Yes! A different hard drive problem

[Jukeboxs]

Hi there.

I had posted a query a few days ago re. two hard drives I am having trouble with. I now have an update with a few resulting questions:

1. The first was my own drive (IBM Deskstar 60GXP), which I have now traced the problem to one of the ribbon pins having become loose from its base connection on the underside of the hard drive. My questions wrt this are:

a) How should I secure the pin to the metal connector on the underside drive 'chipboard'? Should I solder, or is something as simple as sticky tape sufficient?

b) Given that this problem arose from me regularly removing and reconnecting the ribbon to the drive in order to attach a second (usually a friend's) hard drive as primary slave, how can I set up my IDE drives so that minimal interferance is made upon my primary master hard drive? Can I attach any slave hard drives to IDE2, with my CDrom drive switching from secondary master to slave? Would this work (or do the hard drives need to be on the same IDE port)? And are CDrom drives usually tougher than hard drives when it comes to removing ribbon cables on a regular (every few weeks) basis?

c) Finally, my mobo is actually an Abit KT7A-RAID. Can I therefore attach a 2nd hard drive to one of the RAID ports instead (just for giving access to drive contents)?

2. As regards the 2nd hard disk (Maxtor 91021U2) which I just bought 2nd-hand off a chap on Ebay, Windows would not initially install as it had problems with the FAT partition. I ran ScanDisk and found over 40 bad clusters, and this was only on the 2Gb of the 10.2Gb space that my mobo would recognise. In your opinion, is this hard drive past all repair, and given that the drive was like this when i received it by post yesterday, doyou reckon the seller knew about these problems before shipping it (or could it all have casued by damage during transit, as it was not packaged well at all)?

Thanks again for your much appreciated words of wisdom! All the best,

Jukeboxs.

[mike breck]

Hi Jukeboxs,

a)If the IBM is still under warranty, Then I would return it. Pins shouldn't come loose as easily as that. If it's not under warranty, then perhaps someone else can suggest if the pin can be "re-attached".

b)Yes - you can. The Hds don't need to be on the same IDE channel. Don't know if CD-Rom pins are tougher but I've never had a problem with pins coming off. Usually the more common problem is bent pins if you're not careful in installing the ribbon cable.

c)If you're not using RAID then you can use the extra RAID controller connectors for normal ATA100 HD use. In fact, the best arrangement might be to put your all your HDs on the RAID controller and any optical devices on the mobo IDE1 and IDE2. Any controller is just for HDs.

However, another option which may reduce the wear and tear of continually adding and removing your friends HD is a Removable HD rack. This consists of a rack that you fit to the HD bay in your PC case and a case with a handle to hold the HD. With this arrangement, you can pull out one HD from the front of the case and pop in another. The IDE ribbon cable is attached securely to the back of the rack so there is less chance of damaging the HD pins. If you are using two HDs, then you need two kits so you have a case for each HD. The extra rack you can keep as a spare.
I got two from my local PC shop for £20.

http://www.creativecomputing.net/

You should be able to get them from a shop in Edinburgh or mail order from Creative.

2. Return the drive if can. If you can't then you could download a HD utility from the the Maxtor site and see what that says about the drive. However, I don't think it sounds too promising.

HTH

[morriswindgate]

I have re-soldered pins before but it is hard. You need a really fine tipped solder iron or you make one by drilling out a tip and using a straight pin. Then you need a magnifying hood and a pretty powerful magnifying glass. The you take really fins electronic solder and shave off a very small amount with a razor blade. than you mel it onto the tip and then very carfully aply it to the pin connection. Then after that you use a dental pick to make sure that the solder did not bridge to another connection and formed a good connection.