VideoRipper

I've never used my modem (in the pre-broadband days) as a "Phone", but this question pops up in my head: "Is your microphone selected in the audio-mixer and it's level set, when your making the call?" Greetz, Peter.

Hehehe Yeah I know, but I still don't have enough money to buy such a fancy glass ball like you have The details given by DarkCloud are pretty limited, so I have to go on his diagnoses (while it could be entirely wrong).

You didn't state the brand and model of your graphics card (if that is really your problem), but in the past (a long time ago) I had a similar issue with an NVidea-card that just always gave a BSoD. In the end I downloaded and installed an older driver and the trouble vanished instantly... Just a thought Greetz, Peter.

Great to hear, BlouBul! While, in theory, it's possible to do this procedure with a multitude of convertor-devices, experience tells us it can only be done successfully by a small number of them and even a lot less ones are suitable for people with (very) little knowlegde of electronics. Anyway, glad to hear we can remove another broken drive from the list Don't forget to: Back up your (most important) data first! Return it to Seagate for a swap (if the drive is still under warranty) If it isn't (or you don't want to): do the SD1A firmware update Greetz, Peter.

It doesn't really matter actually. I had this dreadful BSY-problem myself (hey... that's how I joined up here), and sent in my drive to Seagate (well... to i365, that is). And while I had a "Real" (NON-OEM) drive, I was still quoted €900 for just the data-recovery In the end I was able to retrieve all the data myself for just a couple of Euros and I've got it swapped for a "Certified repaired" drive (which was free of charge) after having backed up the data myself. So... to my knowlegde, the offer they were talking about, isn't valid anymore. Greetz, Peter.

In short: Boot in "Safe mode" (press F8 after the "POST") Uninstall all the drivers of your video-card Reboot (normal mode this time; you'll get a 256 color low-res screen) Download and install latest drivers Reboot Done Greetz, Peter.

Hahahahahaha, well lets be fair: yu don't have any experience in electronics or repairing harddrives in particular I know it all (technology) looks relatively simple, but in real life it isn't You really need to start at the beginning (learning the basics) before wanting to experiment with these kinds of things. Fixing a BSY/LBA0-drive is very simple compared to what you try to achieve. Greetz, good luck and keep us posted on your progress, Peter.

Well, I can't judge on the harddrive of course, given the submitted symptoms; in contrast with Jaclaz, I don't have a crystal ball But... it's your money, so do whatever you want to do. I already said I admired your persistance Greetz, Peter.

My actual attempt was to advise you against it, but if you really want to take the risk, you're free to do so of course Good luck, Peter.

Yes, you should swap them (put the EEPROM from the "Defective" PCB to the "New" PCB). The clicking, on itself, shouldn't be a reason the heads are defective. It's the same as "My car is making noise, so I replaced the entire engine", while only the fan-belt is broken I've sent in my Seagate 7200.11 drive (you remember... from that other thread) over to i365 for diagnoses. Their report was my drive was extremely damaged and they were willing to "Recover" its data for €900 ex VAT, while it was "Only" the well known BSY-error Always be sceptical about reported diagnoses made by companies that are there to make money (...and I don't blame them: they have to make a living too). Greetz, Peter.

It's the EEPROM that stores the drive's characteristics and specific configuration-data which is different for each drive (even for drives from the same batch and even succeeding serial-numbers). Why? Have you (or "The owner") dropped it onto a concrete floor? Opened the drive and inspected the heads under a microscope? You can never be certain, before actually having diagnosed a problem; it could even be that the PCB isn't defective after all. All you told us so far is that you want to replace the PCB with another one you found on the internet. You haven't told us what you've done to come to the conclusion the drive in question is defective. Something tells me you only detected that the drive doesn't work (as it should) and you're only guessing what the actual problem is, without any substantiating evidence, which isn't an approach an engineer would take.

It doesn't really matter actually, the comments of Jaclaz and me still stands. Apart from the "Heads"-problem, which we are certain you will not be able to resolve (btw: how come you're certain they're defective as well?), try to answer the following (which would actually be the easiest to do): Do you think you're capable of replacing this part on the PCB: To be honoust: I doubt it... Greetz, Peter.

Why are you double-posting? Knowing you (and your level of expertise) your chances are NIL. (No offence, btw) First of all you want to swap the PCB of a 120GB drive with one of a 80GB drive Maybe in that you *might* be able to succeed, but unlike Seagate drives Western Digital drives store their drive-specific data (calibration data, head-alignments, etc.) on an (EE)PROM on the PCB and not on the platters, so you'll have to solder that (SMD) component over as well. Second: because of the size (and therefor the platter-) differences, the heads of both drives will be different. If I recall correctly: in a prior thread, you were advised by someone to practice first with a working, non crucial, drive; opening its case in a clean (-ish) room, removing the heads and replacing them again, to see if the drive still works after re-assembly. When you've succeeded, practice over and over again a couple of times before actually trying to perform the operation on a drive that needs data recovery. And only try it with parts you know are compatible; it's for a reason data- recovery services have cabinets full of different donor-drives to temporary swap parts with. I can only emphasize this again: harddrives ARE NOT crystal radio-sets that can suffer a bit of rough handling, but highly sensitive and complex devices. ...although: I do appreciate your persistence Greetz, Peter.

