This thread is about the Quantum Fireball lct20 - hard drive - 20 GB - ATA-100. Click here to see full specs

My hard drive is no longer being detected in the BIOS. It does have a couple broken/missing pins, but it's been like that for a long time. I've tried different IDE cables and comptuers with it with the same problem. What can I do to access the data on it?

The pins aren't optional. If they are broken or missing, your drive will not work (properly).

I think you need to decide if the data is important enough for you to pay a professional data recovery service for retrieving your data.

But they have been missing for a long time and it was still working. Isn't there something I can do to fix it myself ??Like replace the part that the IDE cable connects to or open the hard drive and put it inside another hard drive that's working?

Sector image the old drive under dos to a new drive, throw away the old drive, job done. Plenty of free sector imagers around go google.

How can I sector image it if it's not being detected by the BIOS?

You have to be a master at soldering to try and fix the pins. Some people have tried putting the pin in the cable end and try to make contact with the drive end. I don't know what kind of success they've had. Pins 3-18 are data pins, you will need those to try to recover anything on this disk.

I'm always curious when people say it just stopped working, in this case the bios just stopped recognizing the disk. Something changed somewhere at some time. a power surge?, a good bump?, dust build-up?, heat?, maybe the drive just died?.

Anyway, good luck with this, I know what a pain it can be, but you might have to spend some money if the data on the drive is important to you.

It's possible I made it stop working when unplugging and re-plugging the IDE cable. How could I install pins inside the IDE cable? I've never done soldering before and probably don't have the equipment for it. Which pins are 3 - 18?

When you connect the cable to the hard drive the pin where the red line is connected is pin #1, directly below it is pin #2, the pin to the left of pin #1 is pin #3, etc. Count from pin #1 down, up and to the left, then down, then up and to the left again, etc. If you don't have any pins that can be salvaged from another drive you will need something like a pushpin or thin needle. I'm not saying this will work, you have to have contact between the wire in the cable and the broken pin on the drive.

I meant fix the ide pins first then sector image it. Pins if not have them use from old dead pci boards, motherboards etc. Solder with low watt solder iron to melt solder only. Use a norrow solder tip for accurate soldering.

Sector image because even if the drives gets seen by os it may not last long. If you do boot it up in os don't let windows try fix it or analyse it. Which is why i say image it to a new drive in dos, have fun.

I don't know how to solder. Isn't there another way to fix the pins?

You could take it to a computer repair shop or a good tv repair shop. Cheaper if you take along the pins that fell out of the drive. Or with a, old dead pcb board that has some pins of same thickness on it, if decide with a tv repair shop.

Or find a local drive repair man, possibly will be the most costly out of these options, they normaly are have no excuse to be.

Will putting staples inside the holes on the IDE connector where the broken pins will contact work? If so how much of the staple should be sticking out of the IDE connector once it's inserted? Is it safe to put glue on the broken pins and glue a staple to them?

I wouldn't put staples there, but that is your choice. You must have an old non working board with some pins on it, thats long enough to use. Even is you put new pins on it, it's a hope you need its just that is wrong. If it has affected negative data you have little chance, except get someone who knows to repair it.

For minimal cost a tv repairer or pc repairer should put some pins on it for you. Don't pay an arm and leg for it to be done, pint or two is enough. You could ask to stand and watch while they do it, if need to be sure of data safety. It's only a few seconds job to do, it's a very simple job for them to do. If you are no good soldering then get someone who can solder do it.