malb

I'm another happy owner of an un-bricked Seagate with firmware SD25. I'm making a full backup at this moment. Mine stopped being recognized by the BIOS one week ago. I talked with a friend and he told me that, since the disk did not produce strange sounds, maybe it was a problem with the controller. I took all the references and start digging for a controller to replace, but soon found that it would be necessary to transfer the ROM from the older controller to the new one. I found some companies that sell the adequate controller but it is necessary to swap the chips; none of those companies on Europe, just USA and Canada. Luckily yesterday I found this forum and read the "Read Me First" and the "FGA" and the .pdf from Carter. So I understood that the 4 pins near the SATA connector are not for jumpers, but they are an RS232 port. Good! I thought I had all the necessary equipment, but unfortunately my RS232 to TTL converter is old and do not work with 3.3 V, just with 5 V . Then I remember that I have a development kit from with an MAX232 (smd) and tried it. Loop-back with 3.3 V worked well, it was time to try with the Seagate. The first time didn't work, but after swapping RX and TX, got connection with the Seagate . It was time for lunch. It's better never try risky details with an empty stomach ! I power everything off. After lunch I've got some difficulties to connect again with the Seagate. But after a couple of tries it was possible to establish the connection and do all the process with good results. To prevent the risk of damaging the controller after removing the isolating card I place a piece of adhesive paper tape covering the 3 screws near the motor connector. Then (with no power) with the screwdriver, make some small holes on the adhesive paper tape to get access the the screw heads. Maybe this method can help someone; there are no need to practice and we can work without any stress. After backing-up the disk I will try to install the new firmware that I got on the Seagate site. Any recommendations? I'd like to thank everybody for the explanations and advices that allow me to recover a bricked Seagate.