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Hi all. Well it's been a few weeks since I fixed my Seagate SATA 500GB with SD15 Firmware as it had the BSY state error, I had fixed it and recovered all my data back and now I can't believe it has done it again, well done Seagate you stupid pricks. Turned on my PC today and just like the 1st time, it doesn't detect my hard drive in BIOS. After I fixed it the first time, I didn't update the Firmware but I did back up my data so lucky for that. So to everyone with these errors, just a reminder, it can happen again just like it did to me, so after recovering your hard drives get your data back not too long after fixing it and update your Firmware. The only reason I didn't update my Firmware is because the first few Firmwares Seagate released were actually bricking some peoples hard drives when updating to the new Firmware, but now I have read the Firmware is stable. Another reason is I'm waiting on my 4 Western Digital hard drives and didn't think this error would come back so soon after fixing it. I have sent the whole Seagate hard drive error story to one of our big TV News channels here in Australia with links and pictures and they will be airing it all over Australia soon and warning people to check if they have the faulty Seagate hard drives currently installed to be aware and backup immediately. And to those Seagate employees who have registered here pretending they're an end user and sticking up for Seagate, PLEASE, I dare you, to bring me a story of another Hard Drive company that has faulted to this extent, with SO MANY people affected it by it, and still SO MANY more to come. Whatever story you tell me, I can guarantee you it hasn't affected as much people as this Seagate fault has. I have searched and searched for something as big as this Seagate fault and I can only find small problems compared to this world wide Seagate anger. mundy5 are you telling me that you sent your Seagate hard drive to Seagate's hard drive recovery Department which is i365 and they said that they couldn't fix it and it didn't work ?? Then you fixed the hard drive YOURSELF using internet guides ?? Am I reading this right ?? Please confirm if this is what happened, because I'm really feeling sick right now. Also kang roy why would you quote the WHOLE guide and then ask "Could this way to restore the data again arriving in the hdd?" I mean what a stupid question. After NUMEROUS people have confirmed fixing their hard drives with the guide, you still don't believe people or something ?? And even if you wanted to ask that, you don't have to post the guide.

Hi aha. I read in another forum someone with that exact error. He started over again from the beginning this time he said he screwed the PCB to the hard drive tighter than before to make sure the heads touch nicely and it worked. Have you tried recovering drive more than once ??

Very well said jaclaz. Well I've got 3 other Sata hard drives not including the one I just fixed, and 2 of them are 7200.11's/ticking time bombs, and 1 of those 2 is 1 of my RAID-0 drives, confused yet ? Anyways I will update the Firmware of the hard drive I just fixed, but I'm too scared to update my other 2 7200.11 drive Firmwares as people have bricked their hard drives by actually updating Firmware.

Thanks for the explanation. Yea looks like that 5V advanced feature backfired on me Hi mecwodt. The firmware version has nothing to do with the fix as long as you're sure your hard drive has either the BSY state error or the LBA 0GB error. The only things in some guides that are Firmware specific are commands typed in the Terminal program such as Hyper Terminal, but most guides don't show typed commands that are for specific Firmwares only. You have to be more detailed. What do you exactly mean by "you followed the steps but it's not working" ?? Which steps or whose guide are you following and exactly which part isn't working ?? How do you know it's the same problem, is it undetectable in BIOS ?? Which guide are you using to fix your hard drive ?? Have you clicked on the "more info" part on the right hand side of this video ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29FztWJVxbM . She lists 2 sets of drivers for the cable, not sure if they're the ones you have tried but one she used for her cable is a Motorola modem driver like you said, and the other I'm not sure but she says many people have got it working using the other drivers. Also this link ; is of a guy who had problems but managed to get it working, but again, maybe you've already watched it. Read the comments, maybe you'll come across something.Man, the Nokia CA-42 cable way to fix the hard drive seems more harder/trickier than the normal RS232-TTL adapter way even though it sounds easier in theory. Only if everyone fixed it as smooth as that girls video with the Nokia CA-42 cable which is so clean as it's only 3 wires and and a nicely labelled USB head.

