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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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A colleague of mine has the B+B converter but it is the version with TTL high level of 5V and uses the power supply from the PC (via serial port).

 

The USB TTL converter in the image above has a TTL high level of 3.3V for TXC and RXC using the USB power supply and costs 4,5 €.

 

I will try with two AA batteries but, in case of bad result, which one of the solution above has to be preferred?

 

Thank you for your support!

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Yep :), that one specifies that it has a 3.3V max TTL level:

  2- terminali di comunicazione seriale (TXC e RXC) con livello TTL-alto a +3.3V (quindi è compatibile con i livelli richiesti dai dispositivi utilizzatori con alimentazione sia a +5V che a +3.3V).

 

so, it's fine :thumbup .

 

jaclaz

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Hi,

 

   using the B+B converter (5V version) I got the F3 T> prompt and I could go to the point where I have to remove the plastic card and screw the PCB again but...

...when I pressed CTRL+Z again in order to give the "U" command I got

 

LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67
LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67

 

message and the procedure stopped.

 

This happened two times: have I done anyhing wrong or I have to fear for my HD? 

 

Thank you.

Edited by fenestren
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It's hard to say if you did anything wrong without knowing what you did, but generally speaking, no :no: you have nothing to fear for the hard disk, but you did something wrong :w00t::ph34r:.

 

You would be the first and only one (or maybe the second, but that report is not fully confirmed) to confirm success with a 5V (TTL/CMOS) level converter (which is of course possible given the "queer" and largely undocumented nature of the matter, but HIGHLY UNLIKELY).

 

Now, I have spent RIVERS of words, countless posts around this simple fact:

  • thousands of people using the suggested 3.3V (TTL) level converter and following exactly the suggested guide managed to communicate properly with the hard disk and in the large majority (but of course NOT with a 100% rate) managed to unbrick the thingy
  • noone (with possibly one exception before you) ever managed to communicate properly with a NON-suggested 5V (TTL/CMOS) level converter, let alone unbrick the drive

You can draw your own conclusions :yes:.

 

Mind you this does not in any way represent an endorsement of the theory that ONLY 3.3V TTL converters will work and that NO 5V TTL/CMOS converter will, neither does it represent a suggestion that the kind of converter you are using is not good for the job and that it is the reason of your failure, it simply brings before you (hadn't all the related previous posts on the specific matter or the HOWTO or the FGA been enough) the "statistical evidence" we gathered since 2009 or so.

 

READ ME FIRST:

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

FGA:

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

 

(just in case)

Points #6 and #10 of READ ME FIRST and FGA #4 should be of particular interest to you.

 

jaclaz

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm another happy owner of an un-bricked Seagate with firmware SD25. I'm making a full backup at this moment.

 

Mine stopped being recognized by the BIOS one week ago. I talked with a friend and he told me that, since the disk did not produce strange sounds, maybe it was a problem with the controller. I took all the references and start digging for a controller to replace, but soon found that it would be necessary to transfer the ROM from the older controller to the new one. I found some companies that sell the adequate controller but it is necessary to swap the chips; none of those companies on Europe, just USA and Canada.

 

Luckily yesterday I found this forum and read the "Read Me First" and the "FGA" and the .pdf from Carter. So I understood that the 4 pins near the SATA connector are not for jumpers, but they are an RS232 port. Good! I thought I had all the necessary equipment, but unfortunately my RS232 to TTL converter is old and do not work with 3.3 V, just with 5 V :huh: . Then I remember that I have a development kit from with an MAX232 (smd) and tried it. Loop-back with 3.3 V worked well, it was time to try with the Seagate. The first time didn't work, but after swapping RX and TX, got connection with the Seagate :thumbup .

 

It was time for lunch. It's better never try risky details with an empty stomach :angel ! I power everything off.

 

After lunch I've got some difficulties to connect again with the Seagate. But after a couple of tries it was possible to establish the connection and do all the process with good results.

 

To prevent the risk of damaging the controller :dubbio: after removing the isolating card I place a piece of adhesive paper tape covering the 3 screws near the motor connector. Then (with no power) with the screwdriver, make some small holes on the adhesive paper tape to get access the the screw heads. Maybe this method can help someone; there are no need to practice and we can work without any stress.

 

After backing-up the disk I will try to install the new firmware that I got on the Seagate site. Any recommendations?

 

I'd like to thank everybody for the explanations and advices that allow me to recover a bricked Seagate.

Edited by malb
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I was really hoping I wouldn't have to post for help but I'm having trouble with my attempts at unblocking my drive.

 

I actually have two drives that seem to have failed with the same problem, they are detected in BIOS but only as ST_M13FQBL which I believe means they are both suffering the 0 LBA issue.

