The "horrible noise" is just it homing at a very slow rate, presumably to negate the effects of momentum and increase the homing accuracy.

To me, the X sounds the same as the little snippet at 0:06 in the video, which I presume is the Y ? Is there homing speed setting anywhere ?

You need to use a multimeter or similar to work out why the X microswitch isn't working. Does it physically switch ? Can you see its status in the software anywhere and check that the software knows that the switch is open/closed ? I use the Planet-CNC software on my Boxford and that has an IO page, which shows the real time status of all the inputs and outputs.

Adrian.