Hey there! I am new to the forum, and hard-drive issues in general - here is my situation:

I recently broke one of the connector pins off my harddrive, and it will no longer be read by my BIOS. I took the PCB off, there doesn't seem to be any other damage, I tried in vain to solder the pin back on, it still doesn't work.

I really, really, really will cry if I have to replace my 100 gb of music I have been aquiring over the years. I've somehow managed not to loose a single file since 1998, even through my multiple upgrades. What do i do???

I was thinking I could just swap out that board and it would work, is that the case or will I have to format anyway? If it will work, anyone have a board I can purchase?

More specificly/

Model number ST3300631A
P/N 9y7264-301
Firmware: 3.04

Don't format. It can't help you. It won't help you get your data back, and you won't be able to do it if there's physical damage. If it's important to you, read. All the answers are already here.

Well i'm fairly certian I know what I need to do already. I need to replace the PCB with an exact match - I just wasn't sure if when i did I was gong to be required to format the drive anyway, because if so that would be pointless.

Where it stands right now, i can't even acess the drive, a connnector pin is busted off and soldering does not work. So I am looking for a replacement PCB. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd be much oblidged!

I have pcb for the drive .