VideoRipper

Ah well... I guess I'm just that intelligent fool and not a genius Greetz, Peter.

I'm afraid your drive suffers the "Click of death" problem, which can't be fixed using the directions in this thread. Don't know if there are any solutions to that problem, but you'll get lots of results when using "Click of death" as a search-phrase on Google. Good luck, Peter.

Yes... but VB uses runtime modules... With Delphi you can also use Runtime-modules (*.bpl) and then my "application" would be under 100kB as well ...and a HTA-script uses an interpreter (which is well over several 100's of kB's)

Well... I feel insulted Nah... just kidding It's a pity I didn't notice the bashing @ my person earlier, because now the 8 minute limit of jaclaz has passed a long time But be honoust: even if you would write a script instead of using a programming language (I use Delphi BTW), it's not the scripting that takes much time, but the research up front and testing and tweaking afterwards. Typing the code (like the vbs-script given by Guimenez or the one by SmokingMan) only takes about 5 minutes (at the most); it's the rest that needs more time than that. It even took me about 5-8 minutes to find the correct variable and registry-keys using Google (in my first reply); you didn't think I knew that beforehand, did you? (I hardly ever mess with the registry, other than to write configuration-settings of my own applications). And no: I'm not employed as a programmer (I work for the Dutch government, but in an entirely different, albeit technical, type of field) and at this time I'm on sick-leave (10 months already), so my response wasn't meant to start a flame war between coders and scripters; I only program purely for the fun of it and to keep myself busy. So I'm sorry if I gave the impression of being an a**; I only used two words: "Script kiddie" and "Programming" and I'm immediatly getting flamed... why is that? (Well... maybe I'm an a** after all?) I prefer coding instead of scripting because it's easy, fast and you don't need an interpreter or run-time libraries: everything is compiled into one self-contained exe and you can debug your code to your hearts content. The only downside is that an executable is a lot larger than a script (gosh: even an "Empty" form doing nothing, compiled under Delphi is around 400kB in size) So if you wish (and the contest is still on) I would be happy to send in a simple (command-line) version (thus without any thrills), but don't complain if it wasn't fully tested and thought through and it hangs (or f*cks up) your computer Greetz, Peter. PS. I do like to emphasize it's not my intention to insult anyone here

RX is the receiving line, TX is the transmitting line. When connected correctly (RX to TX and TX to RX) you *should* get any response when powering up the drive. If you would connect these lines the wrong way round (RX of COM to RX of drive and TX of COM to TX of drive), you won't see any response. If you have chosen the wrong speed (Baud-rate), data-bits, parity and/or stop-bits to communicate with, the response will be either gibberish or none at all (depending on the chosen speed). If you have chosen the wrong flow control, you might not get any response at all.For a 7200.11 drive, the settings should be: Bits per second: 38400Data bits: 8 Parity: None Stop bits: 1 Flow control: None OR (if your interface has loopback handshaking): Flow control: HardwareIn case of communication problems, please follow this test: Connect your convertor to the PC Leave the other end of the convertor un-connected Start HyperTeminal (or another terminal program you want to use) Open a connection (for instance with settings: 38400-8-N-1) Type a few characters on the keyboard: the terminal display *should* remain empty. Now connect the RX and TX of the convertor to each other (creating a loopback connection) Again: type a few characters on the keyboard: this time, you *should* see the typed characters in the terminal display.If above test is succesful, you know that: The convertor works correctly You have successfully identified the RX and TX terminals of the convertor (though you don't know which is which for sure, yet)Now, let's continue to the next step: Remove the controler-board from the drive Connect the RX and TX leads of your convertor to the controler-board Open a connection in HyperTerminal (with settings: 38400-8-N-1) Apply power to the drive's controler-board (note: the drive itself is not attached at this moment!) In HyperTeminal, the display *should* show something similar to: Rst 0x20M If you now press the CTRL+Z keys (at the same time), the controler-board*should* response with:F3 T> ...which is the actual prompt you're going to need If you don't get any response (in step 5), try swapping the RX and TX lines and try again (don't forget to remove/reapply power when doing this). Once you have established connection to the controler-board and can communicate with it, you're ready to (try to) un-brick it. Good luck and greetz, Peter.