Hi jaclaz. Well I have the SparkFun Shifter SMD which Gradius lists here ; http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_i...products_id=449 and even though it does handle 5V, I simply could not get it working properly until I changed the power source from 5V down to 3.3V, why ? I don't know. Yes you're right about Gradius using a 3V battery himself however he does say connect it to the power supply's red wire if not using battery/batteries. Hi tegrabluefish. Some people do get the LBA 0GB error after the BSY state error such as yourself and have done the LBA 0GB fix after doing the BSY state error fix. Someone did mention in this massive thread somewhere that he would let people borrow the cable if they cover shipping there and back but which page is it on, that's the question. Even though people are buying the same Nokia CA-42 cable, the wiring inside is sometimes different either by having more than 3 or having different colour codes to each other as well as not all of them have the TX, RX Ground etc labelled on the USB side. Here's a video link of a girl using the Nokia CA-42 cable way to fix the hard drive ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29FztWJVxbM and this other link shows a guy using the girl's guide but gives more information as he had a different Nokia CA-42 cable ; . Maybe this will help you. If you're using Windows Vista or Windows 7, everyone recommends TeraTerm instead of Hyper Terminal, but if you're on Windows XP then it's ok. I'm not sure what the Nokia CA-42 cable shows the COM port as in Windows Device Manager, but if you have it unplugged, have a look under your "PORTS (COM & LPT)" OR "Modems" section for Nokia cable users in your Device Manager, plug your cable in and check what is new in the list, as each time you unplug the cable from the PC, it will disappear in Device Manager and only shows if it's plugged in. It should say in brackets what COM port number it is and if not, just double click it or right click and go to "properties" to see what COM port number it is. In the first link I gave you of the girl using the Nokia CA-42 cable, she uses Motorola drivers for the Nokia CA-42 cable to work in her PC and it shows in her Device Manager under the "Modems" section as "Motorola Comp Modem" or something similar. After finding out what COM port number it is, open your Terminal program, choose the cable's COM port and configure it like her video shows which is from top to bottom "38400, 8, None, 1, None" which are speed and bit settings for your connection. The loopback test is easy. This has nothing to do with the hard drive itself so dont plug anything into it for the loopback test. You just have to plug a jumper wire or similar to loop the signal back to your PC from the cable's "TX" to "RX" or "RX" to "TX" it doesn't matter which way as long as they're connected to each other. Then open your Terminal program, turn on the "local echo" option and anything you type, you should see double characters, for example if you typed "abcde" it should show as "aabbccddee" which would confirm the cable/adapter is sending receiving OK. Remember to turn OFF the "local echo" option after finished with Loopback testing and you're ready to connect to your hard drive. You can see some pictures and explained better at this Brad Garcia guide here ; http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/ ,scroll down to his "Testing the RS232-to-TTL Adapter" section of the guide. Even though he's using the RS232-TTL adapter, the Loopback principle is the same for cables also. Goodluck.

