I'm a clumsy oaf and broke a pin on the apparently irreplaceable power supply to my external hard drive. What to do now??

May 7, 2008 7:04 AM

I broke a pin on the power supply to my Lacie external hard drive. Only problem is they have ceased to exist, in stores or on ebay... Is there a generic version that would work, or do I have to get someone to solder the pin back on?

I have the Lacie Porsche Design 60gb external hard drive. Being a clumsy oaf, I broke one of the pins in the power supply connector which goes into the back of the drive. I've searched all over the internet and ebay and can't find the Lacie replacement IN STOCK. Lacie is even out of it.

This thing is not that old, and I need to fix it, but I'm unfamiliar with what kind of generic connector would work. I'm okay with cutting and rewiring if I could get a heads up as to what that connector's even called. Here's the brand name power supply and it shows the female jack on the back of the drive. Any advice, Mefites??

posted by letahl to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

If it were me (and I have one of those cases - but I wouldn't trust my soldering), I'd swear a bit, and then buy a no-name case and transplant the drive.

(I hope you get a better answer!)
posted by pompomtom at 7:12 AM on May 7, 2008

Clumsiness or poor design? I've had exactly the problem. I bought a new power suppply less than a year ago. Have you tried searching with the brand/model number on the power supply itself? I seem to remember that it is how I found a replacement, from an obscure retailer on the web. I'll try to retrieve the info when I get home tonigth.
posted by bluefrog at 7:27 AM on May 7, 2008

Fortunately that's an extremely common connector, the 4-pin mini-DIN. Parts Express has it.
posted by zsazsa at 7:28 AM on May 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Many external hard drives use this connector, and I suspect their power supplies are compatible. Check the pinouts, of course, before plugging anything in.
posted by zippy at 8:01 AM on May 7, 2008

A search on a popular auction site for "4-pin DIN ac adapter" show many likely possibilities, some of which are quite inexpensive. Like zippy said, though, look at the pinouts.
posted by so at 8:31 AM on May 7, 2008

Id be very surprised is a soldered on pin would hold for more than a few uses. For what someone will charge you for this, you could buy a new enclosure and put the drive in there.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:40 AM on May 7, 2008

Have you tried calling Lacie and explaining the situation to them? I would say I've gotten about 50% ratio of the company just offering to mail me a missing part, other ones tried to either price gouge or make me RMA.
posted by bertrandom at 12:05 PM on May 7, 2008