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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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Yes on drives that were working to start and you've been lucky but you took a non functional drive and muked about with it compounding issues and came here asking for help then when you don't like the answers of people you ask you get rude and indignant it's quite clear even if we give you advice you might not follow it exactly you are too sure of yourself

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I just would like to know why there would be high chance to fix this drive, when there are already some trails on the disk. How could this be?

And when I would want try, what should I do?

Most probably you should find a suitable head arm set from a donor drive, replace/transplant it, re-program if needed the adaptive data of the heads and inject a custom SA in the disk firmware so that it skips the disk-resident indexing area, get the full raw data, de-ECC them, reassemble them as sequentially as you can then carve the results. (this is if you want to try getting data back)

If you want to fix the disk drive instead you just change the platters and the head arm set, then re-calibrate the whole thing performing a factory format.

jaclaz

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ok Tk....

I still can not indentificar,,am not good at electronics,,,

 

VCC =

DCD = Data Carrier Detect

DSR = Data Set Ready

RI = Ring Indicator

RTS = Request To Send

----------------------------------------------------

Transmitted Data = TXD

Received Data = RXD

Signal Ground = G

 

who and who here?? ST3320613AS///CC2H

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ok Tk....

I still can not indentificar,,am not good at electronics,,,

It's not about being good at electronics :no:.

If you are not good at electronics you should NOT use the CA-42 or DKU-5 cable EXACTLY for the reasons expressed in point #10 of the READ-ME-FIRST, but if you already have such a cable and you already cannibalized it on one side, you can as well cannibalize it on the other one and map the cable colours as in the provided link in FGA #6:

http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Use_a_Nokia_Serial_Cable_on_an_ARM9_Linkstation

 

Even if you don't have a multimeter, you can see the different colours soldered to which pin on the telephone side, a multimeter is something that you can buy anywhere for anything between 3 and 15 US$, but a very poor man continuity tester to check which wire goes to which pin (still on the phone side connector) is not really difficult to make out of scrap parts you surely have:

http://www.seekic.com/circuit_diagram/Measuring_and_Test_Circuit/CONTINUITY_TESTER_FOR_LOW_RESISTANCE_CIRCUITS.html

 

In any case, you posted the picture of the wrong side of the board, post one of the other side (where the cables are actually soldered), maybe there are the actual "names" of the connection.

 

jaclaz

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really
the other side of the board,,but this a bit erased I can identify.....

VCC = CTS

DCD = Data Carrier Detect = GND

DSR = Data Set Ready = RXD

RI = Ring Indicator = DTR

RTS = Request To Send = TXD

----------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------

From Adapter (TX) to >>> RX (on Seagate)

From Adapter (RX) to >>> TX (on Seagate)

 

I can connect the powersupply PC Direct on HD???

okey???

--------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------
I purchased one adapter RS232 to TLL female
waiting for the delivery....

 

I can connect directly the adapter to the PC male??,,or need to use a cable nullmodem???

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From Adapter (TX) to >>> RX (on Seagate)

From Adapter (RX) to >>> TX (on Seagate)

AND From Adapter (GND) to >>> GND (on Seagate)

That would be READ-ME-FIRST point #7

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/143880-seagate-barracuda-720011-read-me-first/

and FGA's #4 and #7:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/147532-fga-for-the-seagate-720011-drives/

 

I can connect the powersupply PC Direct on HD???

okey???

Sure. :)

 

I purchased one adapter RS232 to TLL female

waiting for the delivery....

 

I can connect directly the adapter to the PC male??,,or need to use a cable nullmodem???

The generic idea is that the more links you put into a chain the more probable it is that one of the links is weaker of the other (or if you prefer that something goes wrong).

It is of course "better" if you plug that RS232-to-TTL converter directly in the port of your PC, as you remove a link from the chain, in any case you DO NOT want a null-modem cable (which is crosslinked):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_modem

you want - in case - a plain RS-232 extension cable.