 

In order to attempt to fix these drives, I've bought two USB->TTL devices - both from Amazon UK but I can't seem to get either to bring up the prompt. With both devices, a feedback loop works just fine. They appear to be powered internally from the USB. I have connected both up in the same manner - i.e. TX/RX wires connected to the hard drives (both ways round tried) and ground from the adapter goes to a breadboard and then goes to the ground wire on the power supply connected to the hard drive and also to the ground pin connector on the drive itself.

 

 

I have been using a multimeter to check all the voltages and have noticed the following:

 

USB->TTL (Prolific Chip):

RX on adapter -> RX on drive reads 0V

TX on adapter -> TX on drive reads 3.26V

Temporarily removing ground to adapter gives nothing.

USB->TTL (Prolific Chip reverse connection):

RX on adapter -> TX on drive reads 2.61V

TX on adapter -> RX on drive reads 3.4V

Temporarily removing ground to adapter gives stream of gibberish.

 

USB->TTL (Silicon Labs CP210x)

RX on adapter -> RX on drive reads 3.28V

TX on adapter -> TX on drive reads 3.37V

Temporarily removing ground to adapter gives nothing.

USB->TTL (Silicon Labs CP210x reverse connection):

RX on adapter -> TX on drive reads 2.62V

TX on adapter -> RX on drive reads 3.45V

Temporarily removing ground to adapter gives stream of gibberish.

 

 

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do? I've ordered an additional two adapters from eBay which are supposedly 'built' for Seagate Firmware fixes but those look like they're going to take a week or two to arrive. I know there have been reports of people going through four or five adapters until they get a working solution but I wanted to see if there's anything I can do with these ones.

 

I am using Putty with 38400, 8, 1, none, none as I'm supposed to. I've tried Hyperterminal as well. I've also tried these adapters on two computers - a Windows PC running Windows 10 and now a MacBook Pro with a VMWare virtual machine running Windows 7 with the USB adapters connected directly to the VM.

 

I have tried these connections with the Seagate drive fully intact, with a card blocking the terminal and with the board completely removed. I have also tried it on a couple of other Seagate drives I have lying around. I get the same issue every time, no prompt, no feedback from the drives at all.

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Well, you cannot really measure anything "correctly" with a multimeter, but everything you report seems like fine.

The "sure" way is to have the PCB completely detached from the drive, when you hit CTRL+Z it should give you some feedback, but you also tried that and it doesn't work, it's strange, unless, and this is what I suspect, you are NOT in one of the two "known" cases (LBA0 or BSY), but rather in another, less common case, see:
http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?t=11403&start=
(seemingly no solution for the 7200.11 :(, before the thread was hijacked to ES2 drives)
See also:
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/154413-st32000542as-with-st-m13fqbl/

But the adapter should work anyway with the "other" (I presume "good") Seagate drives :unsure:.

jaclaz

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Thanks Jacklaz for the feedback, it's really appreciated. After reading your comments, I decided to go back and try the connector on some more drives. I took out another 1.5TB drive from my computer that I know for sure is still working and what do you know, this one did give feedback over Putty.

 

What I find really bizarre, is that I have two 1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 drives here that have failed with exactly the same symptoms and give no responses over a terminal connection and this problem doesn't seem to be the same as the 'common' ones. It just seems strange.

 

I'm not really sure where to go from here. I know PCB switches are supposed to be bad and require you desoldering a fiddly chip but is it something even worth trying? I don't mean the soldering, I don't want to risk that but maybe just a switch to see if that gets me anywhere?

 

The drives that have failed both have the same model numbers but they have slightly different part numbers (9JU138-002 and 9JU138-001) different firmwares (CC1H and CC1G respectively). I have at least two drives that have exactly the same part numbers and firmwares as one of them (the 002, CC1H ones). Is it worth trying a pcb switch?

 

I know it's looking far more likely that I'm going to have to get the professionals involved but I suspect finding a recovery centre that isn't going to fleece me is going to be tricky and besides which, I only need the data off one of the drives but I have no idea which of the two that is - one is full of actual data and one is just useless junk!

 

Edit: I think my problem is different after all. Both of my drives click 11 times on startup, which looks to be unrelated but gives similar errors (I originally searched for the weird name of the drives in the BIOS and 11 clicks and through several click throughs of google results and threads, ended up here). I'm going to try and clean the contacts tomorrow on the drive with alcohol but I'm not holding out much hope.

Edited by Spanky Deluxe
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Ah well, the 11 clicks are in jargon called "click of death". :(

 

There is simply nothing :no: that you can do with a simple converter, nor through PCB swapping, which SHOULD NOT EVEN BE THOUGHT OF (unless you transplant or backup and restore the firmware) see:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/150215-dont-even-think-of-swapping-pcbs-on-720011/

 

In a case of the "click of death" it is difficult even to estimate the probabilities that someone with the "right" tools (PC-3000 or similar) would be capable of "fixing" it (at the most recovering the data) or if more complex operations involving doing some hard disk surgery (such as heads or platters transplant) would be needed.