The user's folderroot is declared in the %USERPROFILE% variable, but you can change the My Documents-folder in the registry manually with the keys at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders If (and how) this can be done with VBS... I don't know, I'm a programmer not script-kiddie Greetz, Peter.

Great news, a8nsli! (...and another satisfied customer leaves the shop) Now backup (the most important) stuff and check/swap the drives ASAP Greetz, Peter.

Don't have a real answer (or a clue), but I can imagine that Microsoft (in their wisdom) use similar packets when "Client for Microsoft Networks" and/or "File and printer sharing"-drivers are installed?

Sorry... wrong recollection from my side... You cannot use F6 ("Additional driver install") when using an unattended installation CD I guess it's alright when using a "Normal" slipstreamed CD (thus non-un-attended) I only had my original XP CD and a self-made unattended upgraded SP3 CD and (obviously) tried the SP3 CD first (which failed)... After reading about this "Shortcoming", I used my original CD instead. Greetz, Peter.

To my knowledge (but hey, this is not really my field) the "F6-Additional drivers" option only works with an original (non slip-streamed) and unmodified Windows installation CD. It may be a backup copy of the CD, that isn't the problem, but it has to be untouched. Another option is to use a slipstreamed CD with the extra driver(s) you need on that same installation CD... as long as you don't intend to use F6. I had this problem about a month ago, when I had to replace my harddisk (because of that dreadful Seagate SATA 7200.11 problem) and tried to install XP again using a slipstreamed Windows XP SP3 CD using a Promise SATA controler (which is not supported by default). After doing some investigation, I found out that you can only use F6 with an unmodified CD, so I had to use the original CD (which did work) and manually upgraded the system to SP3. Greetz, Peter.

Hehehehe, you could be right there, of course My drive was faulty (gave an error-message in SeaTools) and I expect others to get the same result, but you'll have to enter the error message (given by SeaTools) when issuing an RMA. Knowing how the company Seagate thinks and works (after having found out the hard way myself), my guess is they will not swap a "Non-faulty" drive under warranty... Greetz, Peter.

That's great thecola, congrats! Now first: Backup the most important data on the drive Perform a "Short DST" and "Long DST"-check using SeaTools for DOSIf you get an error-message: get the drive swapped When there are NO errors: Update the drive's firmware to SD1A Greetz, Peter.

To be honest: I only followed the initial roadmap by Gradius2 and entirely removed the PCB from the drive (so both heads, actuator as platter-motor contacts were isolated), but you'll have to make sure when re-fixing the PCB, you don't short circuit anything (and fry it)! I just did it for peace of mind: I didn't like the idea the heads would move over the non-rotating platters at drive startup. (FYI: the heads hover over the platters by the thin layer of air that is generated by its rotational force) Greetz, Peter.

Hmmm, indeed the steps look alright (I guess you only mixed up the order when posting). Luckily I saved my log of HyperTerminal when unbricking my drive and this is what it looked like: Disconnected PCB from drive Connected COM-convertor and Applied power to PCB: LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051F3 T>/2 F3 2>Z Spin Down CompleteElapsed Time 0.146 msecsWith the power still applied to the PCB, I attached the PCB back onto the drive.Spin up motor again:F3 2>U Spin Up CompleteElapsed Time 6.824 secsF3 2>/1 F3 1>N1 F3 1>F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 00C8 User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 00 secs F3 T>After this, I could access my drive again (over SATA)As can be seen, my error-message at the beginning was different. Mine: Yours: So... that might be the problem in your case? The fact your PCB responds to CTRL+Z is a good thing, but to enter Level 2 diagnostics you'll have to press: /2(Slash 2) not just 2 Are you sure you've typed the slash ("/") before the "2"? Greetz, Peter.

