Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Troubles

**pichi** · January 11, 2009

Count me in for this too!! Unfortunately I haven't made a good back up in a while and lost 6 months of pics of my 18 month old son. So I'm pretty desperate for a solution. Here's an update:
I did some general hdd failure searching and found various (not relating to this seagate issue) where people replace the pcb with an exact drive to recover the drive. Any thoughts on this? I admit I'm not entirely sure what this entails, but seems interesting. I would surely but another ~$60 drive and swap the pcb boards for data recovery. Actually I'll probably have to break down in a couple months and pay for professional recovery if nothing turns up with this issuee...

People has tried exchange PCBs, and that isn´t the solution. The PCB has a serial number, P list, Servo list, etc, and it only is valid for his own HDA. If you have bought a hdd, the better you can do is read the info of empty hdd and compare it with the wrongs hdds.

**pichi** · January 11, 2009

Searching SD14 firmware.

This firmware had 0MB cache problem, but it did works well.

Date aprox.: January 2008

Update to firmware SD14 can be the solution?

If anybody has the update, post it please.

**TerTop** · January 11, 2009

I have a 7200.11 500GB, firmware SD15, OEM class, purchased around March 2008 has been running fine all along. Im thinking maybe its the configuration that triggered the firmware mess up? Anyway here is what happened to me:

a) running on Intel ICH9R but in AHCI mode. Jumpered the drive to SATAII 3Gb mode. When transfering large files between drives, system slow down to a crawl and after a while back to normal. The cycle keep on repeating until the transfer completed. Event Viewer gave me a lot of errors something like "The driver detected a controller error on\Device\Harddisk0\D". The drive was jumpered back to SATAI 1.5GB mode and has been running fine since. Im thinking maybe the constant error in SATAII mode might confuse the SMART and eventually made it corrupted?

On another issue, my SMART health has a warning on the over limit of START/STOP count status. Could it be an early sign to the SD15 death curse?

**BigSilverHotdog** · January 11, 2009

Back up your data your drive is going to die. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in 3 months, but it's coming.

**Keddar** · January 11, 2009

So anyone on the west coast get an HD Doctor yet?

I'd buy one in a heart beat (always wanted to get into computer repair in a professional capacity), but unemployment makes the $500 pricetag rather...insurmountable. lol

**pantera** · January 11, 2009

Sorry. I wanted to prevent spamming about a professional because

this board is working on a solution without hd doctor/pc3000 udma.

My repair costs was negotiated less then 100€ + tax and shipment.

How much you paid repair, if it's not secret?
Hi,
my Barracuda 7200.11 (Firmware SD15, about 3 month old) was also infected (2009/1/1) by
Seagate's Data-Recovery printing money BUSY feature.
After reading a few different threads about this, I registered for the salvationData board
in hope to get some more information to solve this issue by myself via the terminal.
On the salvationData board I met a guy who is, especially for germans (maybe for europeans)
very helpful, because he has bought the latest version of the HD Doctor for Seagate.
Yesterday, I sent him my HD. Just 24 hours later, he replies
the disk is doing well again, after he has processed it with HD Doctor.
If someone is interested, I will send the URL by PM, because the
guy (now Hero) is very new in this business oneself (but not a beginner).

**poolcarpet** · January 11, 2009

I think everyone here would be willing to pay a small amount to get their data back and put this nightmare behind them. If a solution without using HD Doctor/PC3000-UDMA works, then it's great! That may take time though, and for people who wants their data back ASAP, I think the best option we know now is to use HD Doctor (PC3000 is way too expensive at close to euro3000!).

Find a bunch of people from same city as you are, and share the cost. I'm still looking for people from Malaysia/KL so that I can lower down the cost of buying that HD Doctor. So far I think there are 4 + 1 from Singapore. PM me if you are in Malaysia/KL and wish to participate.

Sorry. I wanted to prevent spamming about a professional because
this board is working on a solution without hd doctor/pc3000 udma.
My repair costs was negotiated less then 100€ + tax and shipment.
How much you paid repair, if it's not secret?
Hi,
my Barracuda 7200.11 (Firmware SD15, about 3 month old) was also infected (2009/1/1) by
Seagate's Data-Recovery printing money BUSY feature.
After reading a few different threads about this, I registered for the salvationData board
in hope to get some more information to solve this issue by myself via the terminal.
On the salvationData board I met a guy who is, especially for germans (maybe for europeans)
very helpful, because he has bought the latest version of the HD Doctor for Seagate.
Yesterday, I sent him my HD. Just 24 hours later, he replies
the disk is doing well again, after he has processed it with HD Doctor.
If someone is interested, I will send the URL by PM, because the
guy (now Hero) is very new in this business oneself (but not a beginner).

**ViniciusFerrao** · January 11, 2009

Someone could post-me a link to HD Doctor Seagate Update for this fix?

As someone knows I sent my drive to a restore service, and the owner of this service said me that he have the HD Doctor but can't get updates (don't know why).

So someone can send me a link with a direct download please? I'll forward this.

