Good day..

I am not a professional but I do like to tinker..

I have one of my hard drives (data drive, not OS drive) that I have to hit F2 for the pc to boot as it is reporting smart errors. I have since replaced the drive.

FYI, the drive responds to a "long format" with no errors reported, as well as a few HD utilities I have ran on the drive excluding smart errors (relocated sectors, 36, the only smart error)

I am having a problem connecting to the drive via serial (ttl) interface.. Maybe the interface on the drive is non-working.. Or maybe I do not have the right connector and my connections are "iffy" at best because I am "Rube Goldberg'ing" the connection.

What type of connector can I buy that fits the serial interface on the drive?

I have searched for "4 pin, 2mm" and a bunch of others and I can not find the correct connector.

Can someone tell me what exact connector to buy?

As said, it is my drive. I do not intent to sell it to an unsuspector.. Just playing with the drive.

All that said.. I am in the US and if someone wants the drive(s) for parts, I will send it to one of you guys for parts for no charge except for postage (USPS flat rate). I do not want to ship internationally so US only.

I actually have two drives.. One will not take a long format, the other one is the drive I am talking about.

Drive 1 (won't long format):

Seagate ST31000520AS, Firmware CC32, Date Code 11053

Drive 2 (the one that works perfectly excluding the smart errors as I said above):

Seagate ST3100052AS, Firmware CC38, Date Code 10436

If someone could tell me the exact 4 pin connector to fit the serial interface, I would be most appreciative..

All the TTL adapters I have seen come with individual connectors for each pin.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I get it.. But my "wires" are too large to connect to the itty-bitty pins.. After taking off the plastic doo-dads over the actual metal connector..

I have crimped them so they connect but if not careful, they will tilt / twist and one pin can touch the other which is not ideal..

I have seen these connectors used on PC sound boards back in the day.. Just can not find one now..

Use heatshrink tubing to insulate the pins.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Yikes! I never thought of that.. Still though, there must be a connector you can buy to fit the "port" on the HD which is my goal..

Take some measurements (eg pitch and pin diameter) and look for a "Single Row Female Housing".

ISTM that the pitch is 2.2mm.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Just a follow up..

Using shrink tubing on the itty-bitty wire connectors did the trick. I was able to crimp the female connectors and I got a nice tight connection with no worries of the terminals touching each other with covering the female connectors with shrink tubing..

A question for my own need to know..

Is there a time limit (after powering up the drive) to get it to respond to the ctrl-z command??

At first I got no response so I thought I may have tx & rx mixed up. Change them with still no response. Put them back the way I thought they should be with still no response and then magically, I got into terminal mode after hitting ctrl-z a few times.

As said above.. I like to tinker but I won't use either of the two drives I mentioned in my earlier posts.

If somebody wants them for parts, I'll be happy to sent the to you for free excluding postage (US only).

Best..

Another follow up.. Neither drive has been opened, disassembled in any way.. I will not put either in service but it would be a shame to just toss them..

Does anything show in terminal window?

_________________
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/