The general idea is the following, you are using a serial console (or Terminal program) in the OS, so a direct RS-232 to TTL is preferred because the data goes like this:

  1. Serial Port
  2. TTL converter
  3. SHORT piece of cable
  4. Device (your Seagate disk)

 

 

(and back)

 

The above is "better" (or "shorter" if you prefer) than:

 

  1. Serial Port
  2. Serial cable
  3. TTL converter
  4. SHORT piece of cable
  5. Device (your Seagate disk)

(and back)

 

And possibly even better than:

  1. Virtual Serial port (or if you prefer Serial port simulated through a software driver) 
  2. USB port
  3. USB to TTL adapter
  4. SHORT piece of cable
  5. Device (your Segate disk)

(and back)

 

And - to repeat myself - GROUNDING together all devices involved is ALWAYS a good idea.

 

jaclaz

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks to you guys, I just managed to unbrick a ST31000340AS. Your help was invaluable.

I've been using that drive for three years and never even heard of this issue until it happened to me a couple nights ago.

Here are the speedbumps I hit in the process and how I worked around them:

1) Setting up the adapter

I used a Prolific PL2303HXA USB-to-Serial bridge chip. I used an orange wire (3.3v) from a sata power cable to power it up. However, it would NOT work with any kind of grounding. I tried grounding it to the HDD GND pin, no dice. Then I tried to ground it to the black wire from the same power cable. It didn't work until I removed the ground wire altogether.

Also in order to stablish connection with the hard disk, I had to connect TX to TX and RX to RX.

2) Executing the procedure

I was following Carter in Canada's guide, which is very clear and detailed. Everything went really smooth up to the following command:

F3 1>N1

Then he says it MIGHT be necessary to power down the HDD (disconnecting the power cable) and then powering it up again before continuing. He also says that's what he did and it worked for him.

Well, I did NOT power down/up the HDD. Instead I just followed the instruction to get back to the F3 T> prompt and then I entered the command

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22

and got absolutely NO RESPONSE from the terminal. I waited for two hours and nothing happened. At that point I was really worried because the guide (and several other people) say we should not power down the disk before getting a reply.

But since there was nothing else I could do, I disconnected the power cable anyway and started the whole process again.

This time, I did power-cycle the HDD after the N1 command.

Upon reconnecting the power cable, I used the partition regeneration command as posted by Gradius2:

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 (no zeroes)

And everything went just fine.

No data was lost and I already updated the firmware. The HDD passed Seatools short generic test and now I'm running the complete test.

Thank you very, very much, y'all!

Edited by LEX LOOTER
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And everything went just fine.

No data was lost and I already updated the firmware. The HDD passed Seatools short generic test and now I'm running the complete test.

Thank you very, very much, y'all!

Very good. :)

Just to avoid this becoming a myth of some kind the commands:

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22

and:

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 (no zeroes)

are EXACTLY the same.

 

With the 0's it is the "explicit" form (and is more readable/easier to type correctly), without it works exactly the same as the 0's are implied.

 

jaclaz 

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TLDR: I took the board off and cleaned some minor surface corrosion from a few spots on the hidden side of the board. Most notable was near the pads that power the motor and across some of the surface mount pins.

 

My HDD "died" during operation

BIOS didn't detect, and contrary to what I thought, it wasn't spinning on power up.

 

I read enough to know the instructions in this thread dont target this failure, but I was in denial.

 

I was following Carter's PDF guide and got as far the feedback loop on my "FTDI friend" from Adafruit (USB to TTL) when I finally noticed my HDD wasn't spinning up.

 

I went ahead and took the board off and that's when I noticed some discolored spots that I'm calling corrosion. It was minor and wiped away with my shirt. After that the BIOS began recognizing it again.

 

My guess, the spot near the motor pads was causing too much resistance or the spot near the pins was causing a bridge/short.

 

I created an account to see some pictures, so I figured I'd leave my story and say Thanks!.

 

Thanks to this thread, I learned that I need to update the firmware AND I learned that HDDs have a serial console.

 

Just to keep it going:

READ ME FIRST: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/143880-seagate-barracuda-720011-read-me-first/

PDF Guide: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/133387-debricking-the-seagate-drives/

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Guys (and Gals),

 

I've tried skimming and searching through this thread to find the info I need, but 4782 posts on 192 pages makes for a lot of reading!

I am trying to fix my ST31500341AS, which seems to be bricked in BSY state. I am using the FT232BM BL tool I purchased on eBay and following the instructions posted. My problem is that I do not get a prompt in HyperTerminal. Loop back test shows my connection is OK. Any suggestions on what I might be missing?

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