**DerSnoezie** · January 11, 2009

Thanks rainshower:) I've changed your entry to the correct firmware version in my spreadsheet. The title of the chart also required an important addition: "of failed", since the dateset only contains failed drives. Actually we would need to have a testgroup of about 1000-10000 random customers (from various countries) who bought a 7200.11 drive in the time frame from 01-09-07 to present and see what happens to the failure rate of the drives compared to the date of production. There are also plenty reports of 7200.11 drives who work just fine, but then I would want to know when and where they were manufactured and how long they have been running.

A member of the Dutch tweakers forum (_I ochen) suggested that although the main thing that most failing drives now have in common is their SD15 firmware, somewhere during 2008 something might have changed in the production line of the 7200.11 drives (switch of factory, other components), which could be related to the introduction of new platters together with the 1,5TB drive. I believe he might be on to something! Link:

http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_m...es/1329882/last

Only data of failed drives:

@ DerSnoezie: thank you for your impressive chart!
Yes, my drive is also OEM although I bought it directly from a big store (mediamarkt) in Berlin. I'll attach a foto of my drive, because I don't know why the model number above (ST3500820AS) differs from the model number below the "mic"-logo, which is STX-ST3500320AS . Maybe anybody can tell me?
BTW, my firmware-number is SD25, as shown on the picture, so I don't quite know why my item in the list was changed. Please see my original post #216. I'm number 12 in the list, and I bought my drive in July 2008 (so the date-code 26/Ago/2008 must somehow be wrong)
Thank you for help, and I'm glad I found this forum. It's a good feeling not to be alone with all these problems.

Edited January 11, 2009 by DerSnoezie

**poolcarpet** · January 11, 2009

You need to teach him how to get updates?? I think he should give you a nice discount for the recovery services!!!

I don't have HD Doctor yet, but if you see their news:

http://www.salvationdata.com/data-recovery...ny/news0811.htm

"...headaches mentioned above; our technician did a lot of tests inside and outside the lab with the help of some valuable customers. After the long test and improvement, today, as usual, we provide this unique feature as a free upgrade to all our customers.

Customers can download the upgrade version from the exclusive client forum directly."

and their client forum is in:

http://www.salvationdata.com/forum.htm

which links to:

http://www.salvationdata.com/forum/index.php

and I see that they have a section:

SalvationDATA Software Download

and I'm guessing it must be there.

Man, I've been spending way too much time looking at this problem - I think the same goes for most of us!

Someone could post-me a link to HD Doctor Seagate Update for this fix?
As someone knows I sent my drive to a restore service, and the owner of this service said me that he have the HD Doctor but can't get updates (don't know why).
So someone can send me a link with a direct download please? I'll forward this.

**icefloe01** · January 11, 2009

...I don't know why the model number above (ST3500820AS) differs from the model number below the "mic"-logo, which is STX-ST3500320AS . Maybe anybody can tell me?

Yes, I can tell you! Seagate actually acknowledged a firmware problem on the drives with an 8 in place of the 3. See here:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/d...wnloads/cuda-fw

Take Luck!

**criverock** · January 11, 2009

to all italian people having an hard disk to fix.. if you are intrested to create a small group to share the cost of Salvation data solution, please PM me!

**DerSnoezie** · January 11, 2009

To all seagate barracuda 7200.11 SD15 (and other version) owners, either broken down (by "no detect in bios", 0GB reported disc size & "the click of death") or still functioning fine, who are reading this topic:

Please register to this forum and add your data to the list below so we can take a stand against seagate corporate practices. Moderators on the official seagate forum claim that our problems are not statistical significant, but judging from numerous complaints spread out over the internet we think they are! However, without a serious dataset (1000+ cases, from different countries) we don't stand a chance proving it statistically wise. So please help by adding your data.

Most of the data can be collected from the sticker on the top of your harddrive (please keep in mind that you preferably do this when the computer is powered down, be safe). If you are afraid that seagate will "blacklist" your drive, then only add the first 3 or 4 characters of the serial number. We will use a simple seagate date code calculator tool to translate the 5 digit code listed on your harddrive to the date it was manufactured. Thanks for your time and spread the word!

Number:Serial N°:Model:Part N°:Firmware:DateCode:SiteCode:PurchaseDate:FailedDate:OEM/RETAIL:UserName:Country of the User:reason of failing / still running fine

====================================================================================================

==========

01:9QM7VZBP:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09146 (09/Oct/2008):KRATSG:Oct2008:24Dec2008:poolcarpet:Malaysia

02:9QM6X90B:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09115 (17/Sep/2008):KRATSG:Oct2008:28Dec2008:DaftMule:United Kingdom

03:9QM6W2JE:ST3500320AS: - :SD15: - : - :5Dec2008:19Dec2008:DerSnoezie:Netherlands (no detect in bios)

04:9QM4G4PK:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08503 (16/Jun/2008):KRATSG:Aug2008:Nov2008:dskbrk

05:9QM3RWHJ:ST3500320AS:9BX154-568:SD81:08464 (20/May/2008):KRATSG:Aug2008:23Dec2008:ToKuRo:Chile (no detect in bios)

