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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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Crack open a beer to celebrate!!! I got my drive working!!! KICK A$$!!!

Ok, a few things that really screwed me up. I didn't have the right drivers installed for my USB to Serial adapter. Once I got the correct ones installed, I was able to comunicate with the drive on COM PORT 4. Also, if you are using the SparkFun Controller that is listed on page one of this thread, make sure that you connect the third wire that everyone is talking about.

I had to try it twice in order for the final step to work but once it did, all of my data showed up!!

STUPID SEAGATE for srewing with my drive in the first place.

Thanks to EVERYONE on this thread who have contributed one way or another to helping out those who are having problems.

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Also, you may want to refer to Brad Garcia's description in his own guide titled Fixing a Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive at Google Sites, who is using Aviko's (originally Okzo's a.k.a Yura's) method.

Just my 2c - I've read a few posts that have pointed out that that Brad's guide is missing a crucial step. In his guide he writes:

**********

And do a S.M.A.R.T. erase (create S.M.A.R.T. sector):

F3 1>N1 (enter)

Finally, do partition regeneration:

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter)

***********

According to Gradiss' post, you MUST turn off the hard drive prior to the partition regeneration step and that this is a crucial step.

For me, I followed Gradius' guide and unbricked my drive....if I'm wrong in this, please feel free to jump in and correct me.

The only thing missing in Brad Garcia's guide which I noticed the first time I read it lies in exactly that command text you just quoted. The missing part in it is that you have to send the / or the /T command in order to access the T Level. Otherwise, there's no error in Brad Garcia's guide. It's totally bulletproof! :) In fact, I can confirm that it really works, because I took all the "risks" as you guys describe it, and I followed his guide. Actually I knew in first place it wasn't any big risk to follow Brad Garcia's guide because I knew he used Aviko's instruction set, and I trust Aviko's judgment since other users have reported to have recovered their drives using his instructions and method. I refused to use Gradius' instructions and method after reading about all the risks and flaws in it, so I followed the Aviko's (originally Okzo's a.k.a Yura's) instructions and method as described by Brad Garcia and Aviko. And you know what? I successfully recovered my Barracuda drive!

The drive is by the way a 500 GB, ST3500320AS with SD15 FW. I have two of these, but the other one is not listed as affected and has no problem so I won't upgrade the FW on that one, at least not yet.

The only exception that Brad Garcia made from the Aviko's "complete solution" is that he didn't use the F712 nor the F,,22 command in his guide. Otherwise it's the same thing. However, I personally did use those two commands for my ST3500320AS. As I understand it, the F712 is only to be used for this model, if you have other model you should be able to use the F command without any number after it, and then the F,,22 as usual. When and why you should use these? I won't bother explaining it to you since Aviko already has, so find out in Aviko's "complete solution". You can find Aviko's solution in Post # 513. He doesn't describe these particular commands in detail in that post, but he does describe it in his posts before that, you only need to read like I did. The only reason I link to this # 513 post is to make it at least little easy on you so you can compare Aviko's full and complete solution with Brad Garcia's guide. That's supposed to be Aviko's most complete and official solution, in his own opinion, and that's the imortant part in this story. For other details, I think you really should read this thread at least up to page 30 or so.

It seems that all of the photos from Gratis have been moved or taken down. Can these be re-posted? I need to know which pins on the back of the drive are TX and RX.

Thanks

Chris

It's Gradius, not Gratis. By the way, "gratis" means free in Swedish, as in free of charge. ;)

Yes, so I noticed. I think he removed the pictures while I was reading through the thread from the first post to the last (I originally intended to read the whole thread, but ended up reading the first 31 pages). I think I was like at page 25 when I noticed that Gradius' pictures had disappear when I was referring to the first post while reading.

How is this possible? At the moment when I arrived to this thread on MSFN for the first time, I was curious and wondered if the pictures I found in Gradius' first post were hosted by MSFN or if they were hosted by some external website. I wondered because I like forums that allow users to upload pictures right to it without using other hosting websites. To find out, I right-clicked on each picture on Gradius' first post and chose Properties in order to see the host server address. What I found out is that Gradius was using some server from Brazil to host his pictures. Sorry, I can't remember the whole domain name, but it did have the top level domain (CCTLD) BR at the end which if I'm not mistaken is the CCTLD for Brazil. It was this website I have never ever heard of. I know of free file hosting services like ImageHost.org, ImageShack.us, Megaupload.com and Rapidshare.com. But this was something totally different, probably a private website.

