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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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Hello,

Hoping someone can help. My Maxtor Diamond 22 died this week . I have been following Brad Garcias guide but am having problems . If I isolate the head contacts with card the disc , on power on , spins up as normal . However after about 30 seconds it spins down and appears to be quite dead .. I cannot start a Putty session with the disc. Ctrl Z produces no prompt . The loop back test for the RS 232 -TTL convertor is fine . I am using a 5V convertor but the disc spinning down happens irrespective of whether it is connected or not . If I remove the card from the PCB the disc spins up as normal and stays spinning as long as power is on .

If I try the method posted by Carter in Canada , isolating the motor contacts I still get no prompts. I have reversed the TX/RX . I am at a complete loss .

Any ideas I can try .

Thanks

Mark

You don't use the card, it is better unmount the PCB completly.

You must join the RXs with the TXs:

RX hdd <-- TX Adapter

TX hdd --> RX Adapter

GND <--> GND

If Ctrl+z no prompt then you have a bad connection or your USB drivers are wrong.

Can you do a loopback test?

Edited by pichi
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Hello,

Hoping someone can help. My Maxtor Diamond 22 died this week . I have been following Brad Garcias guide but am having problems . If I isolate the head contacts with card the disc , on power on , spins up as normal . However after about 30 seconds it spins down and appears to be quite dead .. I cannot start a Putty session with the disc. Ctrl Z produces no prompt . The loop back test for the RS 232 -TTL convertor is fine . I am using a 5V convertor but the disc spinning down happens irrespective of whether it is connected or not . If I remove the card from the PCB the disc spins up as normal and stays spinning as long as power is on .

If I try the method posted by Carter in Canada , isolating the motor contacts I still get no prompts. I have reversed the TX/RX . I am at a complete loss .

Any ideas I can try .

Thanks

Mark

Mark,

Hang in there, I know it's frustrating. I did things a bit different from Brad so I can't really advise about his approach.

If you do it the way I used, the only thing that comes to my mind, and it's a longshot, is to check the settings in both your terminal program (Putty) and on the port hardware settings in your computer BIOS to make sure they match what the drive wants to see. The loopback test working fine says you have things plugged in properly (and in the case of loopback, the settings wouldn't stop it from communicating - loopback wires don't care about the speed, parity, etc.) but it sounds like there's some sort of mis-match when it comes time to actually communicate with the drive. A setting for your COM port like "automatic/software controlled" through the BIOS should be default but perhaps it was accidentally changed to some hard setting (like 2400/N/8/1/Xon) that's interfering with Putty?

Other than that, I don't know Putty well enough to know if there are any other settings that might be accidentally fouling the communications. Are you on an OS where you could try another terminal program? Anyone else out there know Putty pretty well?

Reading the other guides, the only other thing I can imagine could be some sort of grounding/voltage issue that's interfering with communications depending on how you're getting power to your serial-to-TTL adapter? Some part of your setup that comes into play when you switch from the loopback test to the actual drive?

Sorry I'm not much help but those ideas are the only that come to mind. I'll keep thinking about it for you.

Good luck!

CarterInCanada

Just to be sure .... flashing my ST3500320AS fw SD15 to the newest one won't screw up my data, will it?

Is this update recomended? Any new issues?

Mr. C.,

In my case with ST31000340AS drives, flashing the bios of both "repaired" drives (from the BSY error) and drives running SD15 that had yet to exhibit a problem didn't effect my data at all. Everything that was there before the update was there afterwards. I used the bootable firmware CD update made using the method on the Seagate site. They mark the update as HIGHLY recommended and after suffering with three drives that had SD15 problems, I would too. I think the problems they had in the first release of the "fixed" firmware (around January) have died down and the version that's on the site now is stable and cures the problems. At least that seems to be the consensus in the boards I'm reading.

