To the experts,

I accidently pushed one of the 40-pin IDE Hard Drive pins inside the connector. Now, the pin will no longer make contact with the IDE cable.
The drive is still readable with 39-pins...I was just wondering if it will decrease the performance of the drive? ??:
If so...anyone got a cheap fix?

Thanks

I have gone through similar experience (actually worse) and the best thing to do would be to keep using it for as long as it lasts, but back up your stuff. I had the whole connector break off one drive - I was able to solder it back on and the drive still works but I dare not remove the IDE cable.

The consequences depend on which pin it was. If it's a ground pin, then you'll probably be fine; just run your error-checking programs more often. If it was something critical then you'd already know. Just do what Div suggested and keep a current backup (at least every few days) and keep using it until it dies.