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Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Troubles


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Some thoughts, not really technical.

Seagate is not the Devil. (though it closely resembles him ;))

Hard drives break, due to a number of causes.

The more the technology of the hard drive is "revolutionary", the more the capacity of the drive increases (meaning that it works with smaller tolerances, as data is packed in smaller space), the more the drive "series" is "new", the more it is likely that it may fail, until the technology has been thoroughly tested and has become "dependable" (which is usually an antonym of "revolutionary").

These could be added to Murphy's Laws:

  1. Hard drives fail.
  2. No matter what you do, they will fail.
  3. They will always fail in the exact moment they can make the most damage, i.e. in the only day of yur life you didn't backup data.

Seagate has made two mistakes, as I see it:

  1. produced the drives with a faulty firmware (which can happen to everyone: "Let the person among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." :whistle: )
  2. managed the resulting issue in the worst possible way, misinforming or not-informing customer using senseless censoring on their board, etc. etc. :realmad:

From this second, very very very big mistake they did to say that whatever they do is evil, there is quite a bit of difference.

Not every Seagate drive fails.

Not every failing Seagate drive fails for reasons connected to the faulty firmware.

Not necessarily Seagate will lie to you when they state that the problem is not connected with the faulty firmware.

This said, US$ 2,900 seem to me like an awful lot of money. :w00t:

In your case I would get the drive back and ask a "second opinion" at another data recovery firm, if you value your data.

It is possible that you can get your data back for a much smaller price.

If you cannot afford the expense (and thus you have nothing to lose but your data :() I would try the "hand made" solutions provided in the thread to fix the firmware/BSY issues and then see if anything changes, but clicking sounds usually are symptoms of what the Recovery Firm told you, a hardware problem, that could be actually totally non-connected to the firmware problem.

jaclaz

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Well add another two dead drvies to the ever growing list. My drive went on my birthday (last thursday) and my friends drive went today. Both are seagate 7200.11, mines a 750GB and his a 500GB. This stikes me as such a odd coincindence so with a little research I came accross this forum and after reading through it I am confident I will be able to resolve both drives problem. I am almost 100% sure they are suffering the BSY problem. When I place either drive in an external enclosure and turn it on the led showing busy state is solid on. We both live in the greater Montreal area so just wondering if theres any one else in the area who has the same problem or has fixed the problem themselves. I'd be willing to meat up and try and collectively fix this problem. Any who I'll be purchasing some parts to fix this myself shortly and will ask any questions if I need any help. Thanks for all the hard work put in to this problem so far by everyone.

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Hi, after many hours researching into diy hard drive recovery, I realised I'm not the best person to be tinkering with it. That $2500 quite is typical of the big recovery companies. PC World quoted me £700. I found a relatively reasonable company who quoted me £149 to solve and fix the problem, so I went with them, www.pcimage.co.uk

They diagnosed the problem to be with the PCB, had to borrow parts from another board and transfer on to the nakered one. I asume the firmware chip was replaced.

I find harddrive companies tend to warranty the product and parts, dodgy or not. The data stuck on the drive once it's failed is MY problem. Getting a replacement drive will be no problem I have my reciept, but there's no reciept for the data so they don't care. Perhaps HDD companies should be made liable for damages caused by failing products. Im sure companies for other products are. Because it's not physical damage and data probably not important to anyone else it isnt an issue. Of course the booming data recovery industry wouldnt exist if they were liable! Companies like that Canadian company ($2500) are probably relying on seagate failures to keep a float. They probably have some business arrangement. It states on the back of an old Maxtor drive I have "Maxtor is not responsable for consequential damages, including loss or recovery of data." My response to that is WHY NOT?!

Cheers for sharing

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My response to that is WHY NOT?!

Hmm, that seems to me more like a question than a statement. :w00t:

Let us reason the other way round, for one moment.

Let us imagine that they were actually responsible, and that there is no way to recover them, not even through the services of a recovery specialist.

How much should they be valued?

US $1.00 per byte, per kbyte, per Mbyte or per Gbyte?

Would the only existing photo of a relative of yours that is alas no more with us be valued the same as a crappy poem you wrote under the effect of one too much glass of (name your preferred alcoholic beverage)?

Or the same as a song you downloaded from I-tunes?

How will you prove (or even make a summary listing of) which kind of data you had on the HD before the irrecoverable failure?

(an ideal way would be to produce a working backup/clone of the whole drive ;))

Think at how Airline companies are obliged to re-pay you for lost/destroyed baggages.

Here is a reference:

http://www.yourcreditnetwork.com/blog/HowD...hAnAirline.aspx

So, HD manufacturers could well make an insurance for the event of losing data.

It will have a max imdemnizable amount, say $ 1,500.00 or $ 3,000.00.

This insurance will have a time duration, say 12 or 24 months.

You (not the company making the thingy) will pay the insurance when you buy a HD, as it's price will raise accordingly.

How much this price would increase?

Hard to say, but probably in a range between $ 15 (max $1,500 - 12 months) and $ 50 (max $ 3,000 - 24 months). :unsure:

And of course you would need to buy a new HD every 12 to 24 months.

jaclaz

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Guys, read over all the posts and I have one simple question; if one has the busy lock up error, will the HDD still spin when first applied power to it? I have a Maxtor OneTouch 4 1 TB external drive, which we all know is actually a Barracuda 7200.11 1TB. It is ST31000340AS, firmware version SD35. Said drive unfortunately took a "little" 8" fall off the bottom portion of the couch I was sitting on (onto a carpeted floor) while watching a movie off of it. Windows Media Player immediately stopped, saying there was a problem. I look down and the drive is dead, and I mean DEAD. No light, no power, no anything. I split the case open this morning to get the actual drive out to see if its just the PCB for the external case. It wasn't. I plugged it in to my tower using the tower's SATA cable and power cable, turn the tower on and NOTHING. Drive doesn't make a sound (drive is not spinning), BIOS doesn't know it exists. Could this still be the busy lock up error, or worse? Any info would be very appreciated.

