corkyblue

Did you try switching Tx and Rx? Did you read FGA #4 again? Yes, we tried switching the wires, and then switching them back too....nothing doing... our convertor has handy red and green LED's which light up (as i think we listed previously) and these do function to show us there is a connection. But yes, we correctly identified the Rx and Tx wires. (although carterincanada and Brad's guide both differ on the correct pin layout for RX and TX on the HDD!?) Still no signal after Ctrl-Z. The HDD was powered,using the 3.3v orange wire (modified from a SATA power cable). Also tried 3 x fully charged 1.1v batteries. The PCB was not connected by an isolation of either the Motor and then the Head contacts. (tried both on differant attempts - no dice) We verified the grounding - ok. so any ideas? the drive did of course spin up when the Head contacts was covered, then spun down when it couldn't find the data cable. the drive was then removed from the set up and checked in a external usb enclosure... same behavorial pattern..power on, spin up....nothing found from SATA data. The drive is located in Device Control at this stage although is listed as unreadable with 0MB.

OK now we know for certain you passed the loopback test. Next you can see if you can connect it to your hdd (with pcb disconnected) and see if you get a prompt with Ctrl Z. ok tried today, nothing. hdd was connected (with pcb isolated). no prompt appearing with Ctrl Z

Bloubul - correct. no typing appears when there is no loop attached but typing when there is.

Which com port did you choose in HyperTerminal? Make sure it matches the Port in Device Manager we used COM port 4, and verified that it matched in device manager. (if there are a port next to your converter cable) by isolating either the Motor or Head contacts. Also make sure you have a 3.3V converter and NOTa 5V converter (Read-Me-First Point #10). Check grounding (Read-Me-First Point #7). In other words, first get your loopback sorted out before you connect it to your hdd. we have downloaded other drivers and at least now had communication with the convertor, where both RX and TX LED's illuminate when making comms. next step is the HDD attach. (after another test)

Corkyblue. update and report concerning St3640232as hard drive and attempted repair.. current : since the drive returned from the data recovery firm. 1) plugged rs232 converter via serial to usb converter to pc. fixed rx to tx in a non powered loop - entered hyper terminal. nothing happened 2) plugged rs232 converter via serial to usb converter to pc. fixed rx to tx in a powered loop (from pc) - entered hyper terminal, typed Ctrl Z - no pointer appeared but the green (rx) light flickered. no red (tx) light and no responce in hyperterminal - this is why we're not too sure if the communication worked. 3) took the loop out and fixed the tx cable (yellow) to the rx pin on the hd. added a rx cable (red) and plugged that into the tx pin of hd (as per carterincanada's diagram) and added sata power to drive. also added the cardboard to insulate the motor from the circuit board. The red light (tx on rs232) shone the moment the power went on. this worried us. turned off. rechecked leads. everything looked right. powered up - red light continued. tried hyperterminal - no change. 4 thinking that the two cables (tx and rx) were inverted we swapped them around. this time no red light and when using hyperterminal the green light flickered each time a key was pressed but wouldn't accept ctrl z or any text. 5) signed and had a cup of tea. this is were we leave the repair script and double checked the basics. 6) powered down. removed card, tightened hex screws. removed rs232 leads. fitted hd into pc - not the orignal host pc. added data and power cables. booted up. the drive appeared in the bios as : st3640323as - it's proper name. after a longer than usual windows (xp pro) boot up. windows claimed to have found new hardware, a disk drive. after a few more minutes it updated it's information to say it had found ST3640232as. it didn't appear in my computer - not all that surprised. checked disk management and it didn't show there. powered down. 7) returned hd to original host pc. hd not found in bios. after window boot up (vista), pc claimed again to find new hardware, gave the drive name st3640232as. nothing appeared in "my computer" but in disk management the drive was there as an 'unknown' disk, 'not initialised' and it's capacity was zero. didn't ititialise it. 8) the drive itself spin up as any other drive would - no ticks, no spindowns but no sound of anything being accessed. 9) that was our week end. 10) haven't used nokia cable at all yet. And yep noob and doofus are quite apt for us.

Nokia converters normally do not need to be powered, try without powering the converter (see if loopback works) Not sure about it being seen in Disk management (or in your friends bios), might not be BSY. Try the procedure once more without powering the converter, and if the same, let's wait to see what jaclaz says (might be something else). Yes the CA-42 cable is the mystery part for me (and i know it shouldn't be) my freind said thtat this cable comes into play later in the procedure...in other words when we get the data back...but i couldnt understand quite how it comes into the set-up...i know i sound a doofus

Yes, see what happens ok the drive is being seen in disk management, (not in my computer) its info is below, if it helps at all: ATA Device Properties Model ID : ST3640323AS Serial Number : 9VK0CE3H Revision : ZZ7L Device Type : SATA-II @ JMicron Parameters : 16383 cylinders,16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector LBA Sectors : 0 Buffer : Unknown Multiple Sectors : 16 ECC Bytes : 4 Unformatted Capacity : 8064 MB ATA Standard : ATA8-ACS

Thanks Now I have a better idea of what is going on. I was not sure if you did half a fix before and that was the reason for the strange things. That said, there are a couple of strange things that I am not sure about. Let us do it one at a time. The first one is that it is seen on your friends pc in BIOS and not on yours. One possibility is that your sata power cable is damaged (that would also explain why your converter is not seen by your hdd) Check all cables and connections thoroughly (use different cables if you can). i can try the drive via usb enclosure if thats worthwhile too?

