This three-month old HP computer belongs to an elderly couple. They were heartbroken about their data loss--pictures of the grandkids, medical records, etc. A couple of hours of research led me to the Seagate brick problem and ultimately, here. HP Support was absolutely appalling, as I expected. They denied knowledge of the problem, even though it is well documented on their site. Why they did not at least contact their larger vendors and at least offer a firmware upgrade is beyond me. These computers were sold knowingly with time-bomb hard drives.
I followed the procedure in the above link almost exactly, with one exception: after entering the F3 1>N1 command, I entered F3 1>/ and then the partition code: F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter).
Without that extra step, it kept getting stuck at the end. I never got the "User Partition Format Successful" message, even after waiting for more than 20 minutes and trying a few times. That one bit of code I found here saved the day.
It seems like some who are trying to use USB-type connections are having scattered success. I used the RS232 to TTL adapter from AllDav, and actually soldered. I was scared to death. I have never soldered before. Believe me, if I can do it, anyone can. I managed to burn my finger, but it worked perfectly.
Luckily I had an old PIII sitting in the closet to cannibalize wires and such. I did not use a battery. I used molex to SATA for power on the drive and it worked fine. I cannibalized a hard drive enclosure to get power to the RS232 to TTL adapter. I know nothing about electricity, and I had my fingers crossed big time when I turned it all on.
I used Putty instead of Hyperterminal. It worked great.
Again, thanks so much. It felt really good to be able to help these people. Their computer is up and running perfectly!
The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs
in Hard Drive and Removable Media
Posted · Edited by J327
I did it! I am so grateful to Gradius and this board.
I ultimately followed the guide here: http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home which was created by Brad Garcia with the help of this forum.
This three-month old HP computer belongs to an elderly couple. They were heartbroken about their data loss--pictures of the grandkids, medical records, etc. A couple of hours of research led me to the Seagate brick problem and ultimately, here. HP Support was absolutely appalling, as I expected. They denied knowledge of the problem, even though it is well documented on their site. Why they did not at least contact their larger vendors and at least offer a firmware upgrade is beyond me. These computers were sold knowingly with time-bomb hard drives.
I followed the procedure in the above link almost exactly, with one exception: after entering the F3 1>N1 command, I entered F3 1>/ and then the partition code: F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter).
Without that extra step, it kept getting stuck at the end. I never got the "User Partition Format Successful" message, even after waiting for more than 20 minutes and trying a few times. That one bit of code I found here saved the day.
It seems like some who are trying to use USB-type connections are having scattered success. I used the RS232 to TTL adapter from AllDav, and actually soldered. I was scared to death. I have never soldered before. Believe me, if I can do it, anyone can. I managed to burn my finger, but it worked perfectly.
Luckily I had an old PIII sitting in the closet to cannibalize wires and such. I did not use a battery. I used molex to SATA for power on the drive and it worked fine. I cannibalized a hard drive enclosure to get power to the RS232 to TTL adapter. I know nothing about electricity, and I had my fingers crossed big time when I turned it all on.
I used Putty instead of Hyperterminal. It worked great.
Again, thanks so much. It felt really good to be able to help these people. Their computer is up and running perfectly!