IDE Pin 39 broken - how to use drive?
 

I was moving my sytstem drive (a Hitachi Deskstar 123.5Gb) from one connector to another and it stopped working - unrecognised by the BIOS. On looking at the drive it appears pin 39 (-DASP) has loosened and been pushed slightly into the connector, so is no longer connected.

My understanding is that 39 (DASP) is the Disk Active or Slave Present pin, and that it operates in reverse - ie that its being disconnected is a constant assertion of DASP by the drive. This is backed up by the fact that the HDD activity light is constantly on on my machine after the inital search for drives.

I'd like to know (if anyone does) whether it's possible to use the drive (even briefly) without this pin being connected - otherwise I'll have to try some Heath Robinson method of connecting it. Nothing vital but some stuff that hadn't been backed up for a week, and there may be some patient-sensitive information which I don't really want to send to Hitachi as an RMA. I have another similar drive (older Deskstar) and am using 80-pin cables which I believe support CSEL, so I can connect in any configuration to get past the fact that DASP is being constantly asserted. Any advice?

This happened to a Maxtor HDD that I was using. I always wondered why BIOS would hang sometimes...then I caught it. When putting my new HDD in, I noticed that one of the pins on the edge was shoved into the HDD almost all the way! I bet it was the same one as yours. I simply took a pair of needle-nose pliers and pulled it back out. The HDD still works perfectly fine. Yours might still be connected by a little bit.

If that's not possible, then I don't know what to tell ya! My Maxtor worked without the pin making connect with the cable, so yours might too. Good luck!

-Lasereth

I'm not really familiar with hitachi's RMA policy, but I've RMAed Maxtor and Western Digital drives before without incident and fairly quickly. It's quite painless really :)

Thanks for the input - I've tried needlenosing the pin without success. I spoke to the support desk; they were concerned that the warranty doesn't cover 'physical damage' like bent pins. I tried to explain that this wasn't a bent one (caused by putting the connector in wrongly) but a straight one that's become a lot shorter, but they seem a bit suspicious. Should I be pressing hard to have them take the drive or is it somehow my fault?

I'd press harder. a bent pin is one thing but it's pretty hard to push a pin in like that unless it wasn't well placed by the manufacturer.