Hi all. I regretfuly have a Seagate Sata 500GB hard drive with the famous for the wrong reason Firmware version SD15, which about 3 weeks ago bricked itself with the BSY state error and have fixed now fully successfully and got all my DATA back. The fvcked thing is out of my other 3 Seagate Sata hard drives, 2 of them are the FAULTY Barracuda 7200.11 series, which really means they are just ticking time bombs. But I'm used to this kind of luck, sad ha ?? Thanks Gradius and Brad Garcia heaps, really really appreciate it. Guys if you are using the RS232-TTL adapter way to fix your hard drives, and you want a simple guide which is straight to the point with good quality pictures, and the EXACT text to type which he shows in RED, use Brad Garcia's guide which is here : http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home BUT YOU MUST KNOW THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE THING MISSING FROM BRAD GARCIA'S GUIDE (ABOVE LINK), WHICH IS AFTER TYPING THE COMMAND "N1", HE SAYS TO POWER OFF YOUR HARD DRIVE (WHILE YOUR TERMINAL CONNECTION PROGRAM IS STILL RUNNING), WAIT A FEW SECONDS (I WAITED UNTIL I HEARD THE POWER NOISE TURN OFF), THEN PLUG THE POWER BACK INTO THE HARD DRIVE AND WAIT 20 SECONDS THEN DO THE PARTITION REGENERATION COMMAND WHICH IS "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22", BUT THIS LAST STEP WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE WHEN YOU TURN THE POWER OFF/ON THE HARD DRIVE AFTER THE "N1" COMMAND, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TYPE ANYTHING UNLESS YOU PRESS THE "CTRL-z" COMMAND WHICH IS THE IMPORTANT STEP BRAD GARCIA'S GUIDE DOESN'T MENTION. WHEN "CTRL-z" IS PRESSED, YOU SHOULD THEN SEE THE "F3 T>" PROMPT. ONLY THEN THE LAST AND MOST IMPORTANT COMMAND IS POSSIBLE TO BE TYPED IN WHICH IS "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22". By the way, I AM CONFIRMING ONCE AND FOR ALL THE PIN CLOSEST TO THE HARD DRIVE'S DATA PORT IS THE HARD DRIVES "RX" PIN WHICH OFCOURSE MEANS YOU PLUG YOUR RS232-TTL ADAPTER'S "TX" TO IT AND OBVIOUSLY THE PIN NEXT TO IT IS THE HARD DRIVE'S "TX" PIN WHICH OFCOURSE MEANS YOU PLUG YOUR RS232-TTL ADAPTER'S "RX" TO IT. Brad Garcia's guide has the hard drive's "TX" pin labelled as the pin closest to the hard drive's DATA port but it is actually the hard drive's "RX" pin. As long as you remember the missing "CTRL-z" command in Brad Garcia's guide and remember the hard drive's "RX" pin is the closest pin to the hard drive's DATA port, it's an excellent, simple and easy to follow guide. I didn't know I had to press "CTRL-z" after powering off/on my hard drive and pressed some keys but nothing was showing, so I just closed the Terminal connection, unplugged everything and started again which was successful. Ofcourse if you want more details on maybe some equipment and stuff and other people's experiences, this Gradius guide here is good for that. Another important thing to note is that I had all the right connections and for 2 weeks I couldn't get the prompt to come up when pressing the first "CTRL-z" command to get started with the "F3 T>" prompt. I done what Gradius's guide said (as I found Gradius's guide before Brad Garcia's guide) which is to plug the "red" wire from my power supply to my RS232-TTL adapter which was giving me 5V. After nearly giving up, I remembered Brad Garcia's guide and how he used the "orange" wire from the power supply as the Sata connectors on the power supply have an orange wire for 3.3V instead of the normal red wire for 5V. So I just done exactly what he done, I cut off one of my power supply's Sata ports (I couldn't open mine nicely like he did as they're not the same), grabbed the 3.3V orange wire and ofcourse the black wire next to it for Ground and BANG, it just worked. Also no Ground wire from the RS232-TTL adapter to the hard drive is needed unless like the guides say, you're using a battery for your power source. So for 2 weeks I totally wasted my time, as I was running my RS232-TTL adapter using the power supply's "red" 5V wire, when I should of used the power supply's "orange" 3.3V wire. If you've tried everything and are positive your connections are right but you just can't get the magical "F3 T>" prompt when pressing "CTRL-z", try 3.3V instead of 5V for your RS232-TTL adapter power source. Also, someone previously said you have to be stupid and to never SWAP the hard drive's PCB (Printed Circuit Board for those who don't know) with another hard drive of ofcourse the exact model, which is true for this BSY error and LBA error BUT this method isn't stupid for all situations as my friend's PCB short circuited on his hard drive, so he got another PCB which was identical to it with ofcourse the same "Revision" number of the fried PCB and it worked flawlessly like as if nothing ever fried, so it's not always stupid, and I myself have recovered DATA from one of my old drives using the freezer trick but only because I knew it was a heating issue causing the drive to fail in the first place, so different methods for different situations. AGAIN, DO NOT swap PCB or put hard drive in freezer if you have the BSY state error or the LBA error as this will do nothing. I will answer some questions or provide some photos if anyone's curious about something or just not sure and need help. I am using Gradius's RS232-TTL adapter which is this one ; http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_i...products_id=449, Windows Vista x64 Ultimate and used "TeraTerm" for my terminal connection program, everything's in the "Setup" tab at the top if you click on it, and the only 2 things there you will need to use is "Terminal" and "Serial Port". Use the Terminal section if you want to try a Loopback test by clicking on "Local Echo" however this should be turned back off when connecting to the hard drive, and the Serial Port section ofcourse to set your COM port and changing the settings (from top to bottom) to 38400-8-None-1-None and your set. You can also change these settings from your actual Serial/COM port's settings and not just TeraTerm's settings by going into your Windows Device Manager, find your Serial/COM port and go to it's properties and set the speed settings etc to the same as TeraTerm (38400-8-None-1-None). I don't think this is necessary but I done it just to make sure. And guys if you want some video footage or different ways people are doing it just for curiousity, just type into Google Seagate hard drive fix and click on Videos at the top, there's a few videos of guys doing this Seagate fix. AGAIN, if you don't want to confuse yourself with all the different ways and are using the RS232-TTL adapter way to fix your hard drive, then like I said, first just stick to Brad Garcia's guide which is at the link I pasted above remembering ofcourse the missing "CTRL-z" command after powering your hard drive OFF/ON after the "N1" command, and secondly remembering that the hard drive's "RX" pin is the closest pin to the hard drive's DATA port. Some people who have had this BSY state error on their hard drives and have fixed it, had to ALSO do the LBA error fix which is also in the 1st page of this Gradius guide. This happens when they fixed the BSY state error to get BIOS to detect the hard drive but BIOS shows it as 0GB for it's size which is why they had to do the LBA error fix after this BSY state error. It's called Double Bricking. I have already ordered 4 Western Digital hard drives and will be throwing my Seagate hard drives into a pile of donkey sh!t then p!ssing on them followed by some vomit, and will make it my MISSION to turn people away from Seagate/Maxtor/Quantum hard drives and sticking to Western Digital and Samsung hard drives. FVCK YOU SEAGATE !!! Got my DATA back you wh0res. Also, I'm making a new gang called D2S (Death 2 Seagate) if anyone's interested let me know Again, Gradius really appreciate it and Brad Garcia thanks heaps.