How to fix a broken connector

[BW]

We just moved and found couple of my seagate 1.5 TB did not works  . They are my parity and disk1. They make click sound. Are they really dead?

 

I unplug the connectors and found 1 hd has broken connector (disk1). Don't ask me how it happens I hope this is the problem. I would like to fix it and hope my disk1 back to work and I can recover my parity (by replacing the parity disk). And eventually also replacing disk1.

 

This is the picture of broken connector.

www.arenbyphoto.com/temp/hd

Any suggestion to fix it?

 

Thank You!

BW

 

[lionelhutz]

I can't tell how it's broken.

 

You have to just try to get the cable to hold if the pins are OK and just some of the plastic is damaged. Otherwise, you have to look at using the connectors from anther disk to fix it.

 

Peter

 

[Joe L.]

I would try to fashion something out of plastic to put some pressure on the SATA and power plugs so they would make contact.  It looks like the who top pices of  plastic that holds the plugs in place snapped off.

 

Clamp the extra piece of plastic in place so you can force fit the plugs under it and have them make contact, get the data off and RMA the drive.

[Rajahal]

Duct tape, MacGyver style.

 

Or, to be safe, electrical tape.  And maybe a zip tie or two.

[BobPhoenix]

From the picture it looks like one of the traces is missing from the Sata power plug.  I don't know the pinout on the Sata power plug - but if it is ground/power/ground/power/..../power/ground then it is one of the power connectors that is scraped off the connector.  Not sure how THAT could be fixed!  Assuming I'm not in the Twilight Zone anyway.

[Userpaul]

Not sure what make hdd that is in the pic, does the hdd have a legacy power connector? Some of my hdd's have a sata and legacy power connector. Or if you have another hdd of the same make you could swap the interface card.

[lionelhutz]

I think you got the problem Bob. There is supposed to 15 connectors, not 14 with 1 missing. However, I don't really think 1 pin would be an issue. The power connector goes;

3.3V, 3.3V, 3.3V, GND, GND, GND, 5V, 5V, 5V, GND, GND, GND, 12V, 12V, 12V

Going left to right in that picture.

 

So, the terminal 4th from the right would be a GND connection and there are 6 of them in the connector so I highly doubt losing 1 would matter. Same with the other connections, I doubt losing a single one would stop the drive from working. Of course, this assumes the connector from the power supply actually uses all of the connectors and doesn't skip some or some other stupid nonsense such as that. Same as the HDD actually connecting them all to the circuit board.

 

I'm not sure, but it you remove the screws that black part might just use pressure contacts to connect to the circuit board on the HDD. You might be able to change it out with another drive.

 

Peter

 

[SSD]

It matters if that's the ground for the 12V line that the drive is using.

[MrD1234]

Yes there is a broken circuit now. 

 

Options:

 

• Once upon a time you could swap the logic board with a similar make / model / firmware disk and the drive would work.
  
• Replace the connector -- only for the experts
  
• put a bullet through it 
  

[lionelhutz]

It matters if that's the ground for the 12V line that the drive is using.

 

Seriously, the drive has 3 seperate isolated 12V power circuits on it? I highly doubt this. I also highly doubt the 12V, 5V and 3.3V are all isolated from each other. If that was the case then the connector would have 9 GND pins or 3 GND pins to match each set of 3 power pins.

 

I fully expect each pin type is just paralleled for redundancy and current handlng capability. Losing 1 out of 6 parallel connections should not stop the drive from working.

 

Peter

 

[MrD1234]

It matters if that's the ground for the 12V line that the drive is using.

 

Seriously, the drive has 3 seperate isolated 12V power circuits on it? I highly doubt this. I also highly doubt the 12V, 5V and 3.3V are all isolated from each other. If that was the case then the connector would have 9 GND pins or 3 GND pins to match each set of 3 power pins.

 

I fully expect each pin type is just paralleled for redundancy and current handlng capability. Losing 1 out of 6 parallel connections should not stop the drive from working.

 

Peter

 

 

How do you know which one is connected to the ground plane and which ones are not?  As the original poster stated the drive does not work.

[lionelhutz]

Why wouldn't this power connector be similar to the ATX power cable. There are a number of each type of power pin in that connector but they are all paralleled. You can even usually power a 24pin connector motherboard with a 20 pin power supply.

 

You can believe whatever you want. My opinion is you run about a 1% chance that replacing the missing pin will fix anything. Especially when both failed drives are described as doing the same thing.

 

Peter

 

[BW]

OK, I try to start the server again.

I think the connector is not the problem on my disk1 because unraid still see it but has error 

Unraid still not recognize parity disk. I think the problem is bad power supply cable. Because when I swap the cable, unraid recognize it but still showing error. I am getting replacement for it.

It looks my harddrives are still okay but there is error in it. I do not know what

 

Attached is my screen capture and syslog. Anyone can help me to fix it?

