Can 1.8 zif Hitachi drive interface adapter damage a drive?

[dick]

Three times now we have recovered data from Hitachi 1.8 drives without any problem, Lucky for us each was a software recovery.

This time it was a Hitachi MK6008GAH (60gb) out of a Dell latitude D420.

The laptop was working fine before removing the drive. The drive was only removed to carry out an inspection on behalf of a local law enforcement officer. Nothing unusual was found and the drive was refitted.

Now when starting the laptop no drive can be found by the bios.
A quick check on the test rig using the adapter interface shows the drive working 100%.

The drive again goes back into the laptop and is not seen!

One might think its just a case of bad handling or fitting or maybe even the laptop interface or ribbon cable was damaged in the process but against this argument I have to mention we have used the zif adapter 3 times and 3 times the drives are unseen in their respective laptops aftewards. It would almost be impossible for the engineer to damage 3 laptop interfaces.

My question.......is it possible the zif adapter interface can somehow change the drive firmware in such a way to cause this problem?
Remember the drive works perfectly connected to a standard pc ide interface.

Has anybody else experienced something like this?

tia

[dick]

Woops I must have been having a senior moment whilst posting.....
It is of course a Toshiba drive not Hitachi.
Would a mod kindly change the title of this thread to reflect this.
Thanks!

Should read: Can 1.8 zif Toshiba drive interface adapter damage a drive?