Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Troubles

[Zenskas]

Seagate 7200.11 S/N 5qkomphm, st3750630as, p/n 9bx146-621, hp24, date code 09124, site code wu, wwn:5000c5000e8c733d. wgbu: 460315-002, ct:2ahzh0183wk3gv. Same symptoms as described- slower startups, started freezing all within 3 days of final bricking. Talked to hp support and said it was an obvious hard drive failure and that I needed a new one. No mention of seagate problems. Found this site and many others all describing exactly what happened to me. What a sham! HP said I needed to replace with identical same hard drive from seagate-seems stupid to do so. Can I substitute?

Yes and I recommend a Western Digital or Samsung HDD, I have one of both and they are flawless. Quiet, and have no well known problems (at least with any of the drives you can buy today from them).

[Kai-Pirinha]

first of all: I'm not sure if my case is related to this problem. I'm posting this be course I need to know and I don't trust Seagate support anymore.

I own a Maxtor one touch 4 1TB (external USB Hard drive) which failed 3 Days ago. Seagate Support tells me I can ship it over to them and they will replace it but all my Data will be lost. So I carefully removed the actual hard drive from its external housing, hoping the drive itself is not damaged.

The harddrive turned out to be a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB and its not working internal as well meaning power is ok, motor is started but BIOS is not detecting it.

The Model is ST31000340AS. The Firmware is SD81. The S/N is 9QJ0SE0L. The P/N is 9BX158-568. The Date Code is 08454. The Site Code is KRATSG. Product of Thailand. (all information according to the label on the actual hard drive, not the external housing)

Model and Sitecode match plus seagate is offering the same Firmware update for my drive they offer for the SD15Firmware. So I expected it to be the Firmware problem and called Seagate support again.

They asked me for the S/N only and told me my drive (and all drives manufactured for external use) don't have the Firmware problem.

So I asked him why my drive died without any warning and the same symptoms. The answer I got is they often receive drives with the same symptoms that don't have the firmware problem but a malfunctioning circuit board instead. Even though the board has this Problem they say it's not Seagate's fault but in the normal 1% failure rate for hard drives and could have been solved within the normal warranty I don't have any more be course I opened the external housing. (if i shipped it to Seagate for warranty unopened all my data would have been lost and I wouldn't even know I had a barracuda 7200.11)

according to Seagate I can get my data back in one of two ways:

1. let a professional Data rescue service handle it for 300EUR-1000EUR

2. buy another hard drive with the same S/N and use its control board

i think it's unacceptable to spend money for another unreliable 7200.11 espacially be course i don't know if this will bring back my data. There are a few reports on the web about drives with SD81 Firmware that could be restored with a firmware update.

Can anyone tell me what I should do?

Can anyone say if my Hard drive COULD have the firmware problem?

Is there anyone from Hamburg or north Germany who already fixed a "busy" barracuda 7200.11? I don't know where to buy the components and I'm afraid to lose my Data if I try it myself.

sorry if i double posted something, i read a lot of those 60 pages but not all of them

Edited January 21, 2010 by Kai-Pirinha

[Laz]

Re-awakening the 7200.11 is not as hard as it might seem without trying. Yes, there is some risk, risk that you fail to follow the instructions in this thread and screw up; but otherwise I will say it is up to you to mitigate that risk. Send the drive to seagate and lose your data; send it somewhere else, lose some money and maybe get/lose your data,or, keep your money and your drive and see what you can do by yourself. The wise choice should be clear. Good luck.

[Kai-Pirinha]

first of all: I'm not sure if my case is related to this problem. I'm posting this be course I need to know and I don't trust Seagate support anymore.

I own a Maxtor one touch 4 1TB (external USB Hard drive) which failed 3 Days ago. Seagate Support tells me I can ship it over to them and they will replace it but all my Data will be lost. So I carefully removed the actual hard drive from its external housing, hoping the drive itself is not damaged.

The harddrive turned out to be a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB and its not working internal as well meaning power is ok, motor is started but BIOS is not detecting it.

The Model is ST31000340AS. The Firmware is SD81. The S/N is 9QJ0SE0L. The P/N is 9BX158-568. The Date Code is 08454. The Site Code is KRATSG. Product of Thailand. (all information according to the label on the actual hard drive, not the external housing)

Can anyone say if my Hard drive COULD have the firmware problem?

Is there anyone from Hamburg or north Germany who already fixed a "busy" barracuda 7200.11? I don't know where to buy the components and I'm afraid to lose my Data if I try it myself.

Hey guys thank you very much the the answers in both threads.

I'm currently trying to get the components to unbrick my drive. when i do a Forum search for SD81 i can find a couple of reports from who successfully unbricked their drives with SD81 (NOT SD 18) Firmware so they obviously had the firmware problem.

When i call seagate support they tell be only one factory had the Firmware problem (even though they are all using the same firmware) and they can tell from my serial number my drive doesn't have that Problem, so it must be the control board.