 

Note: I am aware regarding HPA issue. It used to use Gigabyte MB and now using BIOSTAR A760G M2

 

This is link for syslog and my screen capture:

http://www.arenbyphoto.com/temp/syslog-2011-01-09.txt

http://www.arenbyphoto.com/temp/Doc1.docx

 

BW

[Joe L.]

Your syslog shows that disk0 (parity) is missing.  You should try to get a replacement power cable if you suspect it to be bad.  Then, since you have MULTIPLE disks marked as invalid we'll have to force it to be considered as valid if you wish to have it used to reconstruct disk1.

 

Disk1 is marked as being the wrong disk.  That means it no longer has the same model/serial number as it did previously.

The screen shot shows the old and new model/serial number.  This confirms you switched out the old disk for a different one.  (and also, apparently a much smaller one. A 4 Gig drive vs the old 1.5TB drive?)

 

Your only hope is to either put the original disk1 back in, or get the parity drive to power up and be recognized, or accept you've lost the contents of disk1 because of your simultaneous 2 disk failure and get on with the rest of your life.

 

There are tons of errors in the syslog from the current disk1.  (is it an IDE drive? ) The errors suggest it is dropping down to PIO mode and is on a bad/defective cable.  Are you using a round IDE cable, or a 40 conductor cable designed for a CD drive?

 

If you can replace the power cable and get the parity disk to run, and show up in the BIOS, then we can possibly get it to re-construct a new 1.5 TB drive you assign to disk1.

 

Joe L.

 

Joe L.

[BW]

Hi Joe,

 

Thank You for the reply.

 

I am ordering power cable for parity now. There is no "computer part" around us. I will contact you back as soon as I get the part.

 

I do not know what is wrong with disk1. It is the original disk (1.5 TB). Disk 1 is the one that has broken connector.

 

As I mentioned on first post. We just moved. Before moved I did clear shutdown. And when I power the server back it shows missing parity and error on disk 1. The server was not energized for about 4 days. Now the server is totally off.

 

I am using 40 conductor cable for cd drive for parity drive. It is wrong??? and ide cable for disk1. It was working great for almost 1 year.

 

I have not check the drives in the bios yet. It is posible the bios lost its memory? Therefore does not recognize my drives?

 

OK. Since I am waiting on my power cable to arrive, what should I do? Should I order another 1.5 TB drive to replace my disk1? Do you think this is power supply error? Should I unplug all the disk and try disk 1 and parity drive one by one if they are recognized by bios?

 

 

Thanks!

 

BW

 

 

[Joe L.]

Hi Joe,

 

Thank You for the reply.

 

I am ordering power cable for parity now. There is no "computer part" around us. I will contact you back as soon as I get the part.

OK.  It is your best bet on getting things working.

I do not know what is wrong with disk1. It is the original disk (1.5 TB). Disk 1 is the one that has broken connector.

according to the management web-page, and the syslog, it is not the same disk.

 

The original disk was a 1.5TB drive.  It had a model/serial number of ST31500341AS_9VS2AWD7. 

The current disk has a model/serial number of ST_M13FQBL_QNR_BFW. It is apparently a 4Gig drive.

As I mentioned on first post. We just moved. Before moved I did clear shutdown. And when I power the server back it shows missing parity and error on disk 1. The server was not energized for about 4 days. Now the server is totally off.

 

I am using 40 conductor cable for cd drive for parity drive. It is wrong???

Yes, it is wrong.  It is not made for the high speeds needed by the disk drive. and ide cable for disk1.

It was working great for almost 1 year.

No I doubt that. It might have been working, but at PIO speeds.  Your other IDE cable is also probably wrong. It too is at PIO speeds.  You need flat 80 conductor cables for the IDE drives.

I have not check the drives in the bios yet. It is posible the bios lost its memory? Therefore does not recognize my drives?

No. it would still recognize the drives, but ONLY if you put the right cables on them.

OK. Since I am waiting on my power cable to arrive, what should I do? Should I order another 1.5 TB drive to replace my disk1? Do you think this is power supply error? Should I unplug all the disk and try disk 1 and parity drive one by one if they are recognized by bios?

You can try. Just unplug the flash drive while you  do the experiments... and put all the connectors back as original once you are done.

Disk1 should show as a 1.5TB drive, not a 4gig drive in the BIOS.  But, it looks a lot more like you swapped disks somehow...

Thanks!

 

BW

[BW]

I used old 4 gb hd long time ago when first build. I was only experimenting with it. and I use this 1.5 TD drive for long time until last time i turn the server off. I do not know why unraid pick up this old drive again not the latest cofiguration???

 

All my sata drives (disk1 - 3) use ide power connector with converter to sata power. except my parity. It uses the cd power cable (due to my limited knowledge, I thought this is ok). That is what available from my power supply. I guess I need to replace it with better power supply then?

 

I will try to check the bios with no flash drive. Should I try it one by one all I can connect all the drives?

 

BW

 

 

 

[Joe L.]

