ST920217AS ticking sound

[EliteScouter]

Ok let me start off by saying I have so many of these hard drives and they are starting to really get on my nerves. They have soft clicks when they are plugged in. They remain there (Hard Drive Unusable) until it has completly warmed up. I have tried so many different things and still no luck. I have managed to connect the RX TX pins and reset the drive back to factory. Then I scanned all the sectors and there are 0 bad sectors.

I have searched and searched and have not found a single video/description that matches this hard drive that I am having problems with. I even added a video so you can hear what I have to deal with. Any ideas? Even after the board was swapped from a working donor, I still get the pretty clicks so its something internal but can it be fixed through the hyperterminal? The hard drive accepts all level commands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFksaDHQtIk&hd=1

[drc]

reset the drive back to factory

You did what now?

[BlackST]

What do you mean "reset drive back to factory" ?

[zebong]

do you want to sell the drives ?

[EliteScouter]

reset the drive back to factory

You did what now?

Sorry I should of been specific.

First I did the E command - Erase System Information- Set all parameters to defaults.
Then I ran the N1 command, rewritting the S.M.A.R.T attributes then running a re-scan throught HDD Reg. The drive is in a FATX file system.

It still ticks for about 2-3 min if it hasen't been powered on at all. Then once it's warm you can unplug it and plug it back in then it just like ticks for 2-3 sec and it works fine. It's really wierd.

do you want to sell the drives ?

What do you mean?

[BlackST]

It's not weird. Anyway if you really want to fix them the procedure is totally different and requires FW tools and totally different steps . Drives in this condition are not utilizable.
Don't ask me how to do it neither in public nor in private, sorry I can't help.

[EliteScouter]

It's not weird. Anyway if you really want to fix them the procedure is totally different and requires FW tools and totally different steps . Drives in this condition are not utilizable.
Don't ask me how to do it neither in public nor in private, sorry I can't help.

Well is there something I can read up on? I am stuck with over 700+ HDD's in this condition.

[BlackST]

I can do that for you at low price in batches, refurb and certify. The only problem is shipment but if you are company it's not a problem.

[EliteScouter]

I can do that for you at low price in batches, refurb and certify. The only problem is shipment but if you are company it's not a problem.

Not a company. I can't spend anymore on them, I'm already in the hole as it is that's why I am trying to fix at least 200/1300 just to make my money back and then the rest probably sell it back to the wholesale site I got it from.

[mmatos]

I can do that for you at low price in batches, refurb and certify. The only problem is shipment but if you are company it's not a problem.

Not a company. I can't spend anymore on them, I'm already in the hole as it is that's why I am trying to fix at least 200/1300 just to make my money back and then the rest probably sell it back to the wholesale site I got it from.

I know this isn't what you're here for, but why not return all of them and get a better quality product? It's slightly concerning to me that you want to sell 200 repaired hard drives. What will you do when your customer get your drive and it doesn't function properly and they lose their data?

[BlackST]

Refurb drives are intended for non critical app but need to be properly done. The op bought a stock of most probably intentionally 'damaged' drives and want to fix for resale. But everything has a price...

[EliteScouter]

I can do that for you at low price in batches, refurb and certify. The only problem is shipment but if you are company it's not a problem.

Not a company. I can't spend anymore on them, I'm already in the hole as it is that's why I am trying to fix at least 200/1300 just to make my money back and then the rest probably sell it back to the wholesale site I got it from.

I know this isn't what you're here for, but why not return all of them and get a better quality product? It's slightly concerning to me that you want to sell 200 repaired hard drives. What will you do when your customer get your drive and it doesn't function properly and they lose their data?

Sorry I should of been a bit more descriptive.

I bought a lot of 1350 20gb Xbox 360 drives.

There are 4 Diff HDD makers that I have seen so far.
1. Seagate
2. Samsung
3. Hitachi
4. Fujitsu

Most of samsung drives that were non working had an easy fix. Cross the 2 pins on the back and it works. For some reason they would spin up and then 3 sec later just spin down. When you cross the 2 pins, it keeps it from spinning down. Some couldn't be fixed so they were thrown into the box for scrap.

Most of the Hitachi drives (Seen like 10-20 so far) were just streight dead. No RX TX pins on the back to connect them to, not gonna bother soldering tx rx on the board just to waste time. Those wen't to scrap. Couple had a bad board so swapped em around with the good ones and that fixed a couple.

Most of the Fujitsu drives are either dead or have a bad board. Swaping around boards saved a couple of them but I have not seen many of those either.

