Access data on a seagate with a broken Sata (plastic)

[aserothbw]

I have a Seagate ST3750528AS with a borken SATA connector. Basically, the plastic backing broke off of the connector, but all the pins appear to still be firmly in place. From what I have read, the best course of action is to replace the drive's control board, but I am wondering if there is any other trick/device/tool i can use to plug the drive into my pc long enough to pull some data off of it before resorting to that.

 

[nukemaster]

Sometimes the sata cable will still plug and make contact. if you try, be careful and make sure you are not bending anything.

 

[nukemaster]

QUOTED SPAM REDACTED - SS

Its a SATA drive. But in the same point, soldering a new connector could be done if you know how.

 

[fzabkar]

If the SATA power connector is broken, then you could hardwire a 4-pin Molex connector in its place.

http://pinouts.ru/Power/sata-power_pinout.shtml
http://pinouts.ru/Power/BigPower_pinout.shtml

As for replacing boards, recent models store unique drive specific information in a serial flash memory chip. This chip, or its contents, needs to be transferred from patient to donor.

 

[aserothbw]

If the SATA power connector is broken, then you could hardwire a 4-pin Molex connector in its place.

http://pinouts.ru/Power/sata-power_pinout.shtml
http://pinouts.ru/Power/BigPower_pinout.shtml

As for replacing boards, recent models store unique drive specific information in a serial flash memory chip. This chip, or its contents, needs to be transferred from patient to donor.

Unfortuantely, its the data connector that broke. As far as i can tell, the power connector is fine.

 

[aserothbw]

Its a SATA drive. But in the same point, soldering a new connector could be done if you know how.

if you solder in a new connection, would it have to be from an identical hard drive, or just any sata connector?

 

[nukemaster]

Not as such(that is just a connector), but you do have to de-solder the existing one and still manage to get another one that fits to solder on.

If it was just power, you would have been able to just solder the power wires to the board, while you can do the same with SATA, you have to make sure you get it all connected right.

This is an example of a SATA DATA plug, but many hard drives and SSD's have combination units.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/0674901220/WM19115-ND/1894608