Sovereign01

I used seatools on all 3 affected drives, all 3 PASSED the Seatools test So I didn't get any error codes. According to the Seagate page: Looks like I'll be supplying this one: 9CC891A1 Wrong Firmware - SeaTools passes all tests

Well, looks like it works, thanks guys! Quick question- does this prevent the issue recurring with the fixed drives, or do they still need the firmware 'update' from Seagate, or should I just copy the data off and get rid of the entire drive?

Well, this is looking promising Now to mount this in my PC and hope for the best B) Had a 2nd drive that I did the same with:

I'm very close on this, I figured out that the USB-Serial chip needs powering, and the HDD board needs connecting to the PSU as well, I can talk to the drive with hyperterminal, but keep getting LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569 LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569 when I enter Z after the /2 command. I see there are two sets of contacts/pins between the PCB and the HDD case, a rectangular set with a screw hole in the middle, located near the top left of the drive in the picture, and a set of three wire contacts that lead to the motor in the middle. Which set do I put the insulator in between, or do I put it between both sets?

I'm using a 3V CR2032 battery, as per the OP. Should I have used a different battery?

Well, I've made some progress. I'd already connected the battery but had no success, however, I tried again, and this time I was getting something back, and the little lights on the chip lit up when I pressed some keys, so that seems to be working. Bad news was, that when I hooked the HDD board up, nothing happened when I'd press CTRL-Z, other letters would appear, but it wouldn't being up F3>T. I'd press CTRL-Z, and all that appeared was a little arrow pointing to the right. I swapped the TX and RX connections, no difference. If I connected the PSU power supply to the board, I don't get anything appear on hyperterminal. Is there something in hyperterminal I need to change? I noticed there was a section on emulation, but I don't know what that should be set to, so I set it to auto. This is how I've set it up, and what I get: I'd placed a piece of paper between the exposed heads of the wires to prevent a short, I removed it for the pictures. And yes, that's a bus ticket I'm using to put between the PCB and the HDD case

I've bought various components, including a soldering iron, various pins and jumper cables, but nothing I try works... This is the first adapter I tried: Nothing happens at all within hyperterminal, no matter what I do with the connections, I cannot even get it to do a loopback. I bought the other chip, along with the USB-Serial adapter cable. I only get marginally further with hyperterminal, in that it will see the relevant com port, but, again I get nothing on the screen when I try entering commands. When I select the "detect carrier loss" option, all I get is: "Unable to open COM7, please check your port settings", and that's before I even connect the chip to the adapter. I've tried this with 2 computers, one with XP, one with Vista, no difference. Second chip is below: I had to solder the 4 pins on that one, as it didn't come with any, is there something glaringly obvious that I'm just not seeing?

Seeing as how I couldn't get the red USB chip to work, I'll try the other type. Is this what I need? http://www.virtualvillage.co.uk/max232-rs2...l/sku003602-008

i also have problem with this specific USB converter he doesnt recognise my Hdd at all also this usb wast recognised in my xp. if somebody can help me..........i did waited some 5 weeks that this converter come to me and now i can do nothing..... I waited a couple of weeks, yet I get nothing from the adapter. Even after I installed the driver (http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm) that was mentioned in the stuff that came with the adapter, made no difference. When I hook the HDD up to the SATA power pupply, do I need a CR2032 battery as well, or just the PSU power? I used the cable and port in question on other devices, so I know they definitely work. I joined the RX and TX together, nothing on the loopback, though because all this is new to me, I must admit I have almost no idea what I'm doing EDIT: Would I be better off getting the other adapter instead? (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=449) Most of the info I see seems to center around that chip instead...

From what I've heard, replacing the PCB won't do the trick, each one will only work for the drive it came with. That's the adapter I have. As far as connecting the pins goes, I connected the RX and TX to their opposites, wasn't aware of connecting the GND one too., I'd simply done it with the RX and TX; nothing happened when I fired up hyperterminal.

First thing, try a loopback test without the HD connected, see here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry832183 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry851176 jaclaz I'll be sure to do that; in the documentaion that came with the chip, it said about downloading drivers, including this one: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm I thought it was the key, didn't work

I have 2 drives that are in a BSY state, one is vital as it has a ton of personal data on it. The other is half of a mirrored array that locked in exactly the same way, and the one I'm testing this on, but no matter what I do, I cannot get the hyperterminal session to see the drive. I'm using one of these: http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksi...-All-Categories , using some modified female jump wires (having to remove the plastic ends and using the bare metal because they won't fit on the pins on the HDD circuit board) connecting the RX and TX pins on the chip to the TX and RX ports on the drive, and using the PSU Molex cable with a SATA converter to power the whole thing, but no matter what I do, when I hit CTRL-Z, nothing happens. I swap the TX and RX, same deal, nothing happens. Is there something really basic that I'm doing wrong? Is it because Vista doesn't come with hyperterminal, and I had to download it?