Testing Question

Hi guys, I searched but didn't find exactly what I was looking for so I thought I'd start a new thread. Please forgive me if it was already asked. I'm getting a few hard drives, ram and cdrw drives that I need to test to sell online. I have this tool (http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-IDE-...item2a09a0a1f8) to connect my hard drives and will be using Ubuntu to test them.

My question is what do you use to test your RAM and CDRW drives? Do you just setup a test machine? Do you have software you use to test them?

Thanks for the help!!

cdrw drives i test them by using that same adapter and burn a disk. Heck a 2 cent disk is worth it. and just burn like a 1 mb file to it and you can use the same disk for like 600 drives. Ram you have to have a machine or test rack to test that stuff. Im seriously considering building a test rack for in my shed. Maybe ill start looking into it with my next major escrap pickup if I can get enuff good parts.

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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

cdrw drives i test them by using that same adapter and burn a disk. Heck a 2 cent disk is worth it. and just burn like a 1 mb file to it and you can use the same disk for like 600 drives. Ram you have to have a machine or test rack to test that stuff. Im seriously considering building a test rack for in my shed. Maybe ill start looking into it with my next major escrap pickup if I can get enuff good parts.

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Just remember if your testing ram theirs a lot of different kinds out their.

You might need several test stations.

no just one test station with a bunch of diferent motherboards.

erg, why do you use ubuntu? I looked briefly at their web site but I don't know anything about it.

I also bought the same testing stuff an am wondering how to use them properly. I currently have about 15 hard drives all 60gb and bigger I want to check and sell. If you have a web site to pass on that would be great. Mike.

http://www.memorytesters.com/

there are a variety of mem testers on the market.

for cd/dvd drives, check the hour usage and then run a cd/dvd diagnostics program. i don't remember which program we used to use for testing drives. if you are dealing with older drives you will need to check operating system support for correct drivers. we no longer sell used drives. a new drive is under $30. why mess around with a used one?

there are several diagnostic programs for hard drives. you can probably find a used drive tester on ebay. or check around with the computer repair dealers in your area. they may have an older one they would sell. some of the older ones will not support sata, sas or u320 scsi, 80 pin scsi or fibre.

you can use a tower to check drives, but you will have a lot of change out time involved.

you will want to use a good dod program to over write the drive. you can be held liable for information obtained from the drive.

So much to learn. Thanks to rbrooks715 and all the other memebers who contribute, Mike.

@miked I like Ubuntu because of the disk utility. Easyrecycle put up a nice video on the site here: http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/showt...ng-hard-drives. It shows step by step how to use it. I also like the SystemRescueCD http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page it is very in depth and has helped me save my files a few times! Ubuntu is definitely easier to use though.

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like I'll be setting up a test machine. Has anyone used an open air case? I think they would make testing much easier but the price is crazy. http://www.cyberguys.com/product-det...roductid=21159 I might try building one myself, goodness knows I have enough parts!!

a couple thoughts. do you have enough items on a consistent basis to off set the cost of equipment and your labor. do you have a sustainable market for the items. are you going to be able to exchange or refund for any defective items. ( by online i would guess you mean ebay?) if you sell on ebay, or any venue that accepts credit cards, you automatically grant a warranty to the buyer.

are you going to be selling motherboards and add on cards? cpu's? those are risky. especially on line.

having said that. all you need to test power supply's is a decent meter. motherboards require a known good power supply, correct cpu, ( you will need to keep several different ones to test various boards) correct memory and monitor. cpu's require the same plus correct motherboard. memory simply requires the correct working mb. you can get a longer ide cable for testing hard drives and optical drives. you can test more than one at a time. just pick up a different cable or add a controller card.

as you can see you will need to keep a variety of known good working parts on hand to test with. there are some diagnostic cards you can use, but they rely on a working cpu.

the test bench you are looking at is nothing more than a couple shelves with a fan and some adapters. you have to supply everything else.

you can use wood shelves & a small rubber mat and accomplish the same. we used to have a 3' x 4' kitchen table set up to test on. you can walk all around it to get access to where you need. we screwed a couple blocks to the legs to adjust the height to where we found it comfortable to work on. we had a couple book shelves we kept the parts on. start keeping those sata, ide, usb cables. you will need them. along with a few adapters.

i went around to the local dealers and started trading my working parts for their scrap. found it to be easier and far more profitable. just takes a bit of time to find the right dealers.

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Originally Posted by rbrooks715

i went around to the local dealers and started trading my working parts for their scrap. found it to be easier and far more profitable. just takes a bit of time to find the right dealers.

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I like this idea! Thanks rbrooks.

