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mikesw

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Posts posted by mikesw

  1. VSS is the volume shadow copy service that XP. Vista and 7 use to copy, move and back files that are in use, the service is normally set to a manual launch state and is started when another service or application calls it.

    Well it seems that I must set VSS and the MSoft .... Service Provider to "start" along with making it automatic for DRIVEXML v2.02

    to stop complaining that it can't lock the drive. I'd think DriveXML would "start" and change it to "automatic" to work properly

    without complaining vs. me doing manually.

  2. I came across this,

    You should make sure that VSSVC.EXE is running in your task manager.

    Is it normal for VISTA and XP to come with this already running?

    Although my computer has the two VSS services in 'manual' and 'stopped',

    when I 'start' these two services, then 'VSSVC.EXE' is shown in the task manager.

    Hence, what is considered the normal default mode of these services so that I can

    tell if something 'stopped' these services?

  3. I tried to backup VISTA ultimate on a laptop using DriveXML v2.02 that has a feature of

    drive to drive copy. The UAC is required to be turned off by DRIVExml else the

    list of drives aren't shown. I want to copy VISTA to a larger laptop drive which has already

    been partitioned with the first one a simple partition and made active along with being

    formatted as NTFS. However, it complains that it can't lock the drive when I use drivexml

    for either drive lock or using VSS. I'm not sure if I have to check the box "raw" too.

    As a result I forced it to copy without either one, but about 50% of it copied before

    it complained about a sector problem and started deleting stuff (unknown what it is deleting.

    Perhaps it is the files which are already copied to the new drive).

    If anybody has used v2.02 of drivexml on Vista, perhaps you can help.

    a). when to use raw mode.

    b ). when drivexml complains about not being able to lock, does this mean the drive

    that is being copied or the one getting the copy.

    c). In XP "MS Shadow Service Provider" and "Volume Shadow Services" are set to manual

    and don't show started. Does Drivexml for both XP and VISTA start and stop these services

    when a program uses them? Should I change them to automatic which could mean that drivexml

    will start/stop them.

    d). what can cause forced sector problems? I presume a file on the drive being copied is

    locked and when I forced the copy, it can't handle a sector that is locked by the OS being copied

    vs having a bad sector on my new drive.

    Note: The drive partition size being copied to is 100gigs and the one being copied is 75gigs. So

    it shouldn't be a drive sizing problem.

    Question: what is mean't by "enable" vss? Is this switching from "disable" to "manual" or "automatic",

    or hitting the "start" for the service?

  4. You guys may want to try out this software.

    http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/index.html

    The GUI is,

    gsmartcontrols

    This allows nondestructive testing of drive, dumping of internal logs

    They mention it has "-d usbcypress" support but the latest version I got

    doesn't seem to understand this command nor is it in the command line -h listing.

    I have a western digital 250gig ide attached to a sabrent ide -> usb adaptor.

    The software doesn't see this drive although gmsmartcontrol thinks there is something there (the icon)

    After running msinfo32 and displaying the USB VID and PID for my adaptor, the chipset device is

    VID 152D and PID 2338. I then searched ww.linux-usb.org/usb.ids and found that it was a JMicron Tech Corp

    chipset that had the functional capabilities of the JM20337 Hi Speed USB to SATA/PATA combo bridge.

    So perhaps this along with the PID 2335 could be added for this manufacter along with all the other

    bridges for external drives to smartmontools!

    There is no way at the commandline to scan ones system and list all drive devices instead of guessing

    them one-by-one.

    It would be nice to be able to list all the master/slave, model, firmware and the smartmontools device name

    as one command i.e like,

    smartclt -d ?

    Theres also a daemon monitor called smartd.

    Failure Analysis articles listings and the one on "Myth or Metric". :thumbup

    http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/links.html

    I also ran the tool "diskid32" that is free from winsim inc. and it showed alot of useful info about master/slave

    and the drive model and firmware etc.

  5. Hiya

    Thanks for those last two replies. That's useful information.

    The reason I'm using SP3 is that it's on the version of the install disk i have. I only use win2k for the internet and I only got it because my mobile broadband said the oldest OS it would work with is 2k so I made a dual boot system. I was very happy using 98 before that.