I used old 4 gb hd long time ago when first build. I was only experimenting with it. and I use this 1.5 TD drive for long time until last time i turn the server off. I do not know why unraid pick up this old drive again not the latest cofiguration???

Probably because the 4Gig drive was re-installed in error?

All my sata drives (disk1 - 3) use ide power connector with converter to sata power. except my parity. It uses the cd power cable (due to my limited knowledge, I thought this is ok). That is what available from my power supply.

cd POWER cable is OK but NOT 40 conductor IDE cable.

I guess I need to replace it with better power supply then?

No. Just better cables.

I will try to check the bios with no flash drive. Should I try it one by one all I can connect all the drives?

Yes.

[BW]

I think my hard drives dead.

 

I check the hard drives 1 by 1 with no unraid os plug in to check if the bios recognize the hard drive or not. I connect the each hard drive with working cable with this result:

 

First check - Parity drive:

There is click sound, the hard drive then spining. Bios does not recognize it. Is this drive dead?

 

Second check - disk 1:

There is click sound, the hard drive then spining. Bios recognizes it as my hard drive (ST_M13FQBL). Bios is showing 0 MB on size. Is this drive dead?

 

If they are dead, is there any way I can get data in disk 1 recovered? I really cannot afford loss the data. Anyone can help?

 

I really need your guys help on this.

BW

[PeterB]

I still have to believe that the disk you think is disk1, isn't!

 

According to your syslog, disk1 is hda.  Am I wrong in thinking that hda implies an ide/pata drive?  The photo you posted of the connector on disk1 is a sata drive.

 

This would tie up with it being a 4GB drive - I'm sure that there are no sata drives that small.

 

Please check the physical connections of all your drives. According to your syslog, you have three ide/pata drives:

hda, configured as disk1 is 4GB Seagate (Primary channel, master?)

hdb - empty (Primary channel, slave?)

hdc, configured as disk4 is a 160GB WD (Secondary channel, master?)

hdd, configured as disk5 is a 120GB Samsung (Secondary channel, slave?)

 

Then you have two sata drives:

sda, configured as disk 3, is a 1TB WD

sdb, configured as disk 2, is a 1TB Samsung

 

hda appears to be rather broken, but I cannot believe that it is, or ever was, a 1.5TB sata Seagate ... that's simply impossible.

 

So, once again, I implore you to check the physical connections!

[SSD]

SATA drives will appear to th OS as IDE drives (and be given hdX device names) if they are in IDE mode in the BIOS. They should be switched into AHCI mode.

 

The 4G drive is the flashdrive?

[BW]

I have 4 sata and 2 pata:

 

Sata: Parity - disk3.

Pata: disk 4-5

 

My flash drive is 2GB

 

I think my parity and disk1 are failed. They make that "click sound" at the beginning and stop. All my other drives are okay.

 

My wife has small home photography company. All data in disk 1 is her archive portfolio. I really need to recover data in disk1. So I can open it with other Linux machine (ubuntu??). I am willing to compensate reasonable cost for this. Remember, we are just a small home business.

 

I am also considering replacing the hd circuit board with this guy now: www.onepcbsolution.com .Do you think this will work?

 

I also can do DIY if you guys can give me direction. Please PM me if you want to give me offer.

 

Regards,

BW

 

[Joe L.]

I have 4 sata and 2 pata:

 

Sata: Parity - disk3.

Pata: disk 4-5

 

My flash drive is 2GB

 

I think my parity and disk1 are failed. They make that "click sound" at the beginning and stop. All my other drives are okay.

 

My wife has small home photography company. All data in disk 1 is her archive portfolio. I really need to recover data in disk1. So I can open it with other Linux machine (ubuntu??). I am willing to compensate reasonable cost for this. Remember, we are just a small home business.

 

I am also considering replacing the hd circuit board with this guy now: www.onepcbsolution.com .Do you think this will work?

 

I also can do DIY if you guys can give me direction. Please PM me if you want to give me offer.

 

Regards,

BW

 

1. replacing the circuit board is worth a try... but be VERY careful.  You do not want to cause more damage to the drive.

 

2.  A RAID array (of ANY KIND) is not a replacement for backups.  We understand the data is very important to you, as our data is to us, but a backup of data is best stored elsewhere, on different disk/media. 

[BW]

Thank You Joe.

 

I learn this hard way now.

 

Regards,

BW

[PeterB]

SATA drives will appear to th OS as IDE drives (and be given hdX device names) if they are in IDE mode in the BIOS. They should be switched into AHCI mode.

 

True ... but does the BIOS allow legacy/SATA mode to be set on a drive by drive basis?  My BIOS only has a single control for all six sata ports.

 

The 4G drive is the flashdrive?

 

No, the flash drive appears as sdc - it is 2GB.

 

I still find it highly implausible that disk1 should start reporting a spurious model/sn and a spurious size (which just happens to be similar to the size of a drive that used to occupy this slot).