XBOX 360 Hard Drive Failing - [URGENT]

[ssmith43654]

I have already started making my xbox 360 laptop and have nearly finished the first part of the tutorial. Then I extended the hdd cable, when I had finished the xbox didn't recognise my hard drive and it showed up in memory devices as "unformatted",so i tried to format it and it failed. I have double checked that It is soldered correct. What could be wrong?
Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

PIC_0005333.jpg (100.56 KiB) Viewed 9400 times

[michaelb]

well it seems your having a software issue not a hardware one. the Xbox sees it but it says its unformatted.
one thing it in the pic it looks like a Hitachi drive and i thought Xbox's only used WD.
IF you connect the hard drive to your pc and open the disk management tool (one of windows tools) dose it way the drive is unformatted or a unknown formate(the Xbox uses a modified version of FAT 32 called FATX)
you can use a app called Xplorer360 to read FATX formatted drives (if you want Xplorer360 i have all the versons) so you can check the drive on your computer.
But you can always check the connections / soldering again.

[humakabula1]

hitachi is for the older boards i believe (or the other way around)
i have a Fujitsu HDD for example

look/sounds like you have all the wires correct so it must be a software problem,
do as michaelb said and try Xplorer360
if all else fails you can simply format a USB storage device, like i said IF all else fails
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906502)

[ssmith43654]

My xbox is the latest jasper unit purchased a few months ago. Before I added the extended hard drive cable it read fine but now it doesnt. The system also freezes for about 3 seconds when I click memory devices in console settings. When I format it finishes formatting but the hard drive still appears as unformatted.

[ssmith43654]

I cannot connect my xbox hard drive to my pc as it doesn't have a xbox hard drive plug on it because I cut it of to extend the wire. I do have the transfer cable and I have connected my hard drive in the past. I don't have a sata cable but if I did would I be able to connct it to my computer?

I really hope my hard drive hasn't failed as it was working fine before I did the mod to the wire. I also used normal IDE Ribbon cable to connect the a+ a- b+ b- and ground wires to the motherboard, but in Ben Heck's tutorial he suggest's using Ultra ATA thin ribbon cable - would this make a difference to it working or not? I hope I can get it fixed soon.

Thanks

Also: does anyone know where I can get some foamex for the case?

[humakabula1]

This might sound wiered but its worth a try...
Hold the hdd verticaly sideways if that makes sense, in other words hold it like it was on a stock 360 that was lying down.

[ssmith43654]

still no luck - i am going to get a new 20gb hard drive and a motherboard hard drive connector so i can connect my old 120GB hard drive with all the proper wires so I can see definetly whether it works or not.

The only problem is that I can't get all the solder of the motherboard holes that the hard drive connector goes in. I have tried suckin it ot but the soldering iron(even turned up to high) doesn't melt the solder all the way throught to the other side? How can I get the solder out?

Thanks

P.S I tried with a tiny drill peice on my dremel to get it out but that didn't work.

[Snow_Cat]

use a piece of scrap wire.

heat up the solder (on top),
poke the wire into the hole,
heat up the wire,
push wire through.

the solder sticks to the wire until there isn't enough to close back in the hole.

[ssmith43654]

thanks

[casper7]

for you case, can't say I've heard of foamex. Ben used komatex or sintra. not sure where to get komatex but you can get sintra from foamboardsource.com I ordered mine from there and would recommend that site. good luck with the portable, not as easy as it looks!

[humakabula1]

vacuum form ABS tis what im doing

[coukos34]

I wouldn't be so sure you have a software problem.....I had the same situation and I had connected my hard drive connector the wrong way and ever since then it would just say unformatted. I replced the drive with another and no problems since. You might have damaged the drive somehow but it is hard to tell.

[ssmith43654]

After wiring the hard drive to the computer via a proper sata cable i discovered that there is no sound at-al coming from the hard drive when it is plugged in or not - this suggests the hard drive isn't spinning at-tal -
definitely a hard drive failure?
could it be fixed?

[humakabula1]

desolder the drive and try again