fasthands

To Jaclaz, I had powered on/off earlier also, but did it again as you suggested. After the N1 command, I powered off for 1 minute, Yes! Opened the system clock and powered off for exactly 1 minute 5 seconds, then powered on the HDD, but it still does not detect and makes a clicking sound. To people who have not read my earlier post, I have a Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA HDD converted to external using a USB External HDD casing. I checked my serial number on the Seagate website and found out that I was affected and needed the Firmware fix, but before I did any investigation, I had opened my drive (broke the warranty seal and opened the drive) and tried moving the HDD arm, since I thought maybe the arm was stuck. Post my very intelligent activity, I searched on the web and found that the HDD had a firmware issue, hence here I am, trying to fix my HDD since I have void the warranty. In any case, the data on the HDD is very dear and personal to me and is extremely confidential, so I realised that I was never gonna give it to any HDD recovery firm. All in all, my case is a classic 'WHAT NOT TO DO' case, so I guess I can be of some help to others. Read all my posts and know what you should not do ever. )

Hi Jaclaz, I first followed the fix for BSY as mentioned in this forum. If you see the first part, it includes all the commands plus the g-list commands also. yet, the drive is not detected.

To All, I tried using a CA-42 cable. This is my Terminal Session log, but it did not resolve the issue. The HDD still does not detect and makes a clicking sound continuously. ********************************************************** F3 T>/2 F3 2>Z Spin Down Complete Elapsed Time 0.145 msecs F3 2>U Spin Up Complete Elapsed Time 19.743 secs F3 2>/1 F3 1>N1 F3 1>/T F3 T>i4,1,22 F3 T> F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewr ite Retries = 00C8 User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00027D81, ErrCode 000 User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00003E89, ErrCode 000 00080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs I again tried the whole thing alongwith the 0 LBA fix, just to ensure that if it has the problem, even that may be fixed. ******************************************************************** F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 00, Max Certify Rewr ite Retries = 0000 User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00027D81, ErrCode 000 User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00003E89, ErrCode 000 00080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs *************************************************************** Still my drive is not detecting. Where am I going wrong? Please help.

Hi All, Long time since my last post. To KlingKlang, Thanks for helping out so many people. Really appreciate your efforts. Now to the problem: The BAFO BF-810 converter I was using is a USB - RS232 converter. I read in this post that what is needed is a USB - RS232 - TTL converter. I have located a branch of FTDI CHIP in pune. Hopefully I will be able to get one. Till then, its hands off the HDD. No wonder I couldnt get any response in HT. I am also looking for an original CA-42 (made in Thailand) cable, as that would solve my problem AND it comes much cheaper than the TTL converter. Will update everyone once I have the correct tools and tried. I may have already damaged the HDD beyond repairs, when I opened the HDD cases and fiddled with the HDD Arm, and I may have also screwed the PCD while trying different cables and converters, but hey, everything comes for a price, and in this case, the price for my follies is 10 years worth of data. Anyways, thanks to everyone here. Those who need help and those who provided it. A big thanks to Gradius and KlingKlang for everything they have done.

Oh, and when everything is connected, that is, the PCB is completely connected, the drive keeps spinning up and down.

Hi KlingKlang, Seems you are online. Thanks for all your help. Please let me answer your queries one by one. Do you use a original CA-42 cable from Nokia, if so, did you detect the cable in windows or it was undetected? If it was undetected, apply +3.3V to the RED cable and the gnd to the black cable. That will make windows detected it. The original are "made in thailand", check post 1834 @ page 92 for details. My CA-42 had also a moulded rubber casing, when removed, revealed a white plastic coating, protecting the IC. Fasthands > I am not sure if this is a original cable, but yes, it did have the Made in China mark on it. The cable was detected as an unknown device, and When I introduced the drivers manually, it did not take the drivers. There was no IC, just 4 wires connected to 4 connectors. The generic CA-42 often "made in china" are detected when you plug them in. As far as i know! Test loopback first so you know the cable work. Loopback test is done by connecting Rx and Tx to eachother. Fasthands > I tried. The cable is not recognised on its own, but when connected to the HDD, it detected as an unknown device. However, the pinout from my post 1834 will tell you what pin is doing what! Fasthands > Checking page 92 now.

