[SOLVED] What is the connector type of my HDD? And what connector do I need to buy for it to connect to my laptop?

Gallitoj

Commendable
Jul 7, 2017
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1,510
I have an external harddrive and all the sudden the files were loading extremely slowly. I listened for weird noises but there were none. I tried using a different USB type B micro and it would still have the same problem. The files are still loading and showing up, but the process takes 10 to 15 minutes just to load up. I thought it was the connector that was broken so I opened up the casing but it wasn't a SATA port. I'll provide an image of the port below.

Images
 
only usb, there is 12pin port which has ATA Tx/Rx signals, but theres no info about pinout

from WD:
"This is not a connection we provide support for. It is there for data recovery companies to recover data in emergency cases. We do not have any schematics regarding the pinout of the 12 pins, again, this is only for data recovery companies who plug their special connection to recover data."
 
AIUI, the 12-pin connector provides access to the MCU via a serial terminal port. This enables the data recovery tool to read and write the "ROM" code. To provide access to the firmware modules on the platters, the data recovery shop usually replaces the USB PCB with an equivalent SATA type.