mkcheznous

I would not worry that you applied the firmware upgrade - your data is probably OK - if it was before. In the end I contacted Seagate (in the UK) and they collected (DHL) and unbricked my drive and returned it in 4 days. It was sent to Holland to be done. In fact it took less than two minutes to do the actual fix. This was all done free of charge agreed in advance with them. All I had to do was describe the problem and quote the drive serial number. If they will do it for free this is the route I would take. I would have followed the advice on this forum if they had charged because I could not be 100% sure that the fault was the one discussed though I suspected it. Hope this helps.

Crystal clear now and thanks again. Just hope I did not wreck the drive with the attempted firmware update I did

I really don't want to get into an arguement with somebody who is obviously trying to help me and has taken the time to provide loads of useful info but I have re-read the thread again and I think the problem is (as you supect) in the way you make some of your points (in English) - though others may disagree. 1/ I find nowhere in point #5 where it states "firmware update can ONLY be applied on an unbricked drive". It does advise securing your data first but that is not the same at all as saying it will not work. For example somebody would sensibly save the original of a photo before editing it in say photoshop but they don't have to before editing. 2/ CA-42 - You do not say dont use it explicitly in the thread - you advise other options are preferable and give valid reasons - but this is not the same - it does not exclude using ca-42 as such. People will have tried this as it is a very cheap option (£2.50) - if it works and pretty easy to set up. If it doesn't then they might go the ttl-usb route you prefer. 3/ thanks for the comments regarding the cable I found - as you state others have used it successfully but it may be a risk to far. Thanks for the additional info and links.

OK - this is my first post - so be gentle. Before you ask I have spent a good hour and half reading through the previous posts on this drive type - so bear with me. I have a Dell Vostro 200 running XP Home. After running fine for a year and a half (ie out of warranty), it decided not to boot up on Friday evening. After some investigation in the bios - i discovered that the drive was not present! Following some internet investigation i via the seagate site was directed to the Dell Site where there is a firmware upgrade to take it from DE12 to DE13. I applied the upgrade following Dell's instructions and it appeared to do it but when I booted the PC it will still fails to find the drive. In desperation I tried the update again but with the same result. 1. Can anybody give any insight into why the firmware update would not have the desired effect ? I have seen the procedures for sorting it using hyperterminal but is not clear why this method is necessary. 2. I have read somewhere that Seagate will provide a free data recovery service. Is that true, still valid - I am UK based. 3. Foolishly the data (photos of the kids etc) was not backed up. If Seagate will not help, can anybody recommend somebody ideally in the UK who could for a reasonable cost ? I am not sure I fancy the hyperterminal route myself. thanks in advance