Has anyone ever replaced a HD SAS connector?

[Fritz]

Came upon a 6TB 12G SAS Dell branded HGST HD with a broken power connector. Only the plastic part is broken. I'm using an SAS to SATA connector at present. This works because the pins themselves are intact and reqired just a little straightening to go into connector. The drive itself is fine, it's a low mileage 100% health beauty. While the SAS to SATA connector does work it limits the drives usefulness so I'd like to replace the connector if possible/practicable. I have donor drives available. Anyone ever do this? How hard is it? Any tips?

TIA

 

[Tickety-boo]

Why not try replacing a PCB? It seems easier.

 

[Fritz]

Why not try replacing a PCB? It seems easier.

I would if I could find one.

 

[Twist]

I had a drive with a broken sata connector - was a fairly easy to replace the connector.

Link

 

[Terry Kennedy]

Why not try replacing a PCB? It seems easier.

Most modern drives store part of the firmware on the platters to save money on flash - the code in flash is enough to start the drive, stabilize spindle speed, seek to a reserved area and read the rest of the firmware from the drive.

Manufacturers don't seem to make much (if any) effort to ensure a consistent interface between the flash code and the on-disk code, so a logic board with different firmware might not work properly. That's one of the reasons you see places that have a business of selling spare logic boards being so specific about the firmware version on them.

I wouldn't think it would be difficult to swap the connector, but then again I routinely replace SFP jacks, surface-mount memory, etc. All of those are harder than the drive connector, but if you've never done fine soldering work before I wouldn't recommend you start with the drive repair.

 

[Fritz]

I haven't tackled it yet. At present it's working just fine except every time I start the workstation it's in I get an auto run dialog. No big deal really but one thing I'm concerned about is it's running hot. It's in a Fractal Design case with plenty of fans but apparently they're not up to the task of keeping it cool so I'd like to relocate it into a proper server eventually.

Does anyone know if there's a difference between a 6G and a 12G connector? The link above is to a 12G connector but to be honest, I've compaired the two and I can see no difference.

 

[andrewbedia]

as far as I know, no difference between the two connectors, but I don't see a link either

and I'm assuming you have a Fractal R4/R5 case. Those things have notoriously bad cooling, but you can probably mitigate it with arctic P12/P14 fans. the fans it comes with can't push air through the restrictive "vents". Taking off the front panel can help dramatically and installing fans with better design.

then again, what temperatures are you getting?

 

[Fritz]

46 to 47c. Yea, I have another R4 that I replaced the fans in. They move a lot of air but make a lot of noise to boot.