Help request to regenerate three 2.5" hard drives

[ravelino]

Hello,
i would like to know if its technically possibile and worth
to repair three 2,5" hard drives which have bad or damaged sectors & "not ready" errors
I don't need to recover any data from them, I just want to make them usable again... as If i attempt any OS install or transfer any data by using them as USB external box, at a certain point during transfers they get stuck and its not possible to do anything, they block the whole system.
Of course they can be recognized by the system and I have tried almost all the free tools here on this site to low level format them or repair them, but none worked, or they don't solve the problem.

The 3 drives are:

TOSHIBA MK1252GSX - (SATA 120GB)
HITACHI HTS541010G9AT00 - (IDE 100GB)
HITACHI HTS545050B9A300 - (SATA 500GB)

Is there anyone able to factory repair such drives? Of course I will pay for the shipping (send and back) and the "regeneration"/"repair" cost.
I know I can buy new drives and forget about them, but I dont wanna spend minimum 50 euros each for every new drive, as I dont need so much space and if I can save some costs... why not?
I am in ITALY, please let me know any solution I can take!

[pclab]

Talk with BlackST. He's from Italy too.

[ravelino]

Hello PCLAB, and thanks for your reply!

I know, I have tried to send him (BlackST) a couple of private messages explaining better the situation over the past week and earlier but I never got any answer by him, neither a simple NO. I dont know why. Maybe it's not possible...

So thats why I'm now trying other roads

No problem anyway to ship abroad, unless it's not out of Europe, where it will cost too much and would take more time.

[BlackST]

Simply I didn't receive them or my browser on the phone was not working properly again (don't see the pop-ups and some notifications). Cleaned up cache now, resend.

Anyway :

1) Were they BUMPED so surface CAN effectively be DAMAGED BEYOND REPAIR ? (remove a zone / downsize is the last option but see point 2)

2) If surface is badly damaged i.e. the drives were bumped, the remaining lifetime especially about heads is an "incognita"

3) Sending a packet back and forth with express courier or Poste Italiane is it worth the cost ? (OK that they are 3 drives...) when used drives IN GOOD CONDITIONS are on ebay etc. at a fraction of the cost of new drive ?

So said, let me know. I can always give them a shot, having in mind that repair procedure CAN fail / drive won't survive the stress tests during recert. Convenient procedure in batch or to recover a large qty of drives in unknown condition "without expectancy" - what you get from 0 to 100% is always good.

[ravelino]

Hi BlackST,
thanks for your reply.
I will resend all the private messages I sent to you (in italian) in your pm box now, so please later this night or tomorrow, if you won't receive anything again just let me know, or send me somehow your email address and I will send you an email instead, if its more convenient for you.

Shipping is not a problem, dont worry.
I know I take some risks with them, but I would like you to have a try anyway, when you can... and
then you will tell me if its possible any "repair". I wanted to ask you if maybe there could be somehow the possibility to isolate the "bad" disk part and make the drive fail safe, isolating that "bad" part so that the system cannot recognize it... sorry if I explain things in a bad manner, but i'm not keen in these things, but I think you can understand what I mean.

I want to put them onto spare laptops I have, for which I dont need to buy new drives.
These drives were mine and none of them fell down or received any "bumps". I can assure you about that.
It seems that they just damaged themselves, naturally, or maybe because of OS glitches? Especially the one 500 GB, which is the most recent one, was inside a laptop for which the warranty ended 1 year ago, and at the time I noticed the problem (last december) was too late for a warranty replacement. In that case the laptop started to give me reboots and blue screens, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the problem (memory, drivers, wifi.. etc.) but then I realized it was really the hard drive, as when I made a test scan it found bad area sectors. Replacing the hard drive solved all problems.

Anyway! I will send you again a PM and lets see...

[nande]

Hi BlackST,

Do you have ways to "regeneration"/"repair" Toshiba's by factory methods?

Thanks

[mattbrad2]

Considering laptop drives are ~35USD for SATA and $45USD for PATA (not to mention used ones are even cheaper) I'm curious as to why repairing these is remotely economical? I can't imagine BlackST repairing then for less than $25 / each and then adding shipping.. well, the math doesn't add up. Please enlighten me.

[nande]

I have PC3K and no factory methods for Toshiba so I'm interested in knowing if there are other ways.

[BlackST]

The total cost for the operation (shipment back and forth and a little fee for 3 drives, leaving margin and taxes paid) exceed the quota for 3 used drives on ebay. Math still doesn't add up : the shipment alone via Poste Italiane / Express courier back and forth is 28 to 30 EUR (priority) , otherwise ordinary mail (10 days to delivery) you can save 10 EUR. But it would take 20 days only for delivering and NO tracking. Anyway it's the OP's choice and can do it in any case.

Refub is good and convenient in "big" numbers , otherwise the shipment and additional costs are at least comparable to the cost of service, and this makes the whole thing not convenient in some case. Would be different, for instance, on SINGLE enterprise class drives that cost big bucks (€ 100s)

[ravelino]

Hi BlackST,

Thanks for your clarifications.
You dont have to worry about shipment and fees,
I can understand it wouldnt be worth probably for people overseas, in USA or outside of EU anyway... where just the shipment would take a lot of time and most probably higher costs.
But we are both in Italy and I can supply you a "retire at your place" at my expences!
So if you agree, you don't even have to move out to ship them back to me, when it's time

Said this, I trust you and your work, you have a very good reputation here, and I'm sure that if there's a chance to repair them, it will be surely better than try to buy "used" ones on the Internet. Unfortunately, and i'm sure you can agree with me, it's hard to find "trustful" sellers for such things, nowadays

So, I am still interested in this, and if you agree I can ship the three drives as in the 1st post at your place, at my cost, so that you can have a look at them.