What to do if the pin on the IDE connector is bent or missing?

[dario03]

Well I have a cdrw and 60gig hdd both are missing a pin and I also have 40gig hdd with a pin bent.
Are the ones with missing pins hopeless? And Could I just bend the bent pin back into place?

 

[Nitestick]

if you are really careful you could bend the pin back but they snap easily. as for the missing pins don't know how to do it on a drive but with a m/b (depending on the ide connector) u can REALLY REALL CAREFULLY desolder the broken pins and replace with new header pins

 

[uzi9mm]

Some pins are not needed. I wish I could find that diagram of unneeded pins.

 

[Noodles]

you can buy 'male' pins at a radio shack or something of the sort..you can bend back the bent one but just be careful.