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Author Topic: Platter Swapping  (Read 122 times)

Ballz2TheWallz

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #15 on: August 23, 2004, 11:13:00 AM »
my techniqe when my read/write head gets stuck,sick my cousin on it he beat the living sht out of my box as well as his,box work fine now
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networkBoy

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #16 on: August 23, 2004, 12:05:00 PM »
QUOTE (hydraulix @ Aug 23 2004, 07:12 PM)
my personal opinion...... no way in hell it'll work  biggrin.gif

I have seen two platter swaps (both for data recovery issues, both done in cleanroom environments).  Both drives worked (one lasted a whole two months, the other just under 4 hours).  Mode of failure on each was the spindle motor being vibrated to bits by the (now) unbalenced platter stack.

The catch here is that you will be needing a modchip anyway.  Assuming this works (I doubt it too, like hydraulix), you need to do a hotswap to your PC as the first order of business and make a backup of your drive.  Your second order of business will be buying a modchip (from me I hope  laugh.gif  _link in sig_) and installing a new hard drive b/c the old one isn't going to last long.

my 2c
-nB
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Varsis

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #17 on: September 03, 2004, 02:30:00 AM »
i've done platter swaps 3 times on 1 8gb drive, 1 20 gb drive and 1 4 gb drive
ive also done window mods on 4 20gb drives. 2 for my own use and 2 for a friend.
This process is VERY easy if you are in a clean, no wind enviroment, you just need to be ubercareful, wear your hairnet *snicker* some gloves. and no sneezing on the platters.make sure to change the board on the underside of the drives too, that contains all the drives identity info etc. so that it loads alright with yoru epromm. shouldn't be hard at all. dont listen to the kids who've never even opened one up before.
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networkBoy

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #18 on: September 03, 2004, 08:49:00 AM »
QUOTE (Varsis @ Sep 3 2004, 10:33 AM)
make sure to change the board on the underside of the drives too, that contains all the drives identity info etc. so that it loads alright with yoru epromm.
Right idea, wrong reason.  Even if you don't swap the logic board your box will be able to unlock the drive.  What is stored on the logic board is the sector table where factory marked bad sectors are replaced on the fly with "spare" sectors.  The Hdd key (which is the only thing the EEPROM on the Xbox has anything to do with) is stored on the platters, not the logic baord.

QUOTE (Varsis @ Sep 3 2004, 10:33 AM)
shouldn't be hard at all. dont listen to the kids who've never even opened one up before.
Come back to us after your drives start failing or acting "wierd".  I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just saying that you'll likely shorten the life of the drive by a significant margin.
-nB
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thedustycelt

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #19 on: September 03, 2004, 11:33:00 AM »
beerchug.gif
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jags11

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #20 on: September 08, 2004, 10:34:00 PM »
Update...9/8/04

I finished platter swap and its working good for now.  Once I got everything
set up, It took me 12 min./43sec. to complete.  With a total of 3min./28sec.
of open cover exposure time for the platter.  I had an .008 full sweep TEST
INDICATOR (Bown&Sharp) on hand for measuring runout, but really didn't
need it.  On the WD hdd's, the center hub is completely self centering.  All
I had to do is torque the three screws THE SAME.  And yes, I left the screws
in the holes of the top ring then placed it back on exactly the same way.

I then carefully put the needle of my test indicator on top of platter close to
outer edge and slowly rotated the platter once.  The needle didn't even move.
Sure, maybe I got lucky.  But I'm not a lucky kinda guy.  So I got my sons
memory pack and saved all the game saves/settings and now I need to back
up the hdd.

Now we'll see how long this baby lasts.  (From: 9/5/04 and 1hr of run time)
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Varsis

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #21 on: October 13, 2004, 03:11:00 AM »
wink.gif
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triggernum5

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #22 on: October 13, 2004, 08:10:00 AM »
Pop those hdd's into a PC and run atapwd.exe..  You can read off how many hours/boots/errors most hdd's have been powered on for in that program..  Might make some interesting data if you were to check your current #'s and start the clock now..  This data can also be read off an otherwise dead drive
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networkBoy

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #23 on: October 13, 2004, 08:25:00 AM »
I like triggernum5's idea

Also looks like I may need to stand corrected (though I want to stay on the record saying it's not a good idea unless you have no choice).
-nB
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Varsis

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #24 on: October 13, 2004, 11:29:00 AM »
totally agree with you there network boy, this is a last resort kind of procedure
aint gonna be no noob tutorial for this!
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jags11

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Platter Swapping
« Reply #25 on: October 13, 2004, 02:20:00 PM »
Thanks guys,

I will check "atapwd.exe" out.

As Dana Carvey imitating Johnny Carson used to say,
"I did not know that, crazy crazy stuff".
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