Believe it or not, I remember wondering for how long these pictures would be up, and whether or not I should download them to my own computer just in case they disappear. I wondered because I know from experience from using free file hosting services that there are usually rules about for how long the file is up and when it will be taken down automatically. For some of these services that's half a year, for some a whole year, and that's mostly why ImageShack is my favorite free file hosting service because they are the most generous with uptime. Unfortunately I didn't download those pictures that Gradius uploaded, otherwise I could have re-uploaded them now to ImageShack. :} Now I feel bad for not downloading them. I just didn't expect them to disappear so soon, otherwise I would have downloaded them. But don't blame me, you people should have thought about it yourself. Not the Internet nor the Web is an infinite and failsafe resource as people have come to think of it today. The electric power is not an infinite and failsafe resource, then how could the Web be that? One power outlet and you're out of the game and out of the business. That's why paper and written text still rules as king of all information! :yes:

So what happened to those pictures?

Well, as I described above there are these free file hosting services available which would normally delete the pictures (or other file types) after a certain period of time. That's one theory what could have happened to those pictures Gradius uploaded. The second theory is that they were uploaded on Gradius' personal website (registered with BR CCTLD) and that it is Gradius who took down the link to them or removed the pictures.

Why would he do that you ask?

Well, after reading all the complains about his "method" of recovering Barracuda 7200.11 drives and after he was attacked by others for removing the credits to the original sources of this recovery information, Gradius probably got p***ed off so he layd his anger on us who desperately need this information and who least deserve to be p***ed at. If there is someone he should be p***ed on it should be Aviko, and Yura's Friend who were most accusing and attacking him all the time and who probably initially registered here at MSFN to express their anger at Gradius for stealing their information and techniques and calling it his, and for removing the credits to the original sources (them - Aviko, Okzo, Yura, and some other). And they are absolutely right about it!!! Gradius is an as***** for taking other peoples effort and information and calling it his own with little or none re-work and addition to it!

As Wilson Mizner once said "copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research". Gradius didn't copy from two, he just copied from the first best source, without even understanding the language of the original author. He just used Google Translate or similar Web service to translate the original text. Even if he did copy from two and made a mix of it, it's still not research. As someone noted before me, Gradius is a compiler, not a translator, nor a researcher. And even if it is to be called research, it still isn't fair play not to refer and give credit to the original sources (the above mentioned). Now Gradius has shown he's real face and proved it to us that what kind of as***** he is by deleting the links to the pictures or the pictures. Period.

If Gradius has his own personal website on which he originally uploaded the pictures, he may have run out of money so that he was not able to pay the hosting fees. I say this because I think he once mentioned something about having to pay for some Web related costs. But if this is true, it's still lame not to allow oneself to upload the **** pictures to a free file hosting service like ImageShack where it is FREE to host the pictures! So that's just not an excuse!! Or why not upload them here locally to MSFN? I think he wanted to keep the control over the pictures so that he could delete them like he did now, that's why he didn't upload them to ImageShack here nor to MSFN! I am sure he also wishes that no one ever found out that he had removed the credits to the original sources from his guide.

First he removes the links and the credit to the original sources for this information. Now he removed the pictures. What's next? Will he remove the whole content of his guide, or maybe mess it up and write wrong commands so that we would destory our drives? You make up you're own mind about Gradius, I have already made up mine, and I know for sure that what he did is not right. Discrediting other peoples' efforts and then removing the pictures or neglecting to save them by uploading them to a free file hosting service is overshadowing Gradius' own original effort of compiling this information in one place (here at MSFN)! You can't possibly have trust in people who act like that, specially not in so crucial important situations as salvaging your data from the disk drive. So please guys, don't follow in his footprints! Please give credit to other peoples efforts and refer to your sources, we have learned these things in primary school. So stay true if you want to earn other peoples trust and full respect!

Can the pictures be re-uploaded?

Obviously not the original ones that Gradius posted, unless something hits Gradius to re-upload them. What I can do is upload the pictures I have taken from my own recovery process. But I didn't follow Gradius' recovery method, so if you're interested in seeing how I set up the hard disk drive for the recovery work then you will probably be disappointed because it is not in accordance with the method Gradius described. I followed Aviko's method.

Which pin is TX and which is RX is not so important actually. You can't destroy anything by connecting TX to TX and RX to RX. So you don't have to worry much about which is which. If you can't get into the F3>T prompt then you can try swapping the TX and RX wires. So I would suggest you just try it out. I also had to do this, I had to swap the TX and RX because they were connected in wrong direction. After swapping them, I got to the prompt.

It seems that all of the photos from Gratis have been moved or taken down. Can these be re-posted? I need to know which pins on the back of the drive are TX and RX.

Thanks

Chris

Chris - You can have a look at Brad's site where he has a photo of the pins:

http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/

Just keep in mind you should use Gradius' instructions, not Brad's as per my previous post, Brad doesn't have the step of restarting the HDD prior to the partition regeneration. Good luck with the fix!

