GAG

halbarad If you insert the USB end of the cable in the computer's USB port (without the phone attached to the other end) and the cable is detected by the PC as a 'USB to serial' device then you do not need an external power, assuming you are able to install the USB drivers. If there is no detection of the cable then you need to provide power, as mentioned by VideoRipper.

I report a successful unbricking operation of my Seagate 7200.11 HDD. Many thanks to Jaclaz, Videoripper and all others on this forum, whose posts guided me. The procedure went off like a charm. At present I am backing up the data on a USB hard disk. I want to share some of my learnings below, with a disclaimer that these worked for me -- not necessary that the same will work for you. I used a Nokia CA-45 (not CA-42) cable. 3 wires inside. Made in China. USB powered i.e. no need to attach an external battery. If you do not want to hassle yourself by having AA batteries stuck together to power the USB-serial converted, you should go to a phone accessory shop with your laptop. Any cable which is detected when USB plug is inserted (without the phone attached at the other end) is a reasonable bet. I tried 15 odd cables (all CA-42s) before I got the USB powered one. While not necessary, it helps to upfront identify GND, RX, TX on the cable (varies from cable to cable so no rules here -- some investigative work needed) as well as on the drive (please see recent posts by Videoripper and Jaclaz, which are very clear) so that the initial connection itself is correct. Grounding : I connected the GND of Nokia cable to the GND on the HDD. The HDD was powered by an external SATA power adapter. That had a different GND. I took my chances by not connecting that GND to the HDD / Cable GND. Did not face any problems. Loopback : I did the loop back test on the Nokia CA-45 cable by setting up HT (windows XP home) and connecting the RX / TX cables. What you type appears on the screen only ONCE. If you do not connect RX and TX cables then the text you type does not appear on screen and the screen remains blank. This confused me initially because I was looking at double text appearing. But the cables worked perfectly and when it was connected to the HDD, I could see, what I was typing in the HTT. I covered the ‘head contact’ with a piece of paper and not the ‘motor contact’. The PCB was attached to the HDD throughout the process. 3 screws close to the motor contact were fully tightened from beginning. There is a mention in some posts to keep the other 3 screws loose. I learnt that I can keep only 2 screws loose in place. The third small one which is very close to the head contact, cannot be even positioned because the thick paper covers the threaded hole. I put this 6th screw in position only after I pulled the paper out midway during the process. I found useful two rounds of practice of pulling the paper with no power and then attaching the single screw while trying not to touch the PCB. Lastly, Seagate’s authorised RMA service (outsourced in India) was neither aware of the BSY issue nor were they prepared to help out by trying to remedy. They offered to just replace the HDD. When I called the Singapore helpdesk, a very polite and helpful representative asked questions, concluded that this is a BSY issue and offered to get the HDD picked up from my residence, arrange for firmware upgrades at their service center located in Southern India and return the repaired HDD (not another replacement) to my residence. I did not select this option because of data privacy issue as well as the fact that I did not want to risk the transit physical damage possibility. Because of this acceptance of responsibility by Seagate and their gesture of making an offer to take care of the matter at no cost to me, I will continue to be a Seagate customer! I am also planning to upgrade the firmware using the ISO file from Seagate website. I am aware that some people have had issues with the SD1A version. Is that now corrected by Seagate? Thanks CarterinCanada for this tip. Will remember.Regards GAG

Peter.. Thanks. I am yet to attempt the debricking operation (scheduled now for the coming weekend) so really appreciate your efforts. While I have some technical background but that is motor cars and IC engines related stuff so this 9th pin / 10th pin is very Greek and Latin to me.. but your diagram and the post is crystal clear

Thanks BlouBul.. any other observation / tip is welcome..Regards GAG

Amen. Thanks Jaclaz. Request for one more clarification: It is ideal that the Hyperterminal contact is not broken during the process except during the intermediate power down step. Given that the connections are "home made" if one is using a Nokia cable, is there a risk if any of the TX / RX / GND pins loose contact during the procedure? At what stage is it ok to have a pin coming loose and at what stage it can screw up the procedure? Below, I am numbering as 1 to 11, the key steps post initial connection. My understanding is that it is safe to loose contact till step 3. One can just start again. I am more worried about step 4 when the process of card removal may be a bit rough and a small jerk may cause a connector pin to move. 1. ctrl+z 2. /2 (press Enter key 3. Z (press Enter key) 4. Remove card 5. U (press Enter key) 6. /1 (press Enter key) 7. N1 (press Enter key) 8. Power recycle / call disconnect reconnect 9. ctrl+z 10. m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (press Enter key) 11. wait for Max Wr Retries = 00, Max ....... Is there any step when a disconnected HT connection means a permanently bricked drive?

Thanks Jaclaz..your answer is very helpful and I appreciate the time taken to answer. But as another saying goes... "one thing leads to another...." After reading the guide at http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html I became aware that in some cases covering just the head contact won't work and one may need to 'attempt' with the motor contact. I have seen your views on this post : " .... And the answer, is, as it seems to me clearly written in the quote: 1.try with the HEADs contacts. 2.If it doesn't work on your drive, try with the MOTOR ones. We don't have a database of which contacts for which model are better, but you do not risk anything by using trial and error, in most cases #1 will work, in some it won't and you'll have to use method #2." That was a couple of months back. Do you have an updated view on this? My HDD model is ST3500620AS ; ver 7200.11; Date Code 09053 ; Firmware SD15; Swapping RX / TX wires for 'trial and error' is one thing but swapping insert card positions during the operation will surely give me the jitters ! Regards GAG

I want to thanks everyone who contributed on this thread, for the detailed guidance on the BSY unbricking issue for Seagate 7200.11 / SD15 / Made in Thailand drives. I have an identical issue with my 500 GB Seagate Barracuda (confirmed the suspect model with Seagate helpline) . After all research at this forum, I am ready to attempt the m0,2,2…. Procedure. I am planning to use a Nokia CA-45 serial cable (on which I have successfully done the loopback test) and an external SATA power supply. I have also identified the GND, RX and TX wires on the serial cable using a multimeter as well as opening the USB plug, where I could see the markings. At the last minute, while checking and rechecking the steps, I realized that as regards the RX & TX pins on the drive itself, there are two views. I always knew that for the cable there cannot be a standard rule -- no two cables are same but I am confused with the divergent views on the pins on the drive itself. The diagram in the original Gradius2 post suggests TX pin next to the GND and RX being the last one i.e. a [Null, GND, TX, RX] configuration. This position is also supported in a few other posts. A different view [NULL,GND,RX,TX] exists on the following links, including one where the post is very explicit in stating that the pin next to GND is RX and therefore TX of the cable needs to be attached here. http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/ http://howto.starahead.com/?p=61 In all cases the HDD is assumed PCB side up. While I know that it is safe to do “trial and error” for checking this but would be really grateful if someone can definitively clarify this so that I start with the correct position. Thanks in advance for a reply.