Knowing you (and your level of expertise) your chances are NIL. (No offence, btw) First of all you want to swap the PCB of a 120GB drive with one of a 80GB drive Maybe in that you *might* be able to succeed, but unlike Seagate drives Western Digital drives store their drive-specific data (calibration data, head-alignments, etc.) on an (EE)PROM on the PCB and not on the platters, so you'll have to solder that (SMD) component over as well. Second: because of the size (and therefor the platter-) differences, the heads of both drives will be different. If I recall correctly: in a prior thread, you were advised by someone to practice first with a working, non crucial, drive; opening its case in a clean (-ish) room, removing the heads and replacing them again, to see if the drive still works after re-assembly. When you've succeeded, practice over and over again a couple of times before actually trying to perform the operation on a drive that needs data recovery. And only try it with parts you know are compatible; it's for a reason data- recovery services have cabinets full of different donor-drives to temporary swap parts with. I can only emphasize this again: harddrives ARE NOT crystal radio-sets that can suffer a bit of rough handling, but highly sensitive and complex devices. ...although: I do appreciate your persistence Greetz, Peter.

Hahahahaha, they probably already know what bugs are going to surface the upcoming months

Unfortunately not But the symptoms does remind me of the drive in this thread, which has similar problems (though no real fix for it there either) Greetz, Peter.

There's no sense in that, since you have a BSY-error to start with Earlier you wrote: Which means that your computer isn't even recognizing your drive. Your PC first needs to recognize a drive, before it's able to determine its size. I'm not saying you don't have an LBA0-problem (though you don't need to have that problem), but it's not seen at the moment, which is a BSY-error, so you'll have to fix that first. How did you want to perform a rescue operation without the proper "Stuff"? A Torx 6 should be the least of your problems (you could always use a small flathead screw- driver in a worst case). You're going to need an (USB =>) RS232 => TTL-convertor for both fixes and by the sounds of it, you don't have that one either (and those things can't normally be found at the hardware- store, while T6 screwdrivers can)... So get geared up properly first before even attempting to start this procedure or you might as well just bin the drive beforehand. Greetz, Peter.

Oops sorry, my bad... I had to check my own un-brick log and you're absolutely right: LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051 LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051 F3 T>/2 F3 2>Z Spin Down Complete Elapsed Time 0.146 msecs F3 2>U Spin Up Complete Elapsed Time 6.824 secs F3 2>/1 F3 1>N1 F3 1> 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 Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 00 secs F3 T> Nevertheless, that "DiagError 0000500D" should not be there when the drive's electronics and mechanics are in order, so my guess is you've got bigger problems on your hands. Greetz, Peter.

You actually don't want to know Just get yourself a (USB =>) RS232 => TTL convertor, follow the procedure for fixing the BSY-error first, see if the drive is working again and if not, perform a partition regeneration (= LBA0 fix). Don't forget to read (and fully understand) what is written by Jaclaz in this excellent READ ME FIRST-topic Greetz, Peter.

And you have a prompt that says: F3 T> instead of just: T> right? This fellow, a few pages back, also has the same problem and if you ask me there's something terribly wrong with either your PCB or your platters (or both). I don't know of a solution, but if you find one, please share it with us. Greetz, Peter.

Yes... but to "Get it working"? Wouldn't a simple repartition/reformat be sufficient?

Did you double-check each workstation's (and server's) IP-address settings and/or computer-names? Do you use DHCP or static IP's? I prefer to connect to shared drives using the computer's IP-address instead of using their computernames (if possible), just to avoid these kinds of things. Greetz, Peter.

As long as you're certain the connection is made, you'll be fine That's a good thing for starters With RS-232 communications, the connected device just wants to see a certain key (or combination of keys); the used keyboard doesn't matter, unless you've "Mechanically" swapped the keys on the keyboard. RS232 protocol doesn't know anything about keyboard layouts or pagecodes (like Windows does): if you see a "Z" when typing one in, for instance, Word it really is a "Z". The only problem that *might* arise with German keyboards are the "Alt Gr"-key at the right hand side of the keyboard which can be different than the left "Alt" one, but we only need the Control-key, so you could use either left or right (I think). Good thinking! Dreadful it didn't work Not really, other than the obvious: Make sure ALL connections are made: TX, RX and GND Make sure that the wires are actually making contact with the pins and that there are no shorts. You can safely remove the com-connection at the drive while the drive is powered, just to see if a loopback is still working or to swap RX and TX. Do you have another (spare) Seagate drive to test the connection? (Note: older drives work at lower baudrates) Maybe just the PCB of your drive is broken? Greetz, Peter.

Install Windows on an external drive (and boot from it)? Uhm no, I hardly ever have problems with harddrives apart from one Seagate 7200.11 (SD15) drive. The only brand that always gave me trouble were Maxtors; WD never failed on me (yet). My dad, on the other hand, managed to blow up his external (USB) WD by using the wrong power supply (which had it's polarity reversed on the power-connector) That one is beyond repair without swapping the drive's PCB (and its EEPROM) Greetz, Peter.

My current stats: