We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.
I just don't want to buy a whole role of tape I'll only use a sliver of.
For a quick test, I would be willing to cover the pin with regular scotch tape. Some people do remove the pin entirely, but I just use Kapton tape because it is reversible if needed.
If you have a Molex -> SATA power adapter cable, those will also sever the problematic 3.3V line.
does it spin up? isn't showing up where?