The only extra thing I did was to strip down my system (unplugged the other devices from the motherboard) to just the CD/DVD drive and the drive I was flashing, i.e. one drive at a time so I could be clear WHICH drive was being flashed without the chance of effecting any of my other nine drives in the process. A bit over cautious I know but after all the troubles, I didn't want to take any chances.

Have fun flashing! :rolleyes:

CinC

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Carter wrote :

Mark,

Hang in there, I know it's frustrating. I did things a bit different from Brad so I can't really advise about his approach.

If you do it the way I used, the only thing that comes to my mind, and it's a longshot, is to check the settings in both your terminal program (Putty) and on the port hardware settings in your computer BIOS to make sure they match what the drive wants to see. The loopback test working fine says you have things plugged in properly (and in the case of loopback, the settings wouldn't stop it from communicating - loopback wires don't care about the speed, parity, etc.) but it sounds like there's some sort of mis-match when it comes time to actually communicate with the drive. A setting for your COM port like "automatic/software controlled" through the BIOS should be default but perhaps it was accidentally changed to some hard setting (like 2400/N/8/1/Xon) that's interfering with Putty?

Other than that, I don't know Putty well enough to know if there are any other settings that might be accidentally fouling the communications. Are you on an OS where you could try another terminal program? Anyone else out there know Putty pretty well?

Reading the other guides, the only other thing I can imagine could be some sort of grounding/voltage issue that's interfering with communications depending on how you're getting power to your serial-to-TTL adapter? Some part of your setup that comes into play when you switch from the loopback test to the actual drive?

Sorry I'm not much help but those ideas are the only that come to mind. I'll keep thinking about it for you.

Good luck!

CarterInCanada

Many thanks Carter, it was the COM settings in windows that were wrong . I changed them and straight away got an F3. Followed the method and now at last all is well !!!! Data is backing up as I type.

Many thanks to all on this forum who have helped out on this issue.

Cheers

Mark (very relieved)

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Trax,

The first converter is the right sort of module but since it's powerered at 3v (relatively low), you might have problems if you try to power it from your PC power supply. You'd probably want to use a 3V battery to power that module.

The second USB module looks like the right sort as well but since my German is very rusty, I couldn't tell from the link what voltage it's running on. The same sort of voltage precautions would apply.

Good luck!

CinC

Edit: For everyone out there reading along that might be worried or confused about all this voltage talk, try searching for a TTL module that can accept (and deliver to the HDD data pins) a RANGE of voltages (say 3v to 5.5v) rather than just one static level. This will give you a bit more flexibility in both how you power it and what it sends along to the drive. The one I used was smart enough to adjust to send the same voltage that you use to power the module and while it was a bit high (5v from the PSU) the hard drive tolerated it fine for the few moments it was connected. Reading way back at the beginning of this thread it seems the hard drive would ideally like to see something lower but no harm in the short term. My GUESS (and it's just a guess) is that you could leave the drive data pins plugged into 5v for a few hours without any issues. I just wouldn't leave it plugged in for a week sitting on my workbench.

Edited by CarterInCanada
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Hi Guys,

I'm not sure if this particular firmware issue applies to my drive.

I have a seagate ST31000340NS 1TB drive. It is listed as one of the drives with the defective firmware. A few days ago, I had a power outage, and when the electricity came back on, my mac wasn't starting up.

My drive just spins up, clicks a couple times and repeats the process. Its not being recognized in disk utility or even disk warrior.

My question is, do you think this is because of the power outage, or the firmware issue?

And also, can I use the method discribed here to unbrick my ST31000340NS drive?

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Hi Guys,

I'm not sure if this particular firmware issue applies to my drive.

I have a seagate ST31000340NS 1TB drive. It is listed as one of the drives with the defective firmware. A few days ago, I had a power outage, and when the electricity came back on, my mac wasn't starting up.

My drive just spins up, clicks a couple times and repeats the process. Its not being recognized in disk utility or even disk warrior.

My question is, do you think this is because of the power outage, or the firmware issue?

