I'm trying to reconnect the SATA cable for the HDD on my old Alienware 15 after cleaning the fans, but I just can't seem to snap it into place. I've attempted this four times now, and I'm really unsure of what I might be doing wrong. I'm quite nervous about continuing since everything feels so small and fragile, especially since this is my first experience with the internals of a computer. I'm also worried about losing my data!
2 Answers
It sounds like your SATA connector might have gotten damaged during disassembly. Can you share pictures of the cable and the HDD connector? That way, we can better understand what’s going on. You can upload them to Imgur and link them back here!
It’s possible that the plastic on the SATA connector is broken. If that's the case, a new cable would be your best bet. However, if it's just a single black connector going to the motherboard, check if it’s part of the hard drive assembly because you might have to replace the entire drive instead of just the cable. Let us know if you can upload a picture of the connection!
It’s a 1TB SATA hard drive, so the connector looks like it’s kind of built into the drive. Is that something I still can swap out? Sorry, I’m really not familiar with how this works.
Here’s the [picture](https://imgur.com/a/vWPZiMb). I can unplug it again if that helps, but I was super careful when removing it. Just worried I might’ve damaged something.