I have no idea if I should believe them.

first they deny the whole firmware Problem. Next step: they say "7200.11 barracuda drives a the Problem but yours with SD81 Firmware doesn't".

Now they say "SD81 drives can have the Problem too but yours still can't so we don't have to help you"

The guy told me to use the following link (https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk/rms_af_serial_check_index.jsp) and enter my serialnumber: according to the website i don't need to update my firmware. The support guy said that's how they check it and i can't have the firmware Problem.

I can see the following situation coming: I get everything to unbrick my drive, it doesn't work and i have now way of knowing if i got a broken CA-42 cable, did something wrong or if i really don't have the Firmware problem.

So here is what would be a great help for me and certainly other people with SD81 firmware drives: If you have a barracuda 7200.11 with SD81 Firmware and successfully unbricked it please use the link i mentioned above and enter your serial number. If it tells you not to update we know seagate is giving us bull**** again!

I would be very very thankful for everyone who takes the time to do that.

Kai

Edit: ok i spent another evening on reading many many pages to prepare for fixing my drive and also found several reports about SD81 firmware drives being successfully recovered from busy state even so the seagate serial-number-tool said they couldn't have been affected. one exaple is the report from ToKuRo (http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate-7200-11-hdds-t128807-pid-831015-page-280.html#entry831015) however those postings are very old and they may have updated their tool in the meantime. If i can fix my drive and therefore proof they are still covering things up or don't know better (i don't know witch is worse) i'm looking foreward to call seagate support again and give em hell!!!

Edited January 26, 2010 by Kai-Pirinha

[jaclaz]

I can see the following situation coming: I get everything to unbrick my drive, it doesn't work and i have now way of knowing if i got a broken CA-42 cable, did something wrong or if i really don't have the Firmware problem.

Optimism is your not strong point, I presume.

You should separate the problem in two parts:

1) unbricking the drive

2) updating the firmware

The worst thing that can happen with #1 is that the procedure doesn't work (and then there is no reason to worry about #2), but it is unlikely given the number of people that reported success.

Of course it is well possible that the problem of your drive is NOT related to the issue that the procedures try to fix (0LBA oer BSY due to the 320th log entry.

On the other hand, if you succeed with #1 the ONLY thing that you should do in your right mind is FORGET about the firmware, get all the data you can off the stoopid seagate and put it on another disk, then the seagate will have NO value whatsoever, and you can do all the experiments and tests you want with it, again, even if the Firmware update is successful, DO NOT trust that drive.

However, and since you asked:

Can anyone tell me what I should do?

Can anyone say if my Hard drive COULD have the firmware problem?

judging also from your other post here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/instructions-che...63.html&hl=

You are approaching it the "wrong" way.

You are a bit pessimist/overcautious BUT:

• you are going to use a non-supported OS (Windows 7 instead of XP/2003)
  
• you are going to use a known to be a possible failure hardware (the CA-42):
  
• you don't trust yourself but are willing to trust a stranger that says he is able to do recover for you and give him your drive
  

The suggested approach is:

• use the OS that has been reported to be working for sure (XP/2003)
  
• use one of the TTL adapters that have been reported to be working for sure
  
• trust ONLY yourself and/or a friend of yours technically oriented or a professional
  

The "main" thread is full of people who reported success with one or the other method and practically noone reporting an "absolute" failure, i.e NO hints that performing the procedure has damaged a drive even when it failed to unbrick it.

jaclaz

[stickle]

Hey troops,

My problem may be different than the firmware issue...does this sound familiar to anyone?

my barracuda 7200.11 only buzzes/pulses about once every four seconds. I don't think it is spinning! Can't see the drive. Nothing at all!!!

Contacted Seagate, they told me to try the firewire connector (I was using the USB). Nothing different.

Is this the firmware issue?

Got an suggestions on a fix?

Help Help Help Please!!!

Thanks

[robintay]

my 7200.11 drive is still broken since aug 09. i have bought a tonne of stuffs specified in this forum to try to fix it with no luck. if anyone that is based in london is willing to fix it i am willing to bring the drive over along with the stuffs bought and pay for your time to fix. please let me know. desperate to get the family pics off it.

[MadOCer]

my 7200.11 drive is still broken since aug 09. i have bought a tonne of stuffs specified in this forum to try to fix it with no luck. if anyone that is based in london is willing to fix it i am willing to bring the drive over along with the stuffs bought and pay for your time to fix. please let me know. desperate to get the family pics off it.

Does the drive sound "normal", when it is powered on, or does it exhibit any scratching or clicking noise or something like that? I mean does it spin up, like it used to when it was still working OK?

[robintay]

my 7200.11 drive is still broken since aug 09. i have bought a tonne of stuffs specified in this forum to try to fix it with no luck. if anyone that is based in london is willing to fix it i am willing to bring the drive over along with the stuffs bought and pay for your time to fix. please let me know. desperate to get the family pics off it.