Why should he use Gradius' instructions and not Brad's or Aviko's? Because they don't include the power off and on the drive? That's just ridiculous! There is no need to power off and on the drive. If you would have had read this whole thread or at least up to page 30 you would understand why this is not important. In fact, powering off and then on the drive at this "crucial" step can make more damage then good!!!

I would say like this. If you are following Gradius' recovery method, then maybe you should do the power off and on step. But If you are following Brad's (originally Aviko's and Okzo's a.k.a. Yura's) method then there is no need to power off and on. But you don't really need to follow Gradius' recovery method, I believe more in Aviko's method. I think it's much easier and safer to use.

Hi All,

Same issue as everyone here, 7200.11 drive not showing up in BIOS, and this is the second time, with a second drive. but i FIXED both of them without the RS232 fix with hyper terminal and here is how.

I swapped the PCB's from each drive to the other, the drives then instead of NOT showing up in BIOS display with 0MB , I then shutdown, swapped back the PCBS between the discs booted up to the Seagate Firmware flash CD and flashed both their firmware, now they work with no issues and all the data has now been backed up externally.

So if you are lucky enough to have another 7200.11 drive hanging about, switch over the PCB, power on and you will see it in bios as 0MB. Power off, switch PCB back and use the seagate Firmware boot disc to flash the drive.

Please, please, please, do not swap PCB's! Ever!

I also have two of ST3500320AS model Barracuda 7200.11 drives. One which is affected, and one which is not. But luckily enough, I wasn't stupid enough to swap the PCB's. I just followed Aviko's method and I got my drive recovered successfully.

Why didn't you use Gradius' or Aviko's method?

I can't see any instruction pictures. If guys have those pictures please upload again.

Ask Gradius, he was the one who uploaded them, and he is probably the one who deleted the links to them or the pictures. You can read more in my reply to Santropez on this above.

Hi

For guys who don't have the Gradius pics, here is a french board where someone did a french traduction of the all process, and put some pics. See in the middle of the page :

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:-QxDa...lient=firefox-a

Good link! Thanks! It has lot of pictures. Hehe, maybe just a little bit too many pictures. :) I wish thou I could understand the text as well.

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Thanks for all of the insight. I used several guides from different people just to cross check and verify that what I was doing was correct. It amazes me that after several months that this issue came to light, there are still 15 to 30 people on this thread at a time reading about this subject. I just wish I would have ordered the parts sooner and gotten my data back a long time ago.

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It worked like a charm. Big thanks!!

Grattis! :hello:

Did you use Aviko's instruction set and method, or Gradius'?

I am confused on which part of the drive I should place the cardstock between. Is it between the PCB and the Motor Contacts or the Head Contacts?? One guide says the Head contacts and the original post says Motor contacts.

Thanks

It depends on what instructions and method you are using. If you are following Gradius' method then you are supposed to insulate the 3-pin motor contacts from the PCB. If you are following Aviko's (originally Okzo's a.k.a Yura's) method then you are supposed to insulate the 20-pin heade contacts from the PCB. You should choose one method to follow, not a mix of these. I used Aviko's method and successfully recovered my Barracuda. I refused to use Gradius' method after reading the first 30 pages of this thread. I think Aviko's method is much easier and safer to use.

Hi.

If using a cellphone cable like the CA-42, the only thing I need to do is connect the cable's RX to the board's TX and the cable's TX to the board's RX, right? No need to worry about ground and +5v?

Thanks!

Do you know which wire is RX and which is TX on the cable?

Maybe these links can help.

http://buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php/U...RM9_Linkstation

http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhonesCables/nok...le_pinout.shtml

It's not so important to connect TX to RX, and RX to TX. You won't destroy anything if you connect them as TX to TX and RX to RX, but you won't be able to do anything until you swap the two wires. So you don't have to worry about which is TX and which is RX.

I don't think you have to worry about the Vcc (Common-collector voltage) and GND (ground) wires. The TTL circuit should be powered through the USB port of the computer to which you connect it. But you may need to connect the GND wire to the GND pin on the disk drive. They need to have common ground. I used a CR2032 button cell lithium battery of 3 Volt to power my Sparkfun TTL to RS232 adapter module, and I had to connect the GND on the adapter module to the disk drive so that they would have common ground. So I used different adapter, I didn't use the mobile phone cable like you, so therefore I'm not 100% sure. But I am pretty sure that the TTL circuitry in your cable will be powered from the USB port of the computer to which you connect it, and that you need to connect the GND from the cable to the GND on the disk drive.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but does anyone know the command or how to set/enable ERC (similar to TLER/CCTL) timeout on 7200.11 drives? This may or may not help out with long pauses some 7200.11 users are experiencing, and would definitely help out RAID 5 users like myself. I've looked through the command list posted earlier in this thread and wasn't able to find anything. Perhaps someone saw something I missed, knows how to enable this, or just to point me in the right direction?