If you're not using them, just disable them in the BIOS On the other hand: why would you want to use a PCI LAN-card when you've already got an on-board one? Greetz, Peter.

Often the RX- and TX-lines accidently swapped, so you might want to try it the other way round. This is how (I think) the convertor should be connected to the drive: Don't forget to also apply power to the drive when trying to communicate to it. Greetz, Peter.

...and that's what you're doing wrong. Since the firmware is stored on the platters, once you apply power to the drive the firmware is loaded (and fails), resulting in a busy state. The trick is to only access the controler, before it is even able to load the firmware and this is done by temporary disabling the drive motor (by separating it from the PCB). Now you will be able to access the controler (and it only *thinks* the drive is spun up), so you have to let it *think* the motor is not spinning again, by invoking the spin-down command. After that you can re-seat the PCB (remove the separator) and spin the motor up again. So the correct order is: Remove PCB (or put something between the drive's motor-contacts) Apply the COM-connection Apply power to drive Spin down motor (it actually wasn't spinning in the first place) Re-attach PCB (or remove motor-contacts spacer) Spin up motor (now it will really spin up) Perform commands to get drive out of the BSY state Remove power and COM-connection to drive Connect drive to SATA-port on PC Power up PCSee if it recognises it as a drive Check if the drive is not seen as a 0GB drive If the drive is seen as a 0GB drive, you'll have to perform the additional LBA0-steps. When the drive is working again: make a backup of your drive ASAP followed by a thourough test using SeaTools for DOS. Greetz, Peter.

It's always hard to judge when I've only got images and I can't verify it with a multimeter, but it *looks* like these are the connections: You might want to check yourself, by following the tracks on the PCB (if possible with a multimeter); this is the pinout of the chip in question: Remember that (after you've verified the connections), you have to connect the RX of the board to the TX of the drive and the TX of the board to the RX of the drive. If you wish, you can first do a test-run, by connecting the convertor to your PC's COM-port and applying power to it and connecting the TX to the RX of the board (thus creating a "Loop-back") and see if you get characters echood back when typing on the keyboard in HyperTerminal. Greetz, Peter.

Since the firmware is stored on the drive itself (the platters), I wonder if you even could be able to do an update... Greetz, Peter.

IC stands for "Integrated Circuit" AKA a "Chip". I can see one chip on the PCB (that small black thing with the 16 shiny pins) right between the RS232 connector and the 3-pin header. This chip should have markings on it (like MAX222/MAX232A/...); what does it say? Enter these markings (the type-number) into Google along with the phrase "Datasheet". But first, try to read its markings (I can't see it in the images provided) and tell us here. But... did the board just come as is, without any manual of some kind? Where did you get it? Maybe more information can be found at the website where you've bought it? Greetz, Peter.

I assume the board came with a manual that could tell you? (Can't use MSFN-the link you've posted as it's incomplete...) (...and shouldn't you just post this in the Seagate BSY/LBA0-problem thread?) If not: what type of IC is on it? Look up its datasheet with Google and see what pins of the chip run to wich pin at the header. Greetz, Peter.

Remember that Google is always your best friend Greetz, Peter.

Yes you can, you'll need a proxy or gateway to achieve that. (But be warned: most game-servers ban known proxies)

Okay, I wasn't really clear about that All devices inside your LAN (a switch and all your local computers) have to be 1Gb; a router/modem connecting your LAN to WAN (the internet) doesn't need to have it. Most of the time, Gigabit LAN (1000BASE-TX) cables can be identified by the metal shielding around the RJ-45 connectors; they also use CAT-6 cable instead of CAT-5. Greetz, Peter.

For 1Gbit LAN to work, you'll need GBLan adapters and cables (yes, these are different than "Normal" CAT-5 cables) in all devices on your network, including switches & routers. Greetz, Peter.