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check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 20th, 2019, 16:08

Hello,

I don't know if this is the right spot for this. I just got an inexpensive 2Gb Hitachi on
the 'Bay marked as a refurb. It's an Hitachi and the firm is well known but...
I ran Crystal disk and the drive shows zero hours of operation as if new. Ok for that.
Is it normal for a HD to have zero hours at _any_ point in its life?

Is there a way to check the codes for firmware date or even manufacture date?

The HD is warranted for a year which, for reburbs is somewhat standard rather than three years.

I'm running HDD Guru Low Level format on it now just as a warm up and break in.

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 21st, 2019, 15:56

A follow up this question. I attempted to use the HDD Low Level format tool
on this 2Tb drive. It was running many hours. Finally I checked Crystal Disk info after running 26 hrs. At 56d I shut it down.

As mentioned this drive had no time on it. Should an HD be able to take a long
low level run like that or should it be considered defective and returned? Will it be
prone to failure if run 24/7 as I do with Seagate Barracuda with no issues? However
I never tried one of those long low levels on the Seagate or for 2Tb.

The HD has a one year warranty on it.

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 21st, 2019, 16:49

What is "56d"?

What are the manufacture dates on the label and on the PCB? What are the YWW / YYWW date codes on the ICs?

Have you tried Hitachi's own tools?

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 21st, 2019, 17:24

Thanks for answering. It's all new to me on this question. 56 C not d
What are Hitachi's own tools? I also noted it does not idle quietly but that may be
the Hitachis compared to the Seagates. I run these in a way that I hear a lot
of the drive activity.

Hitachi manufacture dates-- I tried to spot one on a previous Hitachi I got and didn't see where to find any.

After shut down the HD returned to normal levels but I'm leaving it on to see if temp goes up again.

Erf. I went to look for dates and it was up to 50 C (in the yellow warning color). I shut it down. This is not good. I've had very few returns of anything.

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 21st, 2019, 18:26

https://www.westerndigital.com/content/dam/western-digital/en-us/assets/support/CheckDriveFitness/WinDFT095.zip

https://www.westerndigital.com/content/dam/western-digital/en-us/assets/support/CheckDriveFitness/WinDFTInstallandUserGuide.pdf

As for manufacture dates, can you show us the label and both sides of the PCB?

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 21st, 2019, 18:54

fzabkar wrote:https://www.westerndigital.com/content/dam/western-digital/en-us/assets/support/CheckDriveFitness/WinDFT095.zip

https://www.westerndigital.com/content/dam/western-digital/en-us/assets/support/CheckDriveFitness/WinDFTInstallandUserGuide.pdf

As for manufacture dates, can you show us the label and both sides of the PCB?


Short reply is I'm requesting an RMA from GoHarddrive.

No camera equipment on my side. I've certainly run WD disk tools over the years.
But this HD heats up just sitting there in idle. It's nice and shiny though. ;-)

Any chip info on the PCB I could copy off for you if it helps others and your records. I don't know how HDs go through bad batches or recall having to send back to GoHarddrive but I have my fingers crossed for a prepaid sticker.

I appreciate the prompt reply you've made.

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 22nd, 2019, 12:34

Many Hitachi and WD models operate around 55C under heavy load like a full write test normally and is not a concern, in fact temperature has never been a good reliability indicator for a hard drive and (at least from backblaze data) there is no correlation between the smart tempurature attribute and hard drive failure. This does make some sense, because the actual drive heads are much hotter than the HDA sensor reads out (more heat often means better writes).

Now, your drive was very likely refurbished and had all its smart data reset, for hitachi drives there is one well known command that merges the defect lists together, regenerates the translator, and wipes the drive. Its an all in one refurbish command and is likely documented in your hard drive's manual: 11 00 00 00 00 A0 57

There is a lesser known Clear SMART command that is likely used before hard drives leave the factory and also by more sketchy refurbishing entities to hide the fact that the drive you purchased was likely used for 50,000 hours already (continuous 24/7 use for 5 years in a data center).

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 22nd, 2019, 14:04

The heat thing is good to know. I have another Hitachi gotten as refurb that I've had as a backup. What I'm doing today is just checking to see if that one idling goes up to 50C plus as well.

OTOH since GoHarddrive was nice enough to send an RMA no questions asked and
a free shipping label, I'll send it in to complete the RMA process. Like Forest Gump
and the box of chocolats, I never know what I'm going to get.

Thanks for answering and I'll keep in mind that Hitachis run hot. All those yellow and red flags going off in monitor programs do give me a fright.

cheers

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD

December 25th, 2019, 13:14

Just a followup on the Hitachi. I did send it in and it was painless to do at GoHardDrive.
I ran the other 2Tb Hitachi I had doing a chkdsk /f/r which runs for hours. The temp did
not go over 47C on that one so it was the right choice.

I'll make a separate entry for another question.

thanks for the prompt replies on it.

Re: check firmware code on refurbished HD solved

December 31st, 2019, 16:06

My replacement has been sent on the Hitachi. After a 5 hr clone job to back up an
existing HD (1 Tb or so) the Hitachi still showed 50C under Crystal disk. I did not fool around running a days-long low level so will live with the results and thanks for allaying my fears on it.
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