Thanks again to everyone that contributed to the thread!

You mean the problem where the computer freezes for about 30 seconds? I have two ST3500320AS with SD15 FW One of them is was affected by the BSY error problem, the other is not affected at all. The affected drive locked into BSY state on first of April, and I have unlocked it by following Aviko's method and then I upgraded the FW on it. So, I did not have the problem you describe, but I did read about it on some tech new site. But I don't know of any solution for it, sorry.

How much did you read of this thread? I have read the first 31 pages in full before I made the decision to follow Aviko's recovery method instead of Gradius' original. However, I have not seen anything about the problem you are having. Maybe someone has mentioned it in some post from page 31 in this thread and onwards, but you can be pretty sure that there is absolutely no mention of it in the first 31 pages of this thread. If you want you can continue reading from where I stopped, but I wouldn't expect to find anything specific on that problem in this thread since it's actually titled "The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs". So I would say that 80% of the users in this thread are having the BSY error, while remaining 20% are having the LBA=0 a.k.a 0 GB variation of it.

What makes you think that setting the ERC timeout would solve the problem in first place? What makes you think it's even possible?

You could try to contact Aviko and beg him to help you. He claims to work in a well known data recovery company in Poland, and he also claims to have worked with data recovery for the last 6 years. You can try to contact him by PM here at MSFN, or you could look up his MSN Messenger e-mail which he published in some previous post. I don't know if he has written the address in his User Profile, but he did write it in one of his posts on like page 15 or above. I don't have time to look it up. But I'm sure it's still there. He published the address for those who were having the BSY or LBA=0 error so that he could assist them over MSN Messenger. But I'm sure he wouldn't be bothered if you dropped him a slightly different question. All thou, I can't possibly know if he knows the answer or if he would tell you.

Otherwise, if you are having 8 disk drives of this kind where each is 1.5 TB as you wrote on the Seagate forum then it sounds to me like a visit to data recovery company is the only choice for you. That is if you don't find a working solution any time soon that you can replicate several times on all your 8 drives.

Why buy 1.5 TB disk drive models in first place? It seems little bit senseless to me. When it breaks down, it's more probable that you will loose all your data. A 500 GB disk drive is a too big capacity, not to mention those competing for numbers of Terrabytes they can squeeze into it. How do you even backup something so big with so much information on it? The answer is probably for most users that you don't, you expect for it to work. Then when it doesn't they cry. Backup onto what? It's not like you can buy a cheap 320 GB or 500 GB drive to backup a 1,5 TB = 1500 GB disk drive. That's why users here first order they replacement disk drives before attempting to recover the failed Barracuda. And those who say that data storage is cheap these days are wrong. Not all users have so much money that they can buy 2 - 5 of these drives of the same model just to make sure one of them works by setting up an RAID array, because that's exactly what you would have to do - buy 2 to 5 drive of same model and then set them up in an RAID array or make up some other complex storage system. The bigger the capacity, the more complex the drives will get, and the more complex they are, the more they are prone to error and failure. Ironically, the traditional diskettes are probably the most failsafe data carrier today. At last, the golden rule of computing is backup!

Crack open a beer to celebrate!!! I got my drive working!!! KICK A$$!!!

Ok, a few things that really screwed me up. I didn't have the right drivers installed for my USB to Serial adapter. Once I got the correct ones installed, I was able to comunicate with the drive on COM PORT 4. Also, if you are using the SparkFun Controller that is listed on page one of this thread, make sure that you connect the third wire that everyone is talking about.

I had to try it twice in order for the final step to work but once it did, all of my data showed up!!

STUPID SEAGATE for srewing with my drive in the first place.

Thanks to EVERYONE on this thread who have contributed one way or another to helping out those who are having problems.

Congratulations! :hello:

I see you don't really need help, but I answered your previous questions anyway. Maybe someone else may have the same question.

Yeah, it's totally irresponsible from Seagate's part. I followed the original "falling down" thread at Seagate's community forum, among other threads. First they didn't warn about the issues that these disk drives might have all thou there are several indications that they knew about it from beginning or very early in year 2008. Then they didn't answer to users' complains for a long time or not at all. Then they refused to acknowledge the problem. Then they acknowledged it. Then they published the new firmware version for affected disk drives, but refused to cover the data recovery and firmware upgrade fees for those users who's drives were already locked in BSY state and couldn't do the upgrade themselves. Then they said they would do the unlocking of these drives for free and upgrade the firmware, but I haven't seen not a single example of success story of this kind. Those users who sent their disk drives to Seagate with their precious data on it in hope that Seagate would repair it and send it back as is with data intact were very disappointed by getting a completely new replacement disk drive with no data on. Their data is probably gone for ever on that original drive, don't think Seagate is able to return it back to them. Those are probably slaughtered (disassembled) and the parts are re-used in new drives, and data destroyed.