    I don't use automatic updates because 3 Mobile Broadband can be flaky at times so if I try to top up the couple of days before my data allowance is due to run out and it doesn't let me do it, then I do the top up after the data allowance has run out and it's charging me £1 a MB (either that or walk to the library and do it) I just don't want automatic updates doing a great big download at the time =)

    I reformatted and reinstalled windows quite recently so I don't have all the updates on 2k at the moment, but I spend most of my time using 98 anyway.

    Yes, you can go to the library like I do and download the SP4 patch and copy it to flash. Then

    go home and get the W2K install disk with SP3 along with NLITE on this forum and slip the old OS with the new

    SP4 patch. Then reburn a new install disk. The only thing you would have to do via internet is download

    the patches which can be quite a few, or get the unofficial SP5 Win2k patch file that people maintain on this

    forum for all the updated W2K patches. Again, you could go to the library, copy to flash and slip this unofficial

    patch into your slipped SP4 OS.

    BTW, if your computer is old enough and you have the INTEL chipset 8xx, then for the large disks greater

    than 137 gigs you'll need the intel application accelerator (IAA) software which also provides 48-bit LBA support else

    you'll still have data loss problems.

  6. I just posted a question on the IOMEGA forums about zip drives. However, while I was there I saw alot of people

    with external drives that are panicking about dead drives (seagate drives of course).

    I posted a response and a link to this forum. Hopefully, people there will read it and come here.

    The flood is coming!

  7. I don't think that the serial number is programmed into the firmware. I used to work for Iomega and know that it definately wouldn't be for remanufactured drives. In some cases, if all internal components were busted and they would be replaced but if the casing was still ok, they would just relabel (or sometimes they wouldn't) the serial number. There may be newer software able to read more info off the drives, but when I was there (2000-2001) there was nothing to get that type of info out of it.

    Thanks.

    Some programs I found will read out the firmware version, but the serial number they display is a date such as mm/dd/yy.

    Thus, I thought their program was busted and was looking for better software.

    Another site I came across was this one, but nothing for zip drives.

    http://www.bigresource.com/VB-Getting-Flop...Bsa2ck4lv3.html

  8. Fat32 is limited to about 8TB per volume and Ntfs goes beyond BUT W98 and W2k are limited to 2TB disks. The solution is Gpt, available in W2k3-Vista-2k8 (and some Linux).

    GParted is definitely excellent but prefer older versions (v0.2.2) to the newer v0.3.7.7 which has only a qwerty keyboard, is badly translated, asks more questions during its slower boot. v0.2.2 already offers Gpt!

    WIN 2k and XP support a maximum partition size of 2TB due to limitations of MBR. If you go to GPT, then VISTA and the newer W2k3 server

    lines will allow you to read/write the GPT partitions; however, windows 2K thru XP can only read GPT partitions, they can't boot from them

    and the OS must be 64 bit and not 32 bit.

    Why aren't you using win 2k SP4 instead of SP3 ????????

    I can see 750 gig drives and format them without problem using Win 2K install disks. Of course I had to modify the w2k install disk

    registry with the LBA patch to be able to do this. It looks like you are trying to add the patch after it is already installed.

  9. Now that everyone is getting pretty good at fixing Seagate drives.

    Seagate will have a 2TB drive in the 3rd quarter of 2009. (this could need fixing too! )

    see,

    http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/16343

    seagate press release.

    http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?loca...000f5ee0a0aRCRD

    Here's a reviewers comment on it which they supplied before they were asked!

    To establish prior art for this joke - 'I know why it's named Constellation, I was so mad when my drive died I saw stars .'

    Here's a comment on that review site that I didn't know about and perhaps others didn't either.

    The MBR is limited to a maximum partition size of 2TB, and while the GPT removes that limitation it isn't implemented in BIOS but rather in EFI. I'm sure a hack is forthcoming once single drives exceed 2TB, a la the previous limit.

    Thus, should the drive manufacturers make drives bigger than 2TB, one will have to split the drive into partitions

    that don't exceed 2TB each.