 

JFYI, more or less a modern hard disk behaves like a "full PC", on power on some "boot" firmware (on the PCB ROM - actually Eprom or Flash) is read and executed, and the idea is that the "booting" of the disk drive continues reading some more code and data from a specific area on the platters.

The 11 clicks may mean both that the contents of the firmware are somehow corrupted (and for a pro it is relatively easy to restore them) i.e. they point to a "wrong" area of the platters or that the given area is correct but for *some reasons* cannot be read correctly.

This again bifurcates in a "simpler" corrupted area on the platter (that in some cases can be bypassed, reading anyway the actual "user" data on the platters) or in a "more complex" issue caused by a hardware problem with the actual arm or heads or motor.

 

jaclaz

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Yeah, I'm going to call it a day on my attempts to fix it, connecting to it with a converter was one thing and unlikely to cause any problems but I really don't want to lose my data so it's time to call in the professionals - something an IT 'pro' like me hates to admit! I'm not going to let my pride get in the way of data recovery though!!

 

Do you happen to know of any good UK based data recovery folks? I'm London based but could obviously ship it further afield. No worries if not, I'll just resort to googling and getting quotes but I figured I'd ask just in case.

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Yeah, I'm going to call it a day on my attempts to fix it, connecting to it with a converter was one thing and unlikely to cause any problems but I really don't want to lose my data so it's time to call in the professionals - something an IT 'pro' like me hates to admit! I'm not going to let my pride get in the way of data recovery though!!

 

Do you happen to know of any good UK based data recovery folks? I'm London based but could obviously ship it further afield. No worries if not, I'll just resort to googling and getting quotes but I figured I'd ask just in case.

I cannot give you any recommendation on this, but you may want to make a post on hddguru forum and ask there (members on there being mostly in the field of data recovery are probably better suited for this - though they are usually *somehow* not particularly friendly with newbies ) at least it is worth a shot.

 

The only advice I can give you is be very careful in choosing, there are - I believe - a large number of firms/people - hmmm :unsure: - let's call them a little optimistic in advertising their abilities/capabilities, or have a not-so-clear approach, just an example:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170773-xbstart-219-stable-navigate-windows-81-with-an-xbox-controller/?p=1081791

 

jaclaz

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I've requested quotes from a number of companies now and have heard back from one or two. The one that you linked to that quotes £97 at the start was the first to get back to me (I literally got a phone call within minutes of completing the online form) and I was all set to go with them but having googled them, it seems that their usual actual repair costs are £500-£1000. I'd rather have an up front price so I know what I'm getting, so I'm going to wait a few days for the other quotes to come in.

 

One thing that strikes me as crazy though is that so many of these companies charge up to £200 for data recovery that requires no physical work done on the drives. You can buy excellent recovery software for that price!

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I've requested quotes from a number of companies now and have heard back from one or two. The one that you linked to that quotes £97 at the start was the first to get back to me (I literally got a phone call within minutes of completing the online form) and I was all set to go with them but having googled them, it seems that their usual actual repair costs are £500-£1000. I'd rather have an up front price so I know what I'm getting, so I'm going to wait a few days for the other quotes to come in.

The risk with an upfront price is that it may be - for obvious reasons - much higher than the actual cost of the *whatever* is needed.

I mean, let's bring this to another field, medicine/surgery :w00t::ph34r:.

Do you usually try to be visited by a MD (that will provide a diagnosis for a price, say UK£ 100) and only later - and only if really needed - go to a surgeon/clinic and pay (say) UK£ 10,000 for an operation and hospitalization?

Or you prefer a flat rate of (say) UK£ 9,000 for something that can be cured with a couple of aspirins?

One thing that strikes me as crazy though is that so many of these companies charge up to £200 for data recovery that requires no physical work done on the drives. You can buy excellent recovery software for that price!

Sure you can buy excellent recovery software for that money, point might be IF that *automagical* software will be able (in your hands) to recover the same amount of data a data recovery expert might be able to (possibly using some of his experience, some other tool, manual hex editing and what not).

Of course in many cases there is no real difference as the form of data corruption is either trivial to fix or the amount of data recovered is "enough".

But one of the issues with data recovery (broadly speaking) is that in "positive" cases (i.e. when you or the "automagical" program can recover the WHOLE lost data) everything is fine and dandy :), but when no or only partial data can be recovered there is (and there always be) a doubt, would another software be able to recover "more"?, would an expert be able to recover "more than the automated software(s)"?, would another expert be able to recover "more than the former expert"? ... :unsure:

In my little experience (and as a hobbyist, with limited tools and knowledge/experience) I happened to manually recover data that some experts (either real ones or self-proclaimed ones) had missed or deemed to be impossible to retrieve (or re-build, this latter possibly *somehow* "out of the scope" of their job), so you never really know.

jaclaz

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