Superglue repair of 3TB SATA drive - Xpost
 

Finally got up the courage to do this - after sourcing a combined SATA
power and data connector with a Molex at the far end.
This is good because it clips into sockets either side of the connectors -
in fact a far more sensible way of docking a SATA drive than using
separate data and power connectors.

So firstly thanks to the combined forces of uk.d-i-y and uk.comp.homebuilt
for the help, advice, and URLs provided.

Also to note that it is never a waste to buy tools :-)

I dug out and used:

Two sets of tweezers, one straight and one bent nose, which are sprung so
that they are naturally closed and have to be squeezed to be open.
There held the plastic onto the metal contacts while the super glue set.

A magnifier on a stand with more arms than Kali and an LED light so I
could more or less see what I was doing.

A pretty blue box of scalpels (craft knives?) with blades of all shapes
and sizes.
After glueing it together I could see through the magnifier that there was
glue all over the contacts, so I used the magnifier and a flat ended
scalpel to laboriously scrape the glue off the contacts.

After glueing and squeezing and clamping the contacts didn't quite come up
to the top of the plastic support but there wasn't much gap.

The real test was to plug it into the PC, and it worked!

Now I need to hot glue the connector on to prevent future accidents, then
mount it permanently in the chassis.

Then the clone wars start.

Cheers

Dave R