    GUID Partition Table (GPT) per Msoft site when one searches it for "GPT drive".

    http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT-on-x64.mspx

    Because the x64 and x86 architectures do not provide support for an EFI boot partition, you cannot use a GPT drive to boot an x64-based computer or an x86-based computer with a legacy BIOS. Therefore, computers running these operating systems must be equipped with more than one physical driver to allow the use of the GPT disk format.

    Looks like windowx X64 can do this but not x32. Can someone confirm this since I don't have x64 OS. and VISTA.

    Windows 7?????

    http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx

    Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). where's the firmware? Intel has the spec on this.

    4. Where can I find the specification for GPT disk partitioning?

    Chapter 16 of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) specification defines the GPT format.

    This document is available at http://www.Intel.com/technology/efi/

    More from the GPT FAQS.

    13. Can Windows XP x64 read, write, and boot from GPT disks?

    Windows XP x64 edition can use GPT disks for data only. Only Windows for Itanium-based systems can boot from GPT partitions.

    14. Can the 32-bit version of Windows XP read, write, and boot from GPT disks?

    No. The 32-bit version will see only the Protective MBR. The EE partition will not be mounted or otherwise exposed to application software.

    15. Can the 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 read, write, and boot from GPT disks?

    All versions of Windows 2003 since Server Pack 1 can use GPT partitioned disks for data. Booting is only supported for Itanium-based systems.

    16. Can Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 read, write, and boot from GPT disks?

    Yes, all versions can use GPT partitioned disks for data. Booting is only supported for EFI-based systems.

    17. Can Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, or Windows 95/98 read, write, and boot from GPT?

    No. Again, legacy software will see only the Protective MBR.

    18. What about mixing and matching GPT and MBR disks on the same system?

    GPT and MBR disks can be mixed on systems that support GPT, as described earlier the following restrictions apply:

    • Systems that support EFI require that the boot partition must reside on a GPT disk. Other hard disks can be either MBR or GPT.

    • Both MBR and GPT disks can be present in a single dynamic disk group. Volume sets can span both MBR and GPT disks. However, the MBR cylinder alignment restriction might cause some difficulties mirroring or striping MBR and GPT disks.

    19. What about removable media?

    Removable media must be MBR or "superfloppy."

    What about Virtual Disks that are formatted with GPT and Virtual OS'?

    More UEFI aka EFI at,

    www.uefi.org

    tiianocore.org

    Here is a link from intel to MSOFT UEFI tools.

    http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/diskutil_overview.htm

    The following Disk Utilities are available:

    Diskpart EFI GPT Disk Partitioning Tool

    Efichk EFI Check Disk Utility

    Efifmt EFI Format Utility

    Darn...

  10. I'm using 6 HDDs, 2 them were with BSY error, and 1 with wrong firmware, I updated those 4 (SD15) to SD1A and they all are running just fine at this very moment.

    Gradius

    I thought the firmware version out there now was SD1B and not SD1A.....

    I upgraded my ST31000333AS from SD15 to SD1B although my drives didn't fail

    before the upgrade.

  11. *facepalm* No, I didn't press Ctrl-Z... OK, just tried that, with it being connected either way, all I get is an arrow.

    The drive has the BSY error. I do not have any other Seagate drives.

    It is a 7200.11, 98X154-303 is the P/N. Date code is 09215, site KRATSG.

    arrow? you should get something like this:

    F3 F>

    or if its error which solution can fix:

    FlashLED - Failure code:000000CC Failure Address:xxxxxxxx

    FlashLED - Failure code:000000CC Failure Address:xxxxxxxx

    can you make a screenshot what arrow you see?

    if it gives CC error you need to follow instructions for BSY drive. Unscrew pcb from hda and connect to terminal.

    When you say you see the arrow, do you mean the '>' character as shown after the "F3 F" text? If so, then

    it may be doing what you want, but you just can't see all the text being echoed to the display but only the

    last character which you are interpreting as an arrow head (not the mouse symbol).

    I'm not sure if windows terminal allows one to change the terminal emulation from lets say whatever you have to VT100

    with 80 columns. For those who have windows setup for other character sets or right to left prompting, could this be

    the cause? I'm not sure how windows terminal would handle this too.

    Can you post screen prints of your hyperterminal settings under File->properties and show us the settings for each screen tab under this

    area? This will help with determining if they are set properly.....

