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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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Hi Jaclsz you for your fast reply...

I connected my drive to a friends PC now and booted with this freedos firmware CD.

Then it recognized the disk correctly and I could flash the new firmware SD1A.

Then after a reboot in BIOS, the Bios recognizes my HDD correctly as ST3500320SA and 500 GB

But we did not try to boot up the system with the Disk due to lag of time.

Now return back at home I connected it again to my USB external enclosure and tried to get access to it.

When turning on the drive it clicks regularly but does not show up in the explorer as USB Drive...

I am not sure if my repairing efforts were successfull now or not?

I am clueless at this point... Is there anything I can check or try to see if all states are ok in the pcb? logs? tables etc?

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Hallo!

I just wanted to tell you my experience.I've got the Maxtor stm3500320as drive and one day my computer just did not recognise it in BIOS.It was still on garantee, but I had some sensible data on it.So I was really unhappy about this and did not know what to do.

Luckly for me I found this forum and I tried this recovery method.

This is exactly what I did:

Drive is busy error: drive ST3500320AS or STM3500320AS SD15

remove 3 screws nearest heads connector, motor connected, put something between pcb and hda to lift pcb and prevent contact.

Terminal Configuration:

You will need a terminal program on the computer to which you connect the RS232-to-TTL adapter. You can use Hyperterminal, which comes with Windows XP & earlier.

Configure your terminal program to use the serial port with the following settings:

Baud 38400

Data Bits 8

Stop Bits 1

Parity none

Flow Control none

Connect GND and +5V to on adapter to PC power supply, or similar.

You can use RED wire (+5V) from PC power supply. Blacks are GNDs (yellow is +12V so don't use it).

If you don't want to mess with power supply, just use a CR2032 (3V) battery

Keep in mind that pins TX and RX on Maxtor drives are reversed.

- From adapter (TX) to >>> RX (on Seagate)

- From adapter (RX) to >>> TX (on Seagate)

Check that your RS232-to-TTL adapter works.

You can check this if you connect TX and RX on your RS232-to-TTL adapter together and type something in the Hyperterminal window.

If you see what you type then it's working.

Power on, wait until drive stops motor, if you dont wait at this moment you get 000000CE error after next command

Press (ctrl+z)

You should then see a prompt like this:

F3 T>

If not, you may have the TX & RX wires swapped. Switch them and try again.

Access Level 2 (type /2):

F3 T>/2 (enter)

F3 2>

Then spin down the motor:

F3 2>Z (enter) (note it is a capital letter in this case)

Spin Down Complete

Elapsed Time 0.146 msecs (your times will be slightly different on all these replies)

F3 2>

Very carefully, remove the cardstock that you placed between the PCB and the drive head contacts.

Carefully replace and tighten the 3 loose screws. If you removed the screws, I suggest using a small piece of masking tape to help you hold the screws while you put them back in place.

Then start the motor:

F3 2>U (enter)

Spin Up Complete

Elapsed Time 6.864 secs

F3 2>

this part is not necessary, just checking that everything is ok, use when first try fails (F712 work only on 500g 7200.11 with firmware SD15, when you updated f/w just skip this part)

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

F3 2>/ (enter)

F3 T>F712 (enter)

Byte:0712: RealTimeUpdatedFlags = 00 00

Byte:0712: Bit:0, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX = 0

Byte:0712: Bit:1, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX_EXT = 0

Byte:0712: Bit:2, DCO_SET_ACTIVE = 0

Byte:0712: Bit:3, CONGEN_READ_FROM_MEDIA = 0 <- configuration not loaded from surface

F3 T>F,,22 (enter)

Drive Configuration restored to defaults.

F3 T>F712 (enter)

Byte:0712: RealTimeUpdatedFlags = 08 00

Byte:0712: Bit:0, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX = 0

Byte:0712: Bit:1, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX_EXT = 0

Byte:0712: Bit:2, DCO_SET_ACTIVE = 0

Byte:0712: Bit:3, CONGEN_READ_FROM_MEDIA = 1 <- done

F3 T3>

F3 T3>/1 (enter)

Go to smart erase

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

Next go to Level 1 (type /1):

F3 2>/1 (enter)

F3 1>

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

F3 1>N1 (enter)

Which will simply return the level one prompt

F3 1>

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

This step is not needed, but for some people it might be.

At this point, you need to disconnect the SATA power cable from the drive and wait one minute. Yes, count to sixty. Then plug the SATA Power cable back into the drive.

Now back in HyperTerminal, you'll need to hit CTRL-Z to get a fresh prompt

F3 T>

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

Now Type

F3 1>/ (enter). It should say

F3 T>

Finally, do partition regeneration:

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter) (Note the "m" is lower case and the 0's are zeros)

After 15-30 seconds, you should see something like:

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 00, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 00C8

User Partition Format 10% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004339, ErrCode 00000080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs

User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs

Do not turn off drive until you see this message.

Once seen, drive can be turned off.

Power down everything, place drive back into your computer, and confirm that it's working.

I successfully unlocked my drive.

I can confirm that this method works. :thumbup

Now some people say that their computers can not boot from drives.This is because of a virus.It sits in the SMOS on the mainboard.If you have this problem you must clear the SMOS and it will die.Look in the manual for your mainboard how to do this.

