Question Trying to fix very old Seagate hard drive

[Invalidhost]

I have an old Seagate Barracuda 7200 drive that I’m trying to hook up via USB to get the contents transferred someplace else. The problem is that it has a piece broken off of it. I have an old corrupted WD hard drive and the part that I need (if I can even fix it) is pretty much identical on both drives.

I don’t know what the pieces are called, so it’s a little bit more complicated. What I’ve done so far is remove the circuit board(?) from the donor drive and now I’m trying to separate the black plastic from the rest of it, then hopefully attach the piece that’s missing in the broken drive so that I can hook it up.

Am I nuts for even trying this? I’m not going to send the drive off to someone to fix it. If someone else can fix it, then I can fix it. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!


https://share.icloud.com/photos/068NYhDx1ercI5i5obik0a1Rg

 

[USAFRet]

Put the broken drive back together.

The standard SATA connections (power and data), should connect enough to copy that data off.

 

[Invalidhost]

The broken drive isn’t taken apart… it’s broken in that it’s missing a small piece of plastic. I’ve tried multiple times to access the drive contents to no avail. It needs that broken off piece.

 

[USAFRet]

The broken drive isn’t taken apart… it’s broken in that it’s missing a small piece of plastic. I’ve tried multiple times to access the drive contents to no avail. It needs that broken off piece.

The regular SATA data and power connections won't connect enough on that drive?


To me, it looks like the pins are all there, just the "L" positioning thing is broken off.

 

[fzabkar]

I suspect that each pin would have a tang that engages the plastic housing and prevents it from being withdrawn.

 

[Eximo]

It didn't break off while it was on? That would be quite bad.

If it broke off when it was off, I agree I think it should work without anything extra. I would try to slightly bend the pins sticking out in the direction that would assist in making connection to a SATA data plug and give it another go. You might need to place something under the cable so that the drive is propped up by it to maintain contact.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I’ve tried multiple times to access the drive contents to no avail. It needs that broken off piece.

Find a piece of plastic with proper thickness matching broken off piece and use
combined sata data/power cable.

 

[Invalidhost]

I got it! It’s working, and without fixing it. Thanks for your help!!