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Could this still be the busy lock up error, or worse? Any info would be very appreciated.

Think a bit.

How many probabilities there are that a firmware bug decides to break loose in the split second that the disk is falling for 8"? :whistle:

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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My 1Tb failed recently completely full of data, i contacted seagate recovery and they wanted to charge $700+. How else could i get the data back, like if i updates the firmware would the data still be there n accessible ?

thanks

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See this thread on how to recover your Seagate. If you can't afford to pay the big data recovery firms, I'm afraid this is your only option. It's fairly easy to do though once you get your head round it.

If you fix it using the solution in that thread, all your data should still be there just as you left it. I literally stuck my once dead Seagate back in my main computer after sending the last command through the terminal, and booted right off it. It worked as if nothing had ever gone wrong with it. Then you can safely transfer your data to another drive before you update the firmware on it so that it won't fail like that again.

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I'm not too sure about going through that fix, is there anyone in australia, melbourne in particular that is confident in doing this kind of fix. If so would i be able to post it too you and pay for your help :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK, guys, had the same bsy probs as others. Did the RS232-TTL thingy but with no success. When I get to the U command, it takes 6 mins, then generates 'Spin Error'.

I Previously had changed logic boards with similar drive but no luck. Have not done the TTL thing with dif logic board as I reckon it will not work. At Any other instructions I can send?

For those in Australia who need an RS232-TTL converter, RS of Melbourne

http://australia.rs-online.com/web/search/...vc=av_au#header

post-246494-1245116657_thumb.jpg

I'm in Perth, ordered via phone early afternoon, flown in and delievered NEXT DAY!

Cable works great, and on my sys had to select COM3, but very easy. As was the whole process. Just a pity it failed.

Seems nothing short of swapping platters, which I can't do, will get my data back. Not critical but heaps of stuff that now requires re-scanning.

Drive had been an external one. Advice to anyone else with sim prob. Don't wait, don't use drive more than necessary, do the TTL thing immediatley. I think my drive may have died totally owing to hardware failure following the BSY thing.

Oh, one last thing. On some posts, they recommend putting card only under Logic to drive connection, on others, both drive and motor connection. however, if I do only the drive and not the motor, I get errors and it will not process.

Eddie

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  • 3 weeks later...
OK, guys, had the same bsy probs as others. Did the RS232-TTL thingy but with no success. When I get to the U command, it takes 6 mins, then generates 'Spin Error'.

I Previously had changed logic boards with similar drive but no luck. Have not done the TTL thing with dif logic board as I reckon it will not work. At Any other instructions I can send?

For those in Australia who need an RS232-TTL converter, RS of Melbourne

http://australia.rs-online.com/web/search/...vc=av_au#header

post-246494-1245116657_thumb.jpg

I'm in Perth, ordered via phone early afternoon, flown in and delievered NEXT DAY!

Cable works great, and on my sys had to select COM3, but very easy. As was the whole process. Just a pity it failed.

Seems nothing short of swapping platters, which I can't do, will get my data back. Not critical but heaps of stuff that now requires re-scanning.

Drive had been an external one. Advice to anyone else with sim prob. Don't wait, don't use drive more than necessary, do the TTL thing immediatley. I think my drive may have died totally owing to hardware failure following the BSY thing.

Oh, one last thing. On some posts, they recommend putting card only under Logic to drive connection, on others, both drive and motor connection. however, if I do only the drive and not the motor, I get errors and it will not process.

Eddie

Yo, did you try with the PCB totally off the drive?

i'm in perth and did two drives yesterday for a mate n they worked sweet. coulda done a third but they had already paid $1200 to sum recovery place.

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OK, guys, had the same bsy probs as others. Did the RS232-TTL thingy but with no success. When I get to the U command, it takes 6 mins, then generates 'Spin Error'.

I Previously had changed logic boards with similar drive but no luck. Have not done the TTL thing with dif logic board as I reckon it will not work. At Any other instructions I can send?

For those in Australia who need an RS232-TTL converter, RS of Melbourne

http://australia.rs-online.com/web/search/...vc=av_au#header

post-246494-1245116657_thumb.jpg

I'm in Perth, ordered via phone early afternoon, flown in and delievered NEXT DAY!

Cable works great, and on my sys had to select COM3, but very easy. As was the whole process. Just a pity it failed.

Seems nothing short of swapping platters, which I can't do, will get my data back. Not critical but heaps of stuff that now requires re-scanning.

Drive had been an external one. Advice to anyone else with sim prob. Don't wait, don't use drive more than necessary, do the TTL thing immediatley. I think my drive may have died totally owing to hardware failure following the BSY thing.

Oh, one last thing. On some posts, they recommend putting card only under Logic to drive connection, on others, both drive and motor connection. however, if I do only the drive and not the motor, I get errors and it will not process.

Eddie

Yo, did you try with the PCB totally off the drive?

i'm in perth and did two drives yesterday for a mate n they worked sweet. coulda done a third but they had already paid $1200 to sum recovery place.

Hi, I did not try with the board totally off the drive. Will try that soon

Eddie

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  • 3 weeks later...

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