bent HD pins... possible damage?

[bill]

I've been swapping drives in and out so much while trying to troubleshoot a
windows failure, that I had a feeling I would damage one of them eventually.
Well I did; I slightly bent 2 or 4 of the leftmost pins on my brand new 160
GB HD drive. I straightened out the pins the best I could with my
fingernail, stuck it back in and windows could both detect the drive and
read the directories.

If the drive is permanent damaged, how would the problems manifest and how
could I see them? Is this thing going to silently write/read files
incorrectly, perform otherwise slower or sometimes be undetectable? Is there
a particular HD tool that would be useful in determining the existence of
such problems caused by bent pins? Thanks to all.

 

[Lil' Dave]

There is a tool specialized for surrounding the pin, allowing the user to
straighten the pin.
The user is the best determinant of a bent pin.
The user is the best determinant of a ide/scsi connector failing to engage
properly. One typical visible cue is the connector is seating only to one
side. Consider an optical aid, such as glasses, to determine if a pin may
be bending in the process. A typical sensory cue is that its difficult to
seat the ide/scsi connector on one side as opposed to the other side, or
difficult overall. If either situation is noticed, stop what you're doing,
examine the pins and connector, correct if needed, and start over.

Those unable to pick up on these cues, before damage ensues, are obliged to
use SATA type HDs.

 

[Paul Rubin]

I've been swapping drives in and out so much while trying to troubleshoot a
windows failure, that I had a feeling I would damage one of them eventually.
Well I did; I slightly bent 2 or 4 of the leftmost pins on my brand new 160
GB HD drive. I straightened out the pins the best I could with my
fingernail, stuck it back in and windows could both detect the drive and
read the directories.

That happens all the time. It's not too big a deal.

If the drive is permanent damaged, how would the problems manifest and how
could I see them?

If you didn't break the pins off, it's unlikely that it caused any
problem. Just be more careful next time.

 

[Malcolm Weir]

I've been swapping drives in and out so much while trying to troubleshoot a
windows failure, that I had a feeling I would damage one of them eventually.
Well I did; I slightly bent 2 or 4 of the leftmost pins on my brand new 160
GB HD drive. I straightened out the pins the best I could with my
fingernail, stuck it back in and windows could both detect the drive and
read the directories.

If the drive is permanent damaged, how would the problems manifest and how
could I see them? Is this thing going to silently write/read files
incorrectly, perform otherwise slower or sometimes be undetectable? Is there
a particular HD tool that would be useful in determining the existence of
such problems caused by bent pins? Thanks to all.

Like as not, there's no damage at all. In fact, bending a pin *may*
cause it to make better contact, not worse.

The pin-out is available in many places, e.g. here:
http://www.bbdsoft.com/ide.html. You'll easily see that if the thing
works, you've got connectivity.

Malc.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I've been swapping drives in and out so much while trying to troubleshoot a
windows failure, that I had a feeling I would damage one of them eventually.
Well I did; I slightly bent 2 or 4 of the leftmost pins on my brand new 160
GB HD drive. I straightened out the pins the best I could with my
fingernail, stuck it back in and windows could both detect the drive and
read the directories.

If the drive is permanent damaged, how would the problems manifest and how
could I see them? Is this thing going to silently write/read files
incorrectly, perform otherwise slower or sometimes be undetectable? Is there
a particular HD tool that would be useful in determining the existence of
such problems caused by bent pins? Thanks to all.

There is permanent mechanical damage to the bent pins. They may break
if you pull ou the conector or put it in again. Apart from that,
with 80pin IDE cables (needed for fast UDMA), a broken essential
pin will usually show up as interface errors. A broken shielding pin
will not matter much with an 80 pin cable, because they are all
connected in the connector anyway. With a 40 pin cable there could
be reduced interface reliability.

Arno

 

[Eric Gisin]

There is no such thing as 80-pin IDE connectors or shielding pins.

 

[Arno Wagner]

There is no such thing as 80-pin IDE connectors or shielding pins.

True for 80-pin IDE connector. Read again blind fish: "80 pin _cable_"
is what I wrote about..

Untrue for shielding pin: This is just short for for a pin connected
to the intra-cable shielding, i.e. every other wire on an 80 pin IDE
cable.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

True for 80-pin IDE connector.

Read again blind fish: "80 pin _cable_" is what I wrote about..

Yes, now read that again, chatterbox.
There is no such thing as 80-pin IDE cable nor shielding pins.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

There is permanent mechanical damage to the bent pins. They may break
if you pull ou the conector or put it in again. Apart from that,
with 80pin IDE cables (needed for fast UDMA), a broken essential
pin will usually show up as interface errors. A broken shielding pin
will not matter much with an 80 pin cable, because they are all
connected in the connector anyway. With a 40 pin cable there could
be reduced interface reliability.
Wotaloadofbollocks.


Arno

 

[J. Clarke]

True for 80-pin IDE connector. Read again blind fish: "80 pin _cable_"
is what I wrote about..

Untrue for shielding pin: This is just short for for a pin connected
to the intra-cable shielding, i.e. every other wire on an 80 pin IDE
cable.

A wire is not a pin.

 

[Eric Gisin]

True for 80-pin IDE connector. Read again blind fish: "80 pin _cable_"
is what I wrote about..

You utterly mangled your terms, not me. There are 40 pins and 80 wires.

Untrue for shielding pin: This is just short for for a pin connected
to the intra-cable shielding, i.e. every other wire on an 80 pin IDE
cable.

Idiot. The ground wires are not connected to any pin on the device connector.

Arno

Wotta ****ing troll.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

You utterly mangled your terms, not me. There are 40 pins and 80 wires.


?

The ground wires are not connected to any pin on the device connector.

Huh?
How are the additional 40 'ground' wires supposed to connect to ground then?
And you called him an idiot?

 

[Thor Lancelot Simon]

Huh?
How are the additional 40 'ground' wires supposed to connect to ground then?

They are shorted to ground at the motherboard end, and are connected to
nothing at all at the device end.

 

[Brian Inglis]

You utterly mangled your terms, not me. There are 40 pins and 80 wires.

Idiot. The ground wires are not connected to any pin on the device connector.

Ground pins 2, 19, 22, 24, 26, 30 and 40 will have a common circuit
connection with the other ground wires on the cable.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Is that you, Al Dykes?

They are shorted to ground at the motherboard end, and are connected to
nothing at all at the device end.

You don't say. From the horses mouth (T13):

A.1.2 80-conductor cable assembly using the 40-pin connector

To provide better signal integrity, the optional 80-conductor cable as-
sembly is specified for use with 40-pin connectors. Use of this assembly
is mandatory for systems operating at Ultra DMA modes greater than 2.
The mating half of the connector is as described in A.1.

<< Every other conductor in the 80-conductor cable is connected to the
ground pins *in each connector*. <<

 

[Ron Reaugh]

connector.

Ground pins 2, 19, 22, 24, 26, 30 and 40 will have a common circuit
connection with the other ground wires on the cable.

The question is topologically where. That does make a difference in a
transmission line.

 

[Arno Wagner]

You utterly mangled your terms, not me. There are 40 pins and 80 wires.
Idiot. The ground wires are not connected to any pin on the device connector.

And how do they become grounded if they are not connected to anything?
Seems your are incapable of rational thought...

Arno