Broken IDE HDD - can I replace the IDE/Power header to fix?

[Agent]

Hi guys - but sorry - you won't get a standard header from RS or Farnell as it's not a standard header! if it's had a bad power connection causing burning at the connector the dodgy power may have done other damage.
Swapping the PCB is NOT a goer either - they are set up to each drive in manufacture and go through MANY revisions. It very occasionally works for recovering data - but not a repair solution.

500GB drives are about £50 - save yourself a couple of days playing about and get a new one! - there's a time for repairing stuff and dud disks just ain't it!

But you can check the revision via the info printed on the front of the drive.
The PCB's rarely change from drive to drive of the same model. It would just be too expensive to run production lines like that. When they are superseded, sure, but rarely for any other reason

[Skinleech]

If you have un-soldered the header, just get a IDE cable, splice it open, and solder the ends to the correct pins.
Thats the only way I would consider doing it based on what you've described. Although I would use a separate PSU if I was to power it up

The header was screwed on, not soldered, and when removed, it leaves a drive with no power or ide connections, so that's a no go also. The header is a small pcb, with the molex & ide connections on it.

I suppose in theory, if it is the molex on the pcb that's the issue, I could desolder & resolder one on, but there's the fact it prob won't be reliable, and the fact that it's probably not worth the effort.

And yeah, I couldn't find any header os RS or Farnham. Maybe didn't look hard enough, but found nothing.

Cheers again for the ehlp.