A couple more questions (try to answer them all) 1.So your loopback was successful? 2. What kind of converter did you use? Is it powered at 3.3V or 5V? 3. Did you put SATA power on your hdd? 4. Is it now seen in BIOS? 5. Did you have comms with your hdd before? 1. loopback seemed to have success as the converter displays LED lights and also on hyperterminal as we typed it showed up as per the carterincanada explanation 2. convertor 3.3 powered from molex from PC PSU 3. SATA power on HDD yes...but not spinning up 4. yes seen in bios on freinds pc (his is XP) not on mine (mine is vista) 5. i dont think i had comms before (in what way do you mean) (through hyperterminal?)

ok just spent several hours trying, but no comms between hdd and hyperterminal. checked the RX/TX leads, swapped and tried checked the loopback which seemed to report ok...but nothing. tried covering the motor with piece of card, followed the instructions...but nothing doing...any suggestions? for the record, i am 'seeig' the drive in disk management...but no data or any capacity.

ok latest is I've just looked for my drive in AIDA64......Heres what comes up. remember my drive is a 640GB Capacity drive. hopefully this listed info helps a little more to understand my case. ATA Device Properties Model ID : ST3640323AS Serial Number : 9VK0CE3H Revision : ZZ7L Device Type : SATA-II @ JMicron Parameters : 16383 cylinders,16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector LBA Sectors : 0 Buffer : Unknown Multiple Sectors : 16 ECC Bytes : 4 Unformatted Capacity : 8064 MB ATA Standard : ATA8-ACS

First tell us exactly what you committed with your hdd during the attempted fix. The more detailed info you give, the better the chance that we can understand what went wrong. ok, here goes.. well having received the drive back from the 'free diagnosis' form the data recoverer, i connected the drive back to my PC as an internal and discovered that it spins up, although did not show in BIOS. it was identified through disk management but was 'unknown' and needed initializing. now, my freind /neighbour is more technical than I am so we have all the cables and adaptor (inclusive of nokia modified cable) ready to attempt the BSY fix, or at least try and get something through hyperterminal as a first thing. as a first attempt, we were not succesful in getting the HDD to power up, which could be a result in the fact it wasnt talking to our independant PSU???, which was being used from its red cable molex only, in orer to power it up...... he suggested we take a look again to see if the drive was appearing through BIOS, but on HIS pc instead of mine..... it was. however it was showing only a total of 7.87GB and of course the firmware as previously stated as ZZ7L. This drive should be a total of 640GB and has near 423GB of my data on it! (i'd like to point out again that the HDD had a firmware of SD33 Prior to its 'free diagnosis' ... they changed it during the week they had the drive...they also said that it WASN'T the BSY fix and that they quouted £300 to get my data back. ) here is what the recoverer has actually said: 'Your drive has multiple failures. It would appear that media issues have caused a firmware lockout, so one problem would have to be resolved before fixing the next one.' during the session at my friends, we connected the drive using the RX and TX, and tried to check that we were getting the right connections. my freind set up hyperterminal and checked that this matched...however, the actual drive would not spin up. My freind then suggested we just get the firmware update on the drive, and downloaded the 'Brinks' SD1 something or other firmware, however...he nearly messed his own PC up by this... so aborted. I am now at home again and connected the drive to my PC, to have another look through Seatools...its firmware is now displaying nothing...blank. which makes me think did he actually wipe off the ZZ7L Firmware? is that possible? looking forward to your feedback, i'll answer further questions as simply as i can. Corky

OK, let me just understand exactly what you did as the reports are very conflicting... 1. Did you do a loopback test? 2. Did you get a response in Hyperterminal when you issued commands? If the response to these questions are "YES", then your converter is powered and your hdd as well and you do not need to worry about that. If not, we have to look for the problem. Funny firmware version is not a major issue and can be flashed to SD1A/B after the fix. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&view=findpost&p=892154 the latest strange development is that its showing no firware revision in seatools now..... the ZZ7L has disappeared?? not allowing any tests either!!

<sigh> I thought you already did the procedure Let us start at the very beginning. Did you do a loopback test? See FGA no. 3 and 4. Just for good measure, you can also read the rest of the FGA as well as the Read-Me-First as you obviously missed quite a few important parts (#11 deals with powering the converter). Then also read the guide by CarterinCanada a few times. Next time you report that you did the fix, make sure you followed that guide and got the expected responses. I am really flabbergasted that you actually reported a fix before and now come with these questions PS. and next time you quote a post, don't quote the whole post (especially if it is a long post), but only the relevant parts. yeah my bad, after a very sleepless night we're attempting this today again, i'd also like to add that during the free examination by the data recovery co. they actually did change the firmware ......has been changed to ZZ7L ... i found this out using Seatools...where for the record the drive has also failed the SMART test. will be posting later today the latest, thanks bloubal

As far as i know...i have all of the cables as Gradius instructed...but my problem is actually powering up the HDD....although i dont have the little battery in the pictures here.....just realised.... is there a way around not using the battery?