And also, can I use the method discribed here to unbrick my ST31000340NS drive?

Hello shivpaul,

First, let me say I've never even touched a mac so take this with a grain of salt. I could easily be completely wrong here. On PCs, the firmware related "lockup" is known to happen after a power cycle (turning it off and on, whether by the switch or any other power outtage) so my guess is that *is* your problem. On the drive itself, there should printed which version of the firmware the drive shipped with (assuming you haven't updated it since you bought it). If it's SD15, assuming they use the same numbers on Mac models (which is a huge assumption - potenially wrong), you're one of the "lucky" ones. No clue from me how the "NS" models (which I presume are for Macs) differ from the "AS" versions that I use on my PC.

Along those lines, I don't know if you could wire up the drive as described here and use the Mac version of Hyperterminal to talk to the drive but it SEEMS like the basic TTL commands we're talking about wouldn't care about your Operating System (mac or pc). Once you get the drive unlocked from the BSY state, I have no idea of the process to update the firmware on a Mac but surely that is something the Seagate forums would spell out? I just never looked for it. Anyone else on here more Mac fluent? Is there a "mac version" of our thread out there anywhere?

Worst case, I'd get Seagate on the phone and see what they say. It's a free call at least. Good luck!

- CinC

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Thanks for your reply CarterInCanada.

The NS Models are older models I believe, not mac or pc specific.

I both two on these drives last august from newegg, and put one of them into an iMac. It was working great up until last week's power outage.

I just ordered one of those CA-42 phone cables to see if I can get this drive back. I'll let you know how it goes.

My only concern was the clicking sound from the drive. It spins up, clicks a couple times, and then repeats the process.

Is this typical from these defective drives?

Oh, and getting my drive to seagate isn't really an option at this point. I'm in Trinidad in the Caribbean, so I'd rather try to fix this myself :whistle:

Hello shivpaul,

First, let me say I've never even touched a mac so take this with a grain of salt. I could easily be completely wrong here. On PCs, the firmware related "lockup" is known to happen after a power cycle (turning it off and on, whether by the switch or any other power outtage) so my guess is that *is* your problem. On the drive itself, there should printed which version of the firmware the drive shipped with (assuming you haven't updated it since you bought it). If it's SD15, assuming they use the same numbers on Mac models (which is a huge assumption - potenially wrong), you're one of the "lucky" ones. No clue from me how the "NS" models (which I presume are for Macs) differ from the "AS" versions that I use on my PC.

Along those lines, I don't know if you could wire up the drive as described here and use the Mac version of Hyperterminal to talk to the drive but it SEEMS like the basic TTL commands we're talking about wouldn't care about your Operating System (mac or pc). Once you get the drive unlocked from the BSY state, I have no idea of the process to update the firmware on a Mac but surely that is something the Seagate forums would spell out? I just never looked for it. Anyone else on here more Mac fluent? Is there a "mac version" of our thread out there anywhere?

Worst case, I'd get Seagate on the phone and see what they say. It's a free call at least. Good luck!

- CinC

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with the help of a good old siemens c55 data cable, i have managed to survive my 500gb ST350032AS SD15 hard drive. Thank you everyone who shares their experiences. you guys achieved what seagate jerks couldn't. thank you again.

and thank you CarterinCanada. your site is very helpful and neat.

Edited by morpheux
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Thanks for your reply CarterInCanada.

The NS Models are older models I believe, not mac or pc specific.

I both two on these drives last august from newegg, and put one of them into an iMac. It was working great up until last week's power outage.

I just ordered one of those CA-42 phone cables to see if I can get this drive back. I'll let you know how it goes.

My only concern was the clicking sound from the drive. It spins up, clicks a couple times, and then repeats the process.

Is this typical from these defective drives?

Oh, and getting my drive to seagate isn't really an option at this point. I'm in Trinidad in the Caribbean, so I'd rather try to fix this myself :whistle:

sp,

Good clarification on the models. Bad assumption on my part that it was a mac model.