    Just some thoughts on the arrow problem. :whistle:

  12. My firmware is still SD81, ok... the health status is at 100%.... and... What?!?!?! THE CACHE IS NOW ZERO MB????? I thought that happened AFTER updating the firmware, or not???

    Anyways, I'm writing to you from my resucitated Seagate HDD... let's see how long it lives this time.

    Thanks again to everyone that made the fixing of my drive posible. (AND OF COURSE THE RECOVERY OF MY VALUABLE DATA that is being backed up as I write)

    Excuse me for the SCREAMING but I can't help it, I'M SO HAPPY!!!!! :blushing:

    Greetings, ToKuRo.

    P.S.: Seagate's support always told me that my disk was not affected, in fact every serial checking tool they released told me that my drive was NOT affected... well... it WAS affected!!!! IN YOUR FACE SEAGATE!!!! :realmad:

    Glad to see you managed to revive your drive.

    About the cache, yes that was discussed a lot, it seems Seagate used a very confuse scheme to manage 32MB.

    For 32MB they did, 0xFFFF + 1 * 512 = 33,554,432 = 32,768 (32MB).

    0xFFFF + 1 should be 0x10000, but since they use 16-bit registry only, it goes back to 0x0000, this is why a LOT softwares will report those drives as 0 (zero) cache. Yes, $eagate did a very poor job here.

    So far the only program I know it will report the right cache size is Everest Ultimate Edition

    Cheers!

    So is this why HDTUNE PRO shows the ST31000333AS cache as N/A instead of 32MB?

  13. The Digikey pad you have listed is 4" X 4" and 1/4" thick, I think you might want somthing more like this.

    http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/shpc.html

    I myself have always prefered thermal paste. It seems to me that some of the pads deform with time and heat cycles and the heat sinks

    loosen up.

    Although, the pad at the link is most likely thin enough not to have this problem.

    Thanks. They said it was AMD approved. Does anybody approve it for intel processors which can run hotter?

    There wattage is 3.8 C W/m**2 and starts softening at 48 C.

    Does anybody make a higher W/M**2 and is 48C a typical number?

  14. Today Western Digital is announcing their WD20WEADS drive, otherwise known as the WD Caviar Green 2.0TB. With 32MB of onboard cache and special power management algorithms that balance spindle speed and transfer rates, the WD Caviar Green 2TB not only breaks the 2 terabyte barrier but also offers offers an extremely low-power profile in its standard 3.5" SATA footprint. Early testing shows it keeps pace with similar capacity drives from Seagate and Samsung."

    http://hothardware.com/News/WD-2TB-Caviar-...-Drive-Preview/

    MSRP for the new ginormous Caviar is set at $299. You can catch the official press release from WD. Stay tuned for the full HH monty with WD's new big-bad Caviar, coming soon. http://wdc.com/en/company/releases/PressRe...3-F872D0E6C335}

    spec sheet: http://wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=576

    Warranty policy in various countries for WDC drives (2TB not listed yet) http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp#policy

    buy.com has it for $272.00 http://www.pricegrabber.com/wd20eads/produ...20EADS/st=query

    :thumbup

  15. Articles from AMD suggest thermal grease for lidded processors and pads for non-lidded.

    Is this the same for Intel?

    At what maximum temperature should one use pads vs. grease? if it is greater than 115watts use pads

    and below that to use grease or vice versa?

    Who sells thermalpads and what is the typical cost? AMD says the pads are based on phase change material.

    I came across this site but they want $26.39 for just one pad...

    http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/988651-th...-1500-4-x4.html

    or,

    http://www.intermark-usa.com/products/Thermal/index.shtml

    http://www.intermark-usa.com/products/Ther...0-%20123008.pdf

    Hmm, a 4 piece demo kit from intermark is $230. I don't think so. I wonder how Dell and the computer manufacturer can use

    thermal pads when the stuff is so expensive?

  16. Has anyone determined the pinouts from the PCB to the disk motor? That is which is ground, which is power

    and which is probably the switch. I don't know if the number of pins to the motor is the same regardless of

    the model # or if it varies.