First time I chatted with Seagate US Technical Support, the guy told me to RMA the drive and that I would get a new one. If I wanted to keep my data I would have to contact an DR (data recovery) firm, so he suggested their own i365 (Seagate company). As of recovery fees and shipping charges I would have to take it all on my own expense. He didn't even give me at least a voucher so that I wouldn't have to pay the full price, or at least refund my shipping charges (shipping to US of A is not cheap). He didn't even seem aware of the nature of my problem.

Second time I chatted with Seagate US Technical Support, the guy seemed at least aware of the nature of my problem and told me to contact i365 - UK department at +44(0)845 258 5500 to make some arrangements with them and that they would upgrade the firmware for me, free of charges. What about my data I asked. He told me that data recovery was not included in the free firmware upgrade service. How the hell would they upgrade the f***ing firmware then if they don't want to risk the data?! I don't know. Still, shipment would not be refunded, but at least it would be cheaper then sending the drive over seas to the US. I never called that number since I found this thread.

The third time I chatted with Seagate Brazil Technical Support, the guy was trying to convince me that the reason for the failure of my disk drive was due to a computer virus. ROFLOL! A good one! :thumbup He wouldn't even pay attention to what I asked him. Instead he was making confusions, mostly to himself, by asking me irrelevant questions like how I managed to log on to their support system twice simultaneously. I should have told him I'm a Black Hat to scare the s*** out of him! :ph34r: But since I'm not, by definitions I'm probably a White Hat, I explained it to him. And then we got on to the real question, which he barely answered. I wanted to ask those clowns what they are doing to prevent this from happening in the future. At some point of ending the conversion he just cut me off the line and ended the session. If anyone is a Black Hat, it's Seagate! Those are the real bad guys!

First they drug you, then they take your money, and then they finally f*** you up! But you would only realize that the morning after. Then you sue them for sexual abuse, but they won't admit it of course. And then they go free and decide to take revenge on you so they send you to their friends at i365 to gang bang you and f*** you up even more, so much that you won't remember it this time! I guess you can tell how much I hate them now. This is exactly what they did to us, literally speaking. I just hope not many of us went to the i365 corner looking for help! :rolleyes:

I don't think I will ever in my lifespan buy a Seagate disk drive again. It would be reckless. It is said that you should never let the same snake bit you twice. If you do, then it's probably because you're stupid. I don't think thou that we have so many more options to go with, except for WD and Samsung. The major reason why I chose Seagate for this build was because I had great experience with Maxtor drives, and since Seagate acquired Maxtor I thought their drives would be just as good. Now we see that's not true, both Seagate's own disk drive family Barracuda and the Maxtor family are having the same problems. I think I will go with WD next time. We must support WD and Samsung! So all of you who had this experience please stop buying Seagate disk drives! If you continue to buy Seagate drives, you will only make them stronger and they may even buy their only major competitor, namely WD! Then we won't have any choice but to buy Seagate drives in the future, regardless of how bad they may be. They may sell you a peace of poo-poo, and you will still have to buy it no matter what you think about having to pay for their poo-poo, because you won't have an option.

I have spent 716 SEK (~64 EUR or 83 USD) on parts, materials and tools for recovering my disk drive. But to me, it was worth it. I don't think I would have gotten away cheaper if I had went to a professional DR company, it would probably be at least eight times the price, in best case.

Edited by ElectroGeeza
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By the way...

Is any of you guys interested in a new re-written recovery guide for this BSY (or LBA=0) error?

I had started to write one on my own, but I stopped when I found Brad Garcia's guide because he had already taken many of my original ideas for it. But he's is much shorter then mine. I still have this 30 611 byte of text on the computer, and if anyone is interested I would try to finish it and publish it as a new thread here at MSFN. I have also documented every step of my own recovery work so I'm sure it could be a pretty nice guide with lots of pictures. I won't work on it if there is no interest for it thou.

As someone already noted before me, it's interesting to see that this thread is still very active and people are reading it and posting new messages in it. I think that has to do mostly because of the "black cloud of confusion" as I recall referring to it in an previous post. There are many confusions surrounding this topic and this specific thread in particular. I would try to shed some light on those. I think it's senseless to continue on to post in this same thread. It's 60 pages for God sake! Who will ever read it in full? That's another reason why there are so many messages and posts in it.

Well, tell me what you think about it.

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GREAT SUCCESS!

It's my time to contribute a little, with a solution for those with CA-42 cables that are not detected by Windows XP...

I bought a CA-42 cable at a Nokia store. It cost me 51 euros... It's the same price as in the website (for Portuguese customers), and it might sound expensive, but I thought it was cheap cause all I wanted was my data back. And I had already spent more than one hundred euros on the phone, waiting to yell to some Seagate representative.