When I applied power to my BSY state locked drives, I don't recall hearing anything other than ordinary drive spin up noise which, I suppose when I was worried about losing all my data, could have blossomed into full-blown drive panic clicking noises in my head. I don't still have a locked drive to give you a better read on the noise and my memory isn't the best (I need more RAM in my head). Anyone else out there holding a BSY drive that can describe noises, if any, they hear?

As to the clicking noise itself, this may be an odd question but is it an irratic quasi-crunching noise or is it a fairly symmetic getting ready to serve you data click? Mine do make a *subtle* click as they spin up when I boot. When I've had other drives die in a power surge, they've been either totally dead (no noise or spin at all) or a distinctly irregular grind-grind-you're-screwed sorta noise. Maybe the repeat is in the way Macs attempt to key the drive at startup and since it can't find/understand the Seagate, it tries again?

Since you can't send the drive back for their unlock/recovery service, I'd look at it this way...if it IS a truly dead drive from a power surge, you can't make things any worse trying the repair method. Since you're still under warranty, you'll have to send it back as a replacement somehow.

Let the forum know when you get it sorted, I'm sure you're not the only mac person that's found the thread. Cheers!

- CinC

with the help of a good old siemens c55 data cable, i have managed to survive my 500gb ST350032AS SD15 hard drive. Thank you everyone who shares their experiences. you guys achieved what seagate jerks couldn't. thank you again.

and thank you CarterinCanada. your site is very helpful and neat.

You're most welcome morpheux. All I did was digest the info from those that came before me and add a couple bits of clarification. The main thing is that we're all helping each other get past that sinking feeling when we first lose the drive and to the happy results. Cheers!

CinC

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Hi all! I was wondering if mine would fall under the BSY category or worse? Everytime i plug in my hard drive (7200.11 FW:SD15), the head will make some sort noise that goes tuu..tee...tuu.... akin to a motherboard having a bad BIOS firmware. I was wondering if all of you ppl out there are getting such noises upon powering up?

The hard drive was working fine until one day it decided to stop working for good. Now, the drive is undetectable and I've lost over 200GBs of data inside. And I bought it in October 08!!! Even my 9 year old 10.2GB Quantum Fireball is still working today!! What a total disappointment.

My hdd hasn't such noises upon powering up.

First, you can try to repair your hdd with this method.

If this method doesn't work then you can try this one:

I have found the "trrrrr" solution at this webpage:

http://translate.google.es/translate?u=htt...es&ie=UTF-8

Is this "trrrrr" solution valid for my HDD(3500320AS:Firmware:SD15)?

I have following error.

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

F3 1>/2

F3 2>U

Error 1009 DETSEC 00006008

Spin Error

Elapsed Time 7 mins 17 secs

R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180

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

Edited by hiro
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Gradius 2, you saved me! I have built my own RS 232 to TTL converter using MAX232IN. Followed the instructions and just finished. So happy the ST31000340AS (1GB) that wasn't recognised by BIOS had my projects and other valuable information. It was irreplacable. Thank you very much!

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Hi guys,

I just experienced this recently. I have 2 Seagate Barracudas ST3500320AS's one with SD15 firmware (working) and a brand new one with SD1A (recently broke- 1 month), it suddenly stopped working and couldn't be detected by the bios (im using an intel dp35dp board). I downloaded the drivedetect from seagate as well as the latest firmware update (boot cd). I tried to update the firmware and it did but the drive is still not detectable. Tests on Seatools also fail on it. Now I know the problem could be BSY or CC and I've seen the solution on the thread. But my question is, could there possibly be another solution to this problem? without having to take the drive apart and perform the jump on it? I'm quite familiar and able to do the hardware hack but I was just wondering if someone's already come up with a simpler and easier solution? If yes thank you in advance, if not. Thanks anyways.

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