Does the drive sound "normal", when it is powered on, or does it exhibit any scratching or clicking noise or something like that? I mean does it spin up, like it used to when it was still working OK?

yes it definately spins up. no strange noises or anything. just cant access the drive. appreciate if you're around london and able to fix it.

[MadOCer]

my 7200.11 drive is still broken since aug 09. i have bought a tonne of stuffs specified in this forum to try to fix it with no luck. if anyone that is based in london is willing to fix it i am willing to bring the drive over along with the stuffs bought and pay for your time to fix. please let me know. desperate to get the family pics off it.

Does the drive sound "normal", when it is powered on, or does it exhibit any scratching or clicking noise or something like that? I mean does it spin up, like it used to when it was still working OK?

yes it definately spins up. no strange noises or anything. just cant access the drive. appreciate if you're around london and able to fix it.

I'm sorry, but I'd have quite a long way to London, from Bavaria, Germany .

BUT, and that's the good news, your drive should be recoverable once the connection works. And that should definitely be possible to accomplish.

Good luck! Just offer the poeple some money. Something like 10-20 pounds and I'm sure there will be someone to assist you with this.

[robintay]

my 7200.11 drive is still broken since aug 09. i have bought a tonne of stuffs specified in this forum to try to fix it with no luck. if anyone that is based in london is willing to fix it i am willing to bring the drive over along with the stuffs bought and pay for your time to fix. please let me know. desperate to get the family pics off it.

Does the drive sound "normal", when it is powered on, or does it exhibit any scratching or clicking noise or something like that? I mean does it spin up, like it used to when it was still working OK?

yes it definately spins up. no strange noises or anything. just cant access the drive. appreciate if you're around london and able to fix it.

I'm sorry, but I'd have quite a long way to London, from Bavaria, Germany .

BUT, and that's the good news, your drive should be recoverable once the connection works. And that should definitely be possible to accomplish.

Good luck! Just offer the poeple some money. Something like 10-20 pounds and I'm sure there will be someone to assist you with this.

Yeah definately dont mind that. thanks anyway

[blinkdt]

OK, I just ran into my second Seagate drive suffering this issue. In the first instance, the owner contacted a "seller" on eBay who unbricked the drive for a mere $80. Uh-huh. Little did we know . . . .

In this case, I went to Seagate's site, wrote down the toll free support number (1-800-732-4283) and gave them a call. I spoke briefly with customer service and they sent me to tech support where 'Karen' explained the issue to me (they sent out a batch of drives with test firmware) before offering to have me ship the drive to them at their expense. They would perform a force firmware update that would unbrick the drive and make the data accessible, or replace the drive outright. I told them I did not need the data and opted for choice three, the advance replacement at $20. I should receive my new drive in three days and will return the old drive using a pre-paid shipper. I could have done the whole thing for free, but life is short and then you die.

Bottom line: sounds to me like Seagate has their act together at this point and could not have been more accommodating, at least in my case. Give them a call.

Edit: by the way, Karen and her colleagues are based in Oklahoma and sound real purdy .

Edited May 2, 2010 by blinkdt

[BetKing]

I just saw this for sale, at an online auction site, is this an OEM that has been repaired? Or what is it?

[VideoRipper]

Yes, it looks like a repaired drive from an HP computer (it has HP firmware).

Original Seagate firmware starts with "SD".

This is the drive I received when I got it swapped under warranty:

Greetz,

Peter.

[HTC_guy]

guys can you please help me with my post in the other thread?

SOrry for the duplicate post, i started a new topic by mistake when I meant to start one here... soz!

hi all

ive been fixing these 7200.11 BSY drives for a long time now using the original fix posted from Gradius (kudos to you mate!)

so a client dropped off a drive (Seagate ST31000340AS 1TB) and I ran through the normal process, and still nothing... drive doesnt pick up at BIOS. So I was like OK... and did the optional extra step in his guide (which I have never done before)... still no luck!

So I followed the post from Aviko (on this forum)

ok lets start from scratch, try this:

put some isolation under connector to heads (paper plastic etc.) motor have to be connected. power up drive. enter terminal, press ctrl+z.

and this i am not sure, i havent any 7200.11 here to check, you have to try

first try:

wait until motor stops itself. then enter /2 and Z

if you got message spin down completed remove isolation from pcb and mha connector (mha - magnetic heads assembly)

screw on pcb to hdd. if you still dont get CC or CE its really good.

now wake up drive with command U

motor should be started and you should not get any error messages, otherwise you have to start again from begin.

when drive spins up, go to level T (just enter /)

now type F,,22

should appear message about restoring to defaults.

then

F3 t>/1

then

F3 1>N1

if drive goes back to prompt ask for further instructions

Now the drive is showing in the BIOS, but when I get into Windows it picks up the drive under device manager as a 2TB drive, but doesnt show under my computer.

Can you advise me as to what I might do to get around this?

Many thanks,

Richard from South Africa