Anyway, I got home, connected the cable to a Windows XP machine and... nothing. I installed the driver, and still nothing. I connected a Nokia 6070 to it, and it was detected. Obviously the cable was getting power from the cellphone, so what I did was cut the cable, use the TX and RX wires to connect to the hard drive (a DiamondMax 22) and re-connect all the other wires to the plug and connect it to the cellphone (a 3v battery should work too, but I thought that using the cellphone in the setup would look more interesting :) ). Picture of the setup here:

link

I followed the steps in this guide and my drive was up and running in 2 minutes.

Now I'm trying to find the firmware update, because the ticking bomb is still inside the drive... However, when I try to get it from Seagate's website, all I get is an ISO with a DriveDetect.exe file inside. What else could I expect from this amazing company... I bought a Seagate drive because I was tired of Samsung drives crashing... Never again!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!

I am currently in Portugal. If you're close by, I may be able to help you.

PS. I find it really unbelievable to know that Seagate is aware that thousands of customers are currently using a drive that will sooner or latter become unusable, and yet they act like it's a minor issue... And they even screw up the firmware release... **** THEM!

Edited by faxizel
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>>Is any of you guys interested in a new re-written recovery guide for this BSY (or LBA=0) error?<<

I think this would be very valuable. You could also include all of the mis-information that people should avoid. (like where to stick the card stock under the PCB)

Also, pictures are very useful. The more info (better info) that is out there, the less confusion people will have.

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Hola estoy intentado arreglar el disco con el cable dku5 pero me da error en el puerto aparentemente los driver estan bien instalados.

Hi i'm used dku-5 for nokia but fails in port com3

fotofud.th.jpg

Esta configurado de la siguiente manera en el hyperTerminal

hyperfz5.th.jpg

El administrador de dispositivos parece que esta bien.

prueba2v.th.jpg

My english is very poor, sorry

Gracias.

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... However, when I try to get it from Seagate's website, all I get is an ISO with a DriveDetect.exe file inside. What else could I expect from this amazing company...

The ISO image is a bootable one. Once you write it on a CD you can boot from it, and all the code which updates the firmware is in the bootable part which is invisible in Windows (or in any other OS), unless you use a specific application like WinISO or similar.

The firmware update must be done at the lowest level possible of OS (read "good ol' DOS" :D), thus the necessity to have a bootable CD image.

Edited by chandragor
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... However, when I try to get it from Seagate's website, all I get is an ISO with a DriveDetect.exe file inside. What else could I expect from this amazing company...

The ISO image is a bootable one. Once you write it on a CD you can boot from it, and all the code which updates the firmware is in the bootable part which is invisible in Windows (or in any other OS), unless you use a specific application like WinISO or similar.

The firmware update must be done at the lowest level possible of OS (read "good ol' DOS" :D), thus the necessity to have a bootable CD image.

hummm, interesting. I mounted the ISO but could only see 2 files (readme and the detectdrive.exe)... I'll try burning it then... Thanks!

Did anyone experience problems with the firmware update? Possible data loss?

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Hullo folks out there in bricked drive land!

Just reporting another success in the method for a pair of 1TB (ST31000340AS) drives. I've read most of the various threads on the net and managed to muddle through with a mix of them all. For those of you that may be a bit less technical (I'm not far behind you), I detailed my procedure in simpler terms for a friend in the same boat down in the States who was terrified of the whole process. It wasn't the cheapest or easiest path and probably took a few extra steps/parts but I do think it simplifed (and filtered) a lot of the other instructions out there for some of the technically challenged (which as I say, I'm not far behind). If you'd like to peer at my method and results, you can do so at http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html , the page I created on my own site. (I promise, nothing is for sale there) There's a whole new crop of pictures and yet another digest of the instructions. I'll keep it up as long as the bandwidth doesn't go nuts.

Thanks to everyone here that helped me understand and get my drives back. Cheers!

- Carter

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hummm, interesting. I mounted the ISO but could only see 2 files (readme and the detectdrive.exe)... I'll try burning it then... Thanks!

Next time, open the .iso with 7-zip and check the contents of the [bOOT] folder you will see. ;)

If you'd like to peer at my method and results, you can do so at http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html , the page I created on my own site.

Thanks for making that page.

Besides being very clear, I like the use of large, friendly letters. :)

jaclaz

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GREAT SUCCESS!

[...]

Now I'm trying to find the firmware update, because the ticking bomb is still inside the drive... However, when I try to get it from Seagate's website, all I get is an ISO with a DriveDetect.exe file inside. What else could I expect from this amazing company... I bought a Seagate drive because I was tired of Samsung drives crashing... Never again!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!

I am currently in Portugal. If you're close by, I may be able to help you.

PS. I find it really unbelievable to know that Seagate is aware that thousands of customers are currently using a drive that will sooner or latter become unusable, and yet they act like it's a minor issue... And they even screw up the firmware release... **** THEM!

