb board with a working pcb board and i finally got one. So im going to see if it just works so here goes nothing!!


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## Geofrancis (Apr 23, 2013)

if it doesn't work buy an molex splitter cable and insert one plug into the broken hard drive then cut and strip a wire from the other plug to solder where the broken pin was.

take it to a mobile phone technician they should be skilled enough with a soldering iron to put the wire on without destroying the hard drive.


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## pizza (Apr 23, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> if it doesn't work buy an molex splitter cable and insert one plug into the broken hard drive then cut and strip a wire from the other plug to solder where the broken pin was.
> 
> take it to a mobile phone technician they should be skilled enough with a soldering iron to put the wire on without destroying the hard drive.



yea it did Not work, i was hopping it would but it sucked. Now its making a power failure noise in the drive with both pcb's boards.   It starts up and shuts itself off i hope my data is not fried.


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## Radical_Edward (Apr 23, 2013)

pizza said:


> yea it did Not work, i was hopping it would but it sucked. Now its making a power failure noise in the drive with both pcb's boards.   It starts up and shuts itself off i hope my data is not fried.



Honestly you've most likely lost your data as beyond your means of recovery. It sounds like you may have damaged something inside the drive at this point.

If the data is important enough to you, it's time to send it to an expert.

Otherwise, use this as a lesson to always have multiple copies of data you care about. 1 is none - 2 is one, etc.


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## pizza (Apr 24, 2013)

Radical_Edward said:


> Honestly you've most likely lost your data as beyond your means of recovery. It sounds like you may have damaged something inside the drive at this point.
> 
> If the data is important enough to you, it's time to send it to an expert.
> 
> Otherwise, use this as a lesson to always have multiple copies of data you care about. 1 is none - 2 is one, etc.



Even though the drive is damaged i cant believe the pcb board swap worked because data pros said it wouldn't. I put the damaged pcb board from my drive and put it on the replica drive that i got and it put up in windows.


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## Jetster (Apr 24, 2013)

Great, Its work many time for me


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## pizza (Apr 24, 2013)

Jetster said:


> Great, Its work many time for me



yea my damaged drive is not working and is clicking but the pcb board thing for this western digital drive works. Honestly i thought it wouldn't


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