Bulk erased drives - update
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From: D Yuniskis on 27 Jun 2010 14:06 D Yuniskis wrote: > A 501(3)c that I am affiliated with received a donation > of several hundred ~80G SATA/PATA drives the other day. > They have allegedly (?) been bulk erased. I was asked, > today, if there is any way to make the drives serviceable, > again. > > I have not seen the drives or had a chance to play with > any of them. As "proof" that they were bulk erased, I > am told each drive bears a label: > ERASED > Magnetic data is completely erased. > Erased product can't be reused or repaired. > > I would imagine all the servo information, low level > formatting, bad sector table, etc. are gone or corrupted > so putting these back into service would require "special > factory tools"... I had a few minutes, yesterday, to play with a couple of them. The drives (regardless of manufacturer) exhibited similar symptoms. On power up, the head positioner would "clank" noisily and continuously. As if the heads were being loaded and unloaded (to use a somewhat dated term that hopefully conjurs up the right imagery in suitably aged minds :> ). The probe() for the device would continuously hang spouting a fixed sequence of errors (e.g., seek failure, timeout, etc.). Unfortunately, an irrational, deep-seated dread of that head noise left me unable to let a drive do this to itself for more than 15 - 20 seconds. :< When I have more time, I'll try a few experiments: - power up drive *without* controller to see if the drive's internal diagnostics have it thrashing thusly in the absence of any external commands - remove enclosure and watch to see what's really happening - remove enclosure from a known *good* drive and prevent it from getting any flux changes from the platters and see how *it* responds But, I'm sticking with my initial assumption that the drives are irrecoverable due to lost servo information.
From: JosephKK on 30 Jun 2010 00:43 On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:06:13 -0700, D Yuniskis <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> wrote: >D Yuniskis wrote: >> A 501(3)c that I am affiliated with received a donation >> of several hundred ~80G SATA/PATA drives the other day. >> They have allegedly (?) been bulk erased. I was asked, >> today, if there is any way to make the drives serviceable, >> again. >> >> I have not seen the drives or had a chance to play with >> any of them. As "proof" that they were bulk erased, I >> am told each drive bears a label: >> ERASED >> Magnetic data is completely erased. >> Erased product can't be reused or repaired. >> >> I would imagine all the servo information, low level >> formatting, bad sector table, etc. are gone or corrupted >> so putting these back into service would require "special >> factory tools"... > >I had a few minutes, yesterday, to play with a couple of them. > >The drives (regardless of manufacturer) exhibited similar >symptoms. On power up, the head positioner would "clank" >noisily and continuously. As if the heads were being loaded >and unloaded (to use a somewhat dated term that hopefully >conjurs up the right imagery in suitably aged minds :> ). > >The probe() for the device would continuously hang spouting >a fixed sequence of errors (e.g., seek failure, timeout, etc.). > >Unfortunately, an irrational, deep-seated dread of that head >noise left me unable to let a drive do this to itself for more >than 15 - 20 seconds. :< > >When I have more time, I'll try a few experiments: >- power up drive *without* controller to see if the drive's > internal diagnostics have it thrashing thusly in the absence > of any external commands >- remove enclosure and watch to see what's really happening >- remove enclosure from a known *good* drive and prevent it > from getting any flux changes from the platters and see how > *it* responds > >But, I'm sticking with my initial assumption that the drives >are irrecoverable due to lost servo information. Most any way you slice it those drives seem to be fluxed up good.
From: D Yuniskis on 30 Jun 2010 13:18 Hi Joseph, JosephKK wrote: > On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:06:13 -0700, D Yuniskis <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> > wrote: > >> D Yuniskis wrote: >>> A 501(3)c that I am affiliated with received a donation >>> of several hundred ~80G SATA/PATA drives the other day. >>> They have allegedly (?) been bulk erased. I was asked, >>> today, if there is any way to make the drives serviceable, >>> again. >> But, I'm sticking with my initial assumption that the drives >> are irrecoverable due to lost servo information. > > Most any way you slice it those drives seem to be fluxed up good. (sigh) Yes, its unfortunate -- we probably have 1,300 machines that need drives. This would have been a good start! :<
From: AM on 30 Jun 2010 14:51 On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:18:28 -0700, D Yuniskis <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> wrote: >Hi Joseph, > >JosephKK wrote: >> On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:06:13 -0700, D Yuniskis <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> >> wrote: >> >>> D Yuniskis wrote: >>>> A 501(3)c that I am affiliated with received a donation >>>> of several hundred ~80G SATA/PATA drives the other day. >>>> They have allegedly (?) been bulk erased. I was asked, >>>> today, if there is any way to make the drives serviceable, >>>> again. > >>> But, I'm sticking with my initial assumption that the drives >>> are irrecoverable due to lost servo information. >> >> Most any way you slice it those drives seem to be fluxed up good. > >(sigh) Yes, its unfortunate -- we probably have 1,300 machines >that need drives. This would have been a good start! :< http://www.amazon.com/250GB-Scorpio-Notebook-Drive-50-pack/dp/B003O5W9JI/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277923831&sr=1-30
From: AM on 30 Jun 2010 14:54
On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:18:28 -0700, D Yuniskis <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> wrote: >Hi Joseph, > >JosephKK wrote: >> On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:06:13 -0700, D Yuniskis <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> >> wrote: >> >>> D Yuniskis wrote: >>>> A 501(3)c that I am affiliated with received a donation >>>> of several hundred ~80G SATA/PATA drives the other day. >>>> They have allegedly (?) been bulk erased. I was asked, >>>> today, if there is any way to make the drives serviceable, >>>> again. > >>> But, I'm sticking with my initial assumption that the drives >>> are irrecoverable due to lost servo information. >> >> Most any way you slice it those drives seem to be fluxed up good. > >(sigh) Yes, its unfortunate -- we probably have 1,300 machines >that need drives. This would have been a good start! :< http://www.amazon.com/500GB-Deskstar-7K1000-C-Internal-Drives/dp/B003O5YXSI/ref=sr_1_117?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277923972&sr=1-117 |