[Mark]

One of the pins on the back of the unit was pressed in @ 3/4 of the way. I pulled it out as gently as I could (not quite flush with the rest of the pins.) tried it, wasn't reading, it also felt hot within the first minute or two of power up. Is there no hope for it?
Thanks
Mark

 

[V0lt]

Was this particular pin touching another pin while the drive was on?

 

[Mark]

No it wasn't
Does this zap the drive though?

 

[V0lt]

I'm not exactly sure if it would, but it would certainly be a possibility.

By "pressed in", do you mean the pin was impacted into the plastic of the connector?

If so, then you may need to look into finding a way to reconnect that pin to the printed circuit board of the HD, as it may have broken the connection.

 

[Mark]

Yes impacted straight in through the plastic leaving @ 1/4 of the total area of the pin visible from the outside.
Have you ever heard of a drive heating up that fast?

 

[V0lt]

I haven't had much experience with hard drives overheating, but I can tell you that having the connection of one of the pins broken might have been the cause of the overheating. In any case, you will probably need to find a way to reconect that pin if it is broken.

 

[Midnight Tech]

Go to the auto parts store, buy a "rear defrost repair kit", and use it to make a connection between the pin and the circuit board if it broke loose there. All you need out of it is the copper paint. I had a power pin pull loose on a hard drive and I used this method to fix it...and it hasn't slowed down since.

 

[Mark]

Anatomy

I have never been inside of a hard drive.
Which side should I go in from. Is there any spring
type components that are going to pop out on me?
The bottom or pcb side seems to be. Right?
Thanks
Mark

 

[V0lt]

You really won't have to open it up to the point where you can see the platters; you only need to find the place where the pin was soldered to the board before it broke. I'd reccommend that you search the internet for articles on repairing hard drives to get a better ideal of how to go about fixing it without making things worse.

 

[johnwill]

Go to the auto parts store, buy a "rear defrost repair kit", and use it to make a connection between the pin and the circuit board if it broke loose there. All you need out of it is the copper paint. I had a power pin pull loose on a hard drive and I used this method to fix it...and it hasn't slowed down since.

YIKES! Why not just solder it with the proper materials?