Other users have reported the same thing, and I can confirm that as well. This is normal that you can't see anything else in that ISO file. If you look at the total size of that ISO file and compare it to those files you can find in it, you will understand that the total size for the ISO file is bigger then for the total size of those files you found in it. It's a simple thing you can do without any special software, and it shows that there are system files that you can not see in Windows Explorer or any other file manager software. However if you do want to see the whole content of the ISO file in Windows or other OS you will have to open it with the special software for it like ISO Buster, Power ISO, Magic ISO, or Ultra ISO.

Anyway, you don't need to actually "see" the whole content of the ISO file to "believe" that they are there. Boy, this sounds like a religious thing. :huh: Just burn the **** ISO to a CD-R or CD-RW and you are ready to go. Never burned an ISO image file to a CD? Don't worry, it's easy. There are lot of CD/DVD authoring software out there that support it. Among others, Nero Burning ROM supports burning ISO files to disc. But if you don't have Nero that's fine too because there are a lot of free software you can use. I don't have Nero either. It's true that I am an old Nero user, but I don't use Nero anymore, I stopped using it like two years ago because it just feels too much of a bloatware now. For burning image files like ISO I use ImgBurn which is my favorite right now. It's really easy to use and works flawlessly, and at top of all it's freeware! I just burned the Firmware ISO for my Seagate Barracuda two days ago by using ImgBurn, and then I successfully upgraded the FW on it from version SD15 to SD1A.

If you need any help burning the ISO to CD I can help, so please write your questions.

If you do have Nero and feel more comfortable with using Nero instead, then you can find a short guide on Seagate's website on how to use Nero to burn an ISO file. The link to that Web page is located on the same page where you find the Firmware download link for your drive. I don't know how you missed it, it should be a link to it there. I think this is that link: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...&NewLang=en

If you need any help with the Firmware (FW) upgrade procedure I can help you, so please write your questions about that as well.

On the same Web page where you download the Firmware ISO file, you can find another link which tells you how to upgrade the FW eventually, after burning the ISO of it to a CD. Here is that link: http://support.seagate.com/firmware/firmwa..._procedure.html

The bottom line is...

It's normal if you can't see all the files in the ISO file in your file manager. This is because it's a bootable CD.

The Firmware ISO you have downloaded is not corrupted, so there is nothing to be worried or amazed about it. You just need to burn it to a CD. Please note that you have to use the appropriate "image file burning" functionality of your CD authoring software, so you can't just drag and drop the file to a new CD compilation.

You can in fact use DVD discs as well as CD, it shouldn't be a problem there. But I would stick to the original idea and use a CD, just in case. I had few CD-RW at home so I took one of them and burned the Firmware ISO file to it with ImgBurn.

After you have the burned the Firmware ISO file to a CD successfully, you will need to boot from it. So put that CD (or DVD) into the computer on which you have connected the Barracuda disk drive, and power it on, or restart it if it's already on. If the CD doesn't load you may need to configure boot sequence order for your computer in BIOS. If you don't know how, let me know, I can help you with that. But before you do the FW upgrade, please make sure to disconnect all the other disk drives in the computer except for the ODD (CD-ROM) which you will use to read the CD and the Barracuda drive of course onto which you will load the new FW.

If you have any questions please ask. I will do my best to answer it.

As of Seagate and this disaster (not a minor problem), I have already said what I think about it in my previous posts so I won't spend any more of my time spitting at them. What frightens me now is that there are still disk drives in circulation on the market of this same disk drive family and Firmware version that have been affected by this problem (not all are affected). So you can still run into one of these bad drives today. Seagate didn't do any product draw backs even after realizing the problem. They still sell these bricks! That's even worse then the initial problem with the disk drives to begin with! :}

>>Is any of you guys interested in a new re-written recovery guide for this BSY (or LBA=0) error?<<

I think this would be very valuable. You could also include all of the mis-information that people should avoid. (like where to stick the card stock under the PCB)

Also, pictures are very useful. The more info (better info) that is out there, the less confusion people will have.

Alright then, it's set now, I will continue to write it. Unlike Gradius I will be glad to hear your feedback on it so I can improve it. I really don't want to compete with Gradius, I just want to publish a complete and understandable guide which even those less technically minded could have use of. And I don't want it to be just "my" guide, I accept any body's contributions to it.

I will publish it as a new thread here at MSFN as soon as possible.

This is the least thing I can do to show my appreciation and to help others who are new to this problem and feel lost in the methods and approaches discussed in this thread.

Hola estoy intentado arreglar el disco con el cable dku5 pero me da error en el puerto aparentemente los driver estan bien instalados.