06:9QM7KSQJ:ST3500320AS:9BX154-501:SD15:09134 (30/Sep/2008):KRATSG:28Oct2008:07Jan2009:jeroen__online:Netherlands

07:9QM2MFS6:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08406 (10/Apr/2008):KRATSG:12Apr2008:23Dec2008:quattro150:Malaysia

08:9QJ0XJ01:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:08496 (12/Jun/2008):KRATSG:Aug/Sep2008:8Jan2009:Nichev

09:9QM717SF:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09114 (16/Sep/2008):KRATSG:13Oct2008:14Dec2008:PrOdiGy1:UK

10:9QJ1LESR:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:09063 (11/Ago/2008):KRATSG:Nov2008:27Dec2008:AVINNC:USA

11:9QJ1AGEV:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:08515 (2/Jul/2008):KRATSG:Aug2008:4Jan2009:Ruddrage:UK

12:9QM6354J:ST3500820AS:9BX134-505:SD25:09084 (26/Ago/2008):KRATSG:July2008:20Dec2008:rainshower:Germany

13:9QM33FL8:STM3500320AS:9GT154-325:MX15:08396 (03/Abr/2008):KRTASG:Sep2008:30Dec2008:fabio.cillo:Italy

14:9QM*****:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08367 (14/Mar/2008):KRATSG:Dec2007:Dec2008:Death_Angel:Malaysia

15:9QK*****:ST3750630AS:9BX146-621:HP24:08511 (21/Jun/2008):TK:Oct2008:7Jan2009:Taiketo

16:5QJ*****:ST1000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:09121 (20/Sep/2008):WUXISG:October2008:28Dec2008:Styleman

17:9QM8DRHL:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15: - (13/Oct/2008):KRATSG:06Dec2008:24Dec2008:roadstarter:Philippines

18:9QM6****:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09076 (21Aug2008):KRATSG:15Oct2008:29Dec2008:labraticmp3:USA

19:9QM6****:ST3500320AS: - : SD15 - : - : Oct2008:2Jan2008:eli2k

20:9QM5****:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09063 (11/Ago/2008):KRATSG:6Nov2008:27Nov2008:poim76

21:9QM2CHR4:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08382 (23/Mar/2008):KRATSG:August-08:Nov-Dec-08:caba212:Spain

22:9QJ15ZBN:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:08496 (05/Jun/2008):KRATSG:July2008:26Dec2008:GrayGhost:USA

23:9QM27S5F:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08381:DEC 08:JAN 09: timha

24:9QJ0****:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:08495:KRATSG:Oct2008:02Jan2009:viniciusferrao:Brazil

25:9QM60864:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09076:KRATSG:31 October 2008:Dec 2008:RiderZen:Australia (BSY)

26:9QJ0W41R:ST31000340AS:9BX158-335:SD15:08457 (16/May/2008):KRATSG:Jul2008:20Dec2008:Macprk:USA

27:9QM5V5HQ:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09071:KRATSG:(04/Nov/08):(09/Jan/09):BigSilverHotdog:USA

28:9QM2C4LT:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08382(??):KRATSG:Aug2008:1Jan2009:Keddar:USA

29:5QM1EYCG:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08383:WUXISG:jUL2008:02Jan2009:waly2k1:Argentina (no detect in bios).

30:9QM5RCNT:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09063:KRATSG:JUL2008:25DEC2008:criverock:Italy (no detect in bios).

31:9QM*****:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09076 (21Aug2008):KRATSG:Oct2008:20Dec2008:sarahcoco:France

32:9QJ*****:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:09104 (10/Oct/2008):KRATSG:3Jan2009:artpav:Canada

33:9QM*****:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08371 (15/Mar/2008):KRATSG:7May2008:29Dec2008:KillerB :Korea (no detect in bios)

34:5QJ0****:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:09045:WUXISG:CHINA:August2008:Dec24th08:Fuzzy_3D:Canada

35:9QJ0GLEX:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:08356 (06/March/2008):KRATSG:March2008:Jun2008:TheName:Croatia

36:9QM2****:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08381:KRATSG:JUL2008:05JAN2009:OEM:BARAKASPEED:THIALAND

Edited January 11, 2009 by DerSnoezie

**mikesw** · January 11, 2009

Failure. It was a Freeagent Desktop 7200.10 250gb but the drive I'm trying to resurrect is a 7200.11 500gb, so I'm sure that is why I didn't get any response in windows no matter what variables I tried with cables and connections. Taking apart the drive was easy if you're not too squeamish about destroying a stout plastic housing or two with a sharp knife and using a tiny screwdriver on the vital bits. Took me about 20 minutes. Also tried plugging up the drive back on normal sata afterward hoping that the sata-usb controller might have reset the drive somehow but nah, nothing. Still bricked, but I tried.

I'm curious as to what will happen if you put a jumper on the drive to make it work at SATA I speeds of 150 mb/s? After jumpering,

will it work in the USb enclosure and in the computer case?

**taa** · January 11, 2009