How to change Broken SATA Connector on Harddrive

[deukalion]

Hey.

I have two identical harddrives:
WDC WD6402AAEX 640GB Sata 600

I had an accident with the SATA Power Connector; when I tried unplugging my disk the plastic thing that makes the SATA Power Cable not move broke. Since I have an identical harddrive, I figured I could just change the Connector.

If I look at the little removeable board on the Harddrive it seems that the black plastic thingy on it, the one that makes the cable "stick" is removeable. I have already tried changing the board, due to different serial numbers this doesn't work.

What I want is to remove that black plastic thing, which contains my damaged SATA Power Connector with the one from the other harddrive.

Anyone knows how this can be done? There seems to be two pins holding it tight on the board, just don't want to break anything so I figured I'd ask for help first.

Red: The part I want to remove and change with my working
Green: The pins that makes it look removeable

 

[tokencode]

I think you're better off swapping the entire PCB and moving the firmware chip from one board to the bother. Either way you will need to be very adept at soldering.

 

[deukalion]

As I already stated, I tried that and it did not recognise the drive.

 

[deukalion]

...maybe not the firmware chip.

 

[sminlal]

If it's just the plastic that's broken then you should still be able to attach the cable. But if the metal connector is broken then replacing the plastic won't work because it's part of the circuit board.

 

[fzabkar]

If your board has an 8-pin serial flash memory chip at location U12, then you will need to transfer this IC from patient to donor. U12 stores unique, drive specific "adaptive" information. Some board suppliers include a firmware transfer or ROM transfer service for US$10 - $20. Otherwise, if you are not adept at soldering, your local TV/AV repair shop should be able to do it for you.

If location U12 is vacant, then the adaptive data are internal to the Marvell MCU (big "M"), in which case a DIY fix would be impractical.

That said, if it is only the power connector that is affected, then the simplest solution would be to hard-wire a 4-pin Molex power connector to the solder points on the PCB.

Here are the respective pinouts:
http://pinouts.ru/Power/sata-power_pinout.shtml
http://pinouts.ru/Power/BigPower_pinout.shtml

 

[eric_tech]

Hi.  Just wanted to thank fzabkar for the post.  I'm fixing a laptop that's been 'worked on' (or raped as I call it) previously by someone else and somehow while tying to remove the HD they managed to break the plastic SATA housing AS WELL as 5 of the pins from the pcb...(4/15 serial and 1/7 power pins are missing). Anyhow, normally id tell the customer to just replace the HD but I'm fixing this thing for my idiot broke friend so i guess I'll just steal the housing and 5 pins from my donor pcb to fix the connection.  Thanks for the tip about U12...i was originally gonna just switch PCB's. 
Oh and BTW, since no one really answered the part from the original question about if/how the plastic housing can be removed independent of the pins from a seperate Pcb...mine has a part # on it (Foxconn LD-5728) which returned a ton of search results so it IS replaceable which of course means its removable as well...looks a tad harder to get it off tho (w/o breaking pins that is).  Guess I'll find out in a minute.   Here's a pic I found that might help.
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=3393&stc=1&d=1295184182
Looks like u just have to pry it off.
Luckily, my donor HD is a paperweight anyways (locked) so I don't really care about breaking pins.  Thanks again.

 

[AuBolton]

Super Glue.

 

[fzabkar]

If by "locked" you mean password protected, then it is not hard to defeat it. There is a long thread at HDD Guru on the subject of removing passwords from WD drives. There is also ZU.