Hi All, I am lost here. I dont know if I am doing something wrong, or its just that my HDD has decided to screw my life. I have tried using a Nokia CA-42 cable, and the USB to Serial (DB9) converter from BAFO. The device name is BF-810. The approaches I have tried are as follows: Connected three wires to the DB9 converter. The RX,TX & GND is pin no.s 2,3 & 5 respectively. I do not get the F3 T> command, thought it shows as connected. I also tried theconnection and powering on the drive with the PCB completely connected, no cards between PCB and HDD connectors. It gives me a = sign on the Hyperterminal and the drive keeps spinning up and down. I tried with a Nokia CA-42 cable. The cable did not come with a plastic cover as shown in the thread, but moulded rubber. I had to cut through the rubber to get to the connections, just to know which was TX, RX and GND. The funny part was, after getting to the connections, I saw that its just wires connected to 4 lines, no mention of TX, RX, etc. What I had was Black, Green, White, Red wires connected to four lines in the usb head, which inserts in the USB port on my laptop, and there was no IC in it also. I also opened a Nokia CA-53 cable, but again, it was the same as the CA-42 cable. I read in some post that USB to serial wont work, so the DB9 converter is out. I am sure I am missing something. Please someone help!!!

I have taken the precautions. What I want to know is, how to confirm what is the problem with my HDD? also, does the DB9 converter need power or does it power using the USB? Why dont I get any response to CTRL+z in the hyperterminal window?

Hi All, I have a problem, and I dont know if it is a LBA0 or a BSY error. I bought a Seagate 500GB SATA HDD from a local vendor here, and also bought an external USB casing. The HDD was working fine, and so I copied all my Data from my Samsung 80GB (also in an external USB casing) to the Seagate 500GB. I have around 300GB of data at present on the HDD. Sometime ago, I had to format my laptop, so I copied all data on the 500GB HDD and formatted my Laptop. After installation, I copied my important data back to my Laptop. The size of the data copied to the laptop is around 50GB. While copying, the HDD suddenly stopped detecting. I tried to power on-off to the USB casing a few times, but it just wouldnt detect, and wheni would power off, it would show in my computer for a fraction of a second. I must tell you that the data I have is of utmost importance to me, and very confidential. I have almost 10 years worth of data on the HDD. I went home and again tried to connect the HDD, but the problem continued. The HDD was making a clicking sound, so I asked one of my friends, who told me that the HDD arm must have lost if alignment. Frustated, as I knew that I am not going to send the HDD for recovery, I decided to see if I can do something myself, so I opened the HDD, breaking the Warranty seal, below which, one screw needs to be opened. Now I had the HDD open. I powered it on, and saw that the arm was travelling halfway across the disk and coming back, making a clicking sound while doing this. So I nudged the arm at the lower end (the body side), and moved it so as to free it. Then when I powered on the drive, The arm was moving all across the disk, and still making the clicking sound. So I went on to the net and found that there were issues with the HDD. I also checked the seagate serial checker utility and it said that my drive was faulty, and that I had to apply firmware SD1a. I downloaded the SD1a software, but I couldnt apply it as the HDD was not detecting. I saw all the entries in this forum, and decided to follow the do it yourself setps. I do not have access to the components shown here, so I bought a BAFO BF-810 USB to serial (DB9) converter. The pin sequence is 2,3,5 for TX,RX & GND respectively. Since it is a USB to serial converter, I assume that it is powered by the USB port itself. I soldered three wires to the 2,3,5 pins, and connected them to the HDD ports as shown in this thread (TX to HDD RX, RX to HDD TX, GND to HDD GND), and configured the hyperterminal client. The DB9 converter is assigned Port COM5 on my system, so I connected it to COM5, and the hyperterminal window says connected, but I do not get a response when I press CTRL+z. Where am I going wrong? Please help.