Edited by leon
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Hi all ,

i want fix my hardidisk Problem (Drive is busy error: drive STM3500320AS )

i read all Post and want run this commands .

all my data after fixing Problem deleted ? hard disk this process formated ?

if yes how i recover all data ?

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Success story!

I was able to recover my drive (though on the second boot after I revived it, it did it AGAIN and I had to recover a second time).

I have a question, however, what is the stability like on these drives after they have been recovered? Is it even more prone to happen (as I may have experienced)?

I'm wondering because I now have another drive, but would prefer not to have to reinstall everything...

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I have a question, however, what is the stability like on these drives after they have been recovered? Is it even more prone to happen (as I may have experienced)?

Well, this is the question.I don't know if there will be some longterm stability problems after this.Maybe it's better to copy all data to another drive then do a low level format and throw it out of the window after this.May be it hits a seegate man like a brick and he will think next time.

Edited by leon
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Guys,

Please help me out here. I feel I am very close to a solution but can not figure out the problem I am facing.

I got my hands on a CA-42 cable but turned out to be a faulty cable. Then I got hold of a DKU-5 cable and added a 3V battery to it.

Once I power up the drive I keep on receiving garbage characters on screen (TX/RX correctly connected). if I type anything I get to see the typed characters as well through the garbage.

I tried removing the battery: I get less garbage but I do not get anything on screen when I type.

I tried swapping TX/RX. I get garbage. No typing feedback.

any ideas?

Plz help.

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No after trying 2 or 3 times with external enclosure and connected to another Computer, I gained access to the harddrive finaly, BUT:

the OS (XP Pro) says: there is an unformated media with 500GB... "would you like to format it"

I think somehwo the FATs or something like that are damaged due to my repairing trials?

Is there a way to recover that? I was trying to start a File Data recovery to get back my JPG pictures at least, but the recovery process takes estimated 70 hours.... :-( so I stopped that after 4 hours and found 20 files...

is there a way to restore the FAT or MBR or something like that, that I will see my old data-structure again, like it has beend before bricking???

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hi all .

in end process " F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter) "

this message appears it means all data formated :

User Partition Format 10% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004339, ErrCode 00000080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs

but you say all data not deleted and only harddisk unlock . :wacko:

i fear do it :blink:

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To kazamazax@gmail.com

Obviosly something is wrong either with your adapter or with the hyperterminal.

Have you connected a wire to GND pin also? You must connect three wires to your drive.TX, RX and GND.

Look here for more details about this:Website

the OS (XP Pro) says: there is an unformated media with 500GB... "would you like to format it"

I think somehwo the FATs or something like that are damaged due to my repairing trials?

I guess your data is lost.

but you say all data not deleted and only harddisk unlock .

Yes, if you make anything correct it will only unlock your drive.

Edited by leon
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I think somehwo the FATs or something like that are damaged due to my repairing trials?

Is there a way to recover that? I was trying to start a File Data recovery to get back my JPG pictures at least, but the recovery process takes estimated 70 hours.... :-( so I stopped that after 4 hours and found 20 files...

is there a way to restore the FAT or MBR or something like that, that I will see my old data-structure again, like it has beend before bricking???

Data retrieving can take a long time.

You shouldn't tamper with the disk if you don't know what you are doing.

Usually it is possible to recover a filesystem if the problem is only in MBR/bootsector/FAT tables/MFT, etc. using testdisk:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Otherwise try this:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

(much faster than what you describe, if targeted to just a filetype, like .jpg)

I guess your data is lost.

Not necessarily.....

FYI:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=133933&hl=

...before giving up, one should always try a recovery, the result can be positive. :)

jaclaz

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First of all thanks for all replies.

The data is definiteley still there!!!

Using the recovery tool it can recover some pictures, but time effort is too long...

so i just wanted to ask if there is any way to restore the FAT or partition table or something...

if not, I have to try photorec...

as told, i was applying following:

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

F3 1>N1

Disconnected hdd an reconnected

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

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That was wrong.

You should give only one "F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22" command after "F3 1>N1" and don't need to decconect HDD.

F3 1>N1

Disconnected hdd an reconnected (some people say it's needed, but this is not needed, anyway I did not disconect my drive)

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

qps maybe you can restore your data, but you need good software for this.

For instance "Active Partition Recovery"

Edited by leon
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Hi folks!

I've been out for a few days and I'm just catching up.

Leon is correct that you should only give the partiion regen command (m0,2...) at the end *after* the SMART erase.

Because so many people have had luck WITHOUT powering down their drives in the middle of the process, I updated my little attempt at a guide to reflect the choice. I did power down, others haven't. You make the call with whatever will let you sleep better at night.

What I DID want to add, however, is that if you DON'T power down, you need to be sure to go back to the test level by typing:

F3 1>/T

So you get back to:

F3 T>

before continuing with the partition regen. I know it's a small step but I didn't see anyone actually mention how to do it in the last few pages. Those pesky computers...one little thing and they go all wonky.

Hang in there Brick Drive Warriors!! We're all in this together!

Cheers,

Carter in Canada

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so i just wanted to ask if there is any way to restore the FAT or partition table or something...

Sure, and I answered:

Usually it is possible to recover a filesystem if the problem is only in MBR/bootsector/FAT tables/MFT, etc. using testdisk:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

And hinted, since the time you stated seems a bit excessive, that you may be using a "slow" app and that you should try another one:

Otherwise try this:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

(much faster than what you describe, if targeted to just a filetype, like .jpg)

jaclaz

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