Seagate.... The lot is about 85% seagate. There is about 4 problems that go on with seagate.
1. Platter won't spin. (Opened it up to see, the motor is seized and can't even be turned manualy.)
2. Click. (Opened it up to see, the head is dead and just goes back and forth fast)
3. Grinding Noise. (Opened it up to see, the head will not go under the platter. Somehow it was raised up and it's grinding on the side of the platter)
4. Ticking noises, as described in the thread. Some can be fixed and some can't, I understand. I thaught this was a software issue because I fixed one simply be rewritting the S.M.A.R.T sector with the N1 command. Fixed another one by swapping the board with a working board.

I keep my customers happy, if they are not satisfied I let them return the drive and simply give them another one or refund them.

I check every single drive with HDD Regenerator and HD Tune Pro to ensure no errors and no bad sectors. Some sectors get regenerated and those that don't, simply don't go for sale.

I hope I cleared this up a bit so people are not confused as much. I am a technical person, I will read read read and try my best to get something working. I have spent the last few days surfing forums for information. I know I can fix them my self, if I have to buy software/hardware to do it, I will. I just have way to many hard drives to ship to someone so they can fix it, especialy internationaly.

[BlackST]

Good luck.

[pclab]

How do you expect to refurbish 1350 HD's if you even don't have any kind of tools to work with them?
Just by opening them and look at the interior?? I hope you didn't payed a lot for the batch

[BlackST]

What I like more is the idea about making money using someone else brain...

[drc]

What I like more is the idea about making money using someone else brain...

Not unusual around here

[EliteScouter]

How do you expect to refurbish 1350 HD's if you even don't have any kind of tools to work with them?
Just by opening them and look at the interior?? I hope you didn't payed a lot for the batch

Heh I'm not trying to refurbish them all, I just need to refurbish 300 out of 1350 =) which will pay of them selves. I already got 150, just need 150 more. I have learned a lot by my self while working with the drives. I even replaced a head on one of them and it worked but since it got contaminated its no good. I am working on making a little cleanroom environment just where I can shove my hands in and replace a head. This should be intresting to be honest.

[BlackST]

Actually you have NOT refurbished NONE but removed the evident symptom (SMART clear) , surface is not tested and drive re-tuned. Maybe it works for average joe but not for me - prepare to face a lot of troublemakers and refunds !

[EliteScouter]

Actually you have NOT refurbished NONE but removed the evident symptom (SMART clear) , surface is not tested and drive re-tuned. Maybe it works for average joe but not for me - prepare to face a lot of troublemakers and refunds !

Umm obviously I do scan them. HDD Regenerator does wonders. Fast, easy and effective.

I wouldn't sell a HDD without repairing bad sectors or remapping them, that would be unfair and un-professional.

[BlackST]

A lot of other people think that that program you use is not fast, easy and DESTRUCTIVE. Just a matter of OPINIONS.

REAL things run differently :

1) You can't completely remap sectors unless you don't have the tools for it or know how to do it. What you do is force relocation to grown defects list but the result is at least a "slow" block and other problems will come out later.

2) A drive that has worked for a certain period of time has changed its physical characteristics , the same for heads and surface.
What you don't do is re-tune heads, make a complete surface analysis and reformat (no I don't mean HDD "ERASE" ) neither complete remapping of defects, including locking out bad zones / tracks / servo.

3) What's worst, maybe a lot of drives you have to discard completely because you can't erase or "fix" with elementary tools, the stuff you use hangs or so, can be perfectly fixed.

As a result, the right procedure (what I do) gives out perfectly fixed drives with ZERO defects, ZERO slows, ZERO problems - only mechanical life stays as-is because the drive has worked.
Instead, what you give are COSMETICALLY CLEANED UP drives, albeit working. Again, it can work for average joe, but it's NOT refurbishing and it can potentially give a lot of troubles.

You may still think it's not like that, everybody remains of own opinion. I suggest you if you run a regular business and you are interested in refurbishing drives to buy the required HW tools and get trained how to do it (this kind of info is even more closed). Note that not all brands / drives are covered, some are still "top secret" even to the tool makers !

P.S. I am using right now a Samsung SP2514N on this computer that has been refurbished because I caused problems to it with power cutout - the drive was clicking after this problem. The disk is from Jan. 2006, refurbished 1 time in 2008 and flawlessly working. Complete process (fix the firmware area, rebuild drive parameters, tune heads , check servo, deep scan and defect relocation) took about 38 hours for a 250 GB drive. But I can say it's like brand new , for real.
That's why refurbishing is done in batches.

P.P.S. my offer is expired