    The reason I ask is that one can take the PCB and attach resistors to these pins to simulate

    the loading of the disk motor. Thus, the PCB will think there is a motor connected if the resistor is

    across power and ground for the motor. I presume the disk motor is a dc motor and isn't something

    more fancier. There probably should be another pin that acts like a switch such that when the motor

    reaches the nominal RPM speed that it makes contact and the PCB board electronics then doesn't timeout

    and say no disk present. If this is the case, then one could either pulldown to ground or pullup the pin to the power supply voltage

    to trick the electronics into thinking that their is a disk with motor present. Then one could just flash the PCB

    without connecting it to a drive thus preventing possible damage to either the PCB or disk.

    If the pin does act as a pulldown or pullup then a 1K resistor most likely will have to be used vs. a wire jumping it to ground or

    power to prevent excessive current from damaging the PCB board.

    If one has a digital voltmeter or O-scope, one could monitor their good drives on each pin to determine what each pin does.

    :wacko:

  17. The problem only arises if a power cycle initialization occurs when the Event Log is at 320 or some multiple of 256 thereafter.

    I don't know what the Event Log that is referred to above stores, or at what rate it can be expected to increment in a "normal" scenario - but I guess we have 2 end points:

    • Best case: It turns out that this Event Log is normally empty, and only used to log uncommon physical errors.
    • Worst case: It turns out that this Event Log is commonly used, and the increment rate is closely coupled to the user's power cycle behavior. For example the drive logs on average 1 error entry per day, and the user happens to power cycle each evening. In this scenario failure rate is 100% !!

    I can't think of a more frustrating experience that I have had with a vendor.

    Well, if the length of the internal disk drive log is 320 and we are recording one event per day, and I bought the drive

    jan 1,2009, then in 320 days it will fail on the 321'th day. This puts it around the 3rd week of November 2009. Hmm,

    now I see a correlation here between the problems people had in FY 2008 when things started dying in oct thru early december.....

    :thumbup

  18. However, I think the solution of connecting to the drive does allow for RTS/CTS but probably only between Windows PC and the adaptor

    people are using. If this is the case, try slowing the windows transmission speed down to lets 9200 baud or less. Since the

    data going back and forth between the drive and the computer is only a few characters, you won't know the difference even if it is

    300 baud. This should get rid of the garbage characters.

    Slowing will do no good, since Seagate 7200.11 uses 38400 8 N 1 by default (factory). To change speed he will need to enter a cmd @ 38400 on Seagate to slow to 9600 on Seagate first, then, and only then, he will be able to use 9600 (by configuring the PC to 9600).

    Is that one of the commands one can send to the seagate drive? and is this hardware setup acting like a NULL modem? Curious.

    Moreover, since this doesn't seem to be a true modem, it can't negotiate the speed change with the seagate drive. :(

  19. Hello,

    I have adapted a nokia DKU-5 cable and connected to my hdd (st3500320as).

    But, besides the LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051 error, I get some garbage characters.

    And when I turn on the PCB, I receive the prompt F3> along with several spaces and garbage characters.... And these garbage characters don't stop popping out.

    Is anything wrong with my cable? Since I can see parts of the command prompt and parts of the error message, it seems I'm getting close.

    O seu problema é simples, ou é mau contato, ou os fios que vc está usando são muito finos, ou o terra deles é mal feito, ocasionando o lixo na serial.

    Verifique os cabos, é algum problema neles.

    ---

    I would blame the wires, it's a contact problem, or poor GND, or too long wires, or some interference, etc. Just verify them and retry.

    Well if the transmission speed is to high on the RS232 port, you'll have to tell Microsofts OS to use hardware handshake RTS/CTS to do

    control flow. The other possibility is to turn on software flow control that imitates hardare RTS/CTS. ALso turn off the parity bit too.

    However, I think the solution of connecting to the drive doesn't allow for RTS/CTS but probably only between Windows PC and the adaptor

    people are using. If this is the case, try slowing the windows transmission speed down to lets 9600 baud or less. Since the

    data going back and forth between the drive and the computer is only a few characters, you won't know the difference even if it is

    300 baud. This should get rid of the garbage characters.

    In the setup used to fix the problem, are we just setting up a NULL modem?

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