Hi i'm used dku-5 for nokia but fails in port com3

fotofud.th.jpg

Esta configurado de la siguiente manera en el hyperTerminal

hyperfz5.th.jpg

El administrador de dispositivos parece que esta bien.

prueba2v.th.jpg

My english is very poor, sorry

Gracias.

I'm sorry but I don't understand Spanish. I understand that you are using a DKU-5 data cable for Nokia cell phones. But you will need to give me some more details if I'm going to be of any help to you.

Do you have a physical COM (RS232 - serial) port on your computer?

If not, are you using a USB to RS232 converter cable?

If so, did you install the drivers for it?

What's the make and model of the USB to RS232 adapter cable?

What version of Windows are you using?

It you do have a physical COM (RS232) port on your computer, do you have only one?

If you have several COM ports, did you try to connect the DKU-5 through the second or first COM port (you say you tried COM three)?

Are you sure your cable is a DKU-5? It must be a CA-42 or DKU-5. If it's a DKU-2 or CA-53 or CA-70 it won't work.

What happens if you connect the DKU-5 to a USB port? Does Windows tell you it's installing drivers or asks you to install drivers?

... However, when I try to get it from Seagate's website, all I get is an ISO with a DriveDetect.exe file inside. What else could I expect from this amazing company...

The ISO image is a bootable one. Once you write it on a CD you can boot from it, and all the code which updates the firmware is in the bootable part which is invisible in Windows (or in any other OS), unless you use a specific application like WinISO or similar.

The firmware update must be done at the lowest level possible of OS (read "good ol' DOS" :D), thus the necessity to have a bootable CD image.

Correct! :yes:

... However, when I try to get it from Seagate's website, all I get is an ISO with a DriveDetect.exe file inside. What else could I expect from this amazing company...

The ISO image is a bootable one. Once you write it on a CD you can boot from it, and all the code which updates the firmware is in the bootable part which is invisible in Windows (or in any other OS), unless you use a specific application like WinISO or similar.

The firmware update must be done at the lowest level possible of OS (read "good ol' DOS" :D), thus the necessity to have a bootable CD image.

hummm, interesting. I mounted the ISO but could only see 2 files (readme and the detectdrive.exe)... I'll try burning it then... Thanks!

Did anyone experience problems with the firmware update? Possible data loss?

What CD/DVD emulator are you using to mount the ISO? :) I'm just curious...

You have to burn them!

Even if you manage to see the "hidden" system files, you will still need to burn that ISO file to a CD in order to use it to upgrade the Firmware on your disk drive, just as I explained to you above. It's not like you can upgrade the Firmware from within Windows, and even if this was possible it would be so much more risky. I remember reading quite recently about Asus users who bricked their Asus motherboards when they tried to upgrade their BIOS version by using the BIOS upgrade utility software for Windows made by Asus. So for these types of applications like when upgrading Firmware or BIOS on your computer it's better to use DOS type of software at boot point. That's why Seagate is doing exactly that, so that's at least one good thing from Seagate's part.

As I wrote above, I upgraded the Firmware on my Barracuda two days ago. I downloaded the Firmware ISO, and then burned it to a CD-RW by using ImgBurn. Then I powered off the computer and disconnected every other HDD and external peripheral devices except the affected Barracuda HDD, the ODD (CD-ROM) and the mouse and keyboard. Then I powered it on again, the Firmware upgrade utility loads, then I upgrade the firmware for my HDD. After upgrading the Firmware the new version is SD1A while the old one was SD15, so it's a successful upgrade. No data was affected by the upgrade. All thou I did backup the most important files from this HDD before upgrading the FW on it.

Hullo folks out there in bricked drive land!

Just reporting another success in the method for a pair of 1TB (ST31000340AS) drives. I've read most of the various threads on the net and managed to muddle through with a mix of them all. For those of you that may be a bit less technical (I'm not far behind you), I detailed my procedure in simpler terms for a friend in the same boat down in the States who was terrified of the whole process. It wasn't the cheapest or easiest path and probably took a few extra steps/parts but I do think it simplifed (and filtered) a lot of the other instructions out there for some of the technically challenged (which as I say, I'm not far behind). If you'd like to peer at my method and results, you can do so at http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html , the page I created on my own site. (I promise, nothing is for sale there) There's a whole new crop of pictures and yet another digest of the instructions. I'll keep it up as long as the bandwidth doesn't go nuts.

Thanks to everyone here that helped me understand and get my drives back. Cheers!

- Carter

Nice pictures! :)

I specially like the one on top - HDD equal brick!

discbrick.jpg

You should have added the Seagate logo to the HDD.

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However if you do want to see the whole content of the ISO file in Windows or other OS you will have to open it with the special software for it like ISO Buster, Power ISO, Magic ISO, or Ultra ISO.

Or, as said two posts before, with "normal" Freeware 7-zip. ;)

jaclaz

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