I don't know how much I'll have as I've just started. I was thinking of just selling the HDDs, RAM and CDRWs but maybe I'll just sell the HDDs for now as I have the equipment.

1 gb ddr 266, 333 and 400 sell really well. ddr2 2gb 800mhz and higher. sata drives and dvdrw drives.

i buy most socket 775 for $20/lb.

i normally double what the item is selling for and use that figure for trading.

ie. 1 gb ddr400 is $10 all day. i trade it to the dealers for $20 in scrap. considering what you pay for the entire unit that you got the memory out of, you are getting a lot for your investment. even if all you get is mb's and cards for trade, and figure them at $4/lb, you can see where you are coming out really well. and you do not have to worry about returns or ebay/paypal fees.

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Originally Posted by erg

I like this idea! Thanks rbrooks.

I don't know how much I'll have as I've just started. I was thinking of just selling the HDDs, RAM and CDRWs but maybe I'll just sell the HDDs for now as I have the equipment.

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I wouldnt bother selling cdrw drives on ebay. With DVDRW drives as cheap as they are I dont see why anyone would want to buy a CDRW drive. I scrap them. Hard drives are easy to test with the adapter you have. I use seatools to test my drives that I downloaded for free from seagates website. I havnt had any issues with the drives I sold on ebay so far.

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Originally Posted by erg

Hi guys, I searched but didn't find exactly what I was looking for so I thought I'd start a new thread. Please forgive me if it was already asked. I'm getting a few hard drives, ram and cdrw drives that I need to test to sell online. I have this tool (USB 2 0 to IDE SATA s ATA 2 5 3 5 HD HDD Adapter Cable | eBay) to connect my hard drives and will be using Ubuntu to test them.

My question is what do you use to test your RAM and CDRW drives? Do you just setup a test machine? Do you have software you use to test them?

Thanks for the help!!

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okay so I bought the same set of tools and thought it would be a snap to start testing out my pile of hard drives... but for the life of me I can't figure out how to make it work?! I plugged in several different drives and it seems like my computer is not recognizing them. Are they supposed to show up in the "my computer" section like an external drive?

feeling really stupid...

what kind of computer are you using? Some (especially Dell) require changes in the setup each time you add or remove a drive, and some others won't let it show until you go into bios settings to "inform" the PC that it's there

Did you download the driver?

Regarding some earlier posts about testing CD/DVD drives, NERO has a test disk you can use for that, it's been so long since I used one i can't recall how it works, but it's in NERO program, you just burn it from there and use it to test the drive

hmmmm... reading more about it seems it may not be compatible with Vista? I'm going to try it out on my laptop that has windows 7... if that doesn't work I'll download the driver and if that fails... I'll put up some of my computer info... thanks guys for the quick responses!

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. if that doesn't work I'll download the driver and if that fails...

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You have to install the driver for the product to work. That is step number one, not a final resort.

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Originally Posted by JohnM

You have to install the driver for the product to work. That is step number one, not a final resort.

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Okay, it's downloading now. The site I bought them from said that the driver was not required for any operating system other than windows98. That's what I get for listening to them! lol

driver did not make a difference. I plug in the usb cable and the computer does not recognize that anything is there. but if I connect a hard drive to the usb cable the hard drive spins. so my computer knows the hard drive is there, but I can't access it?

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Originally Posted by ScrappinRed

driver did not make a difference. I plug in the usb cable and the computer does not recognize that anything is there. but if I connect a hard drive to the usb cable the hard drive spins. so my computer knows the hard drive is there, but I can't access it?

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just because it's spinning doesn't mean it knows it's there, that just means it's getting power

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Originally Posted by Bear

what kind of computer are you using? Some (especially Dell) require changes in the setup each time you add or remove a drive, and some others won't let it show until you go into bios settings to "inform" the PC that it's there

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I have an emachines running windows vista. I'll keep searching and working on it. thanks for all the input

I think you're using a peripheral device that I don't know anything about. The guys that's used it before are more knowledgable

Thanks Bear. I think I've got it now. It appears that it was a simple "order" issue. If I power up the drive first with the ac adapter and THEN plug in the usb cable to my computer it works. I apparently was too tired and not getting the right sequence. Thanks again for your help and sorry to jack the thread

Glad you got it working!

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Originally Posted by miked

erg, why do you use ubuntu?

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One thing that was overlooked. Ubuntu is a Linux OS, one of many Linux operating systems out there. If you use a disk wipe utility it would be a safer alternative than a Windows based utility, since Linux is less susceptible to malware than Windows is. The other thing to use is a bootable CD with dban, but dban doesn't give documentation like some of the disk wipe utilities do.