The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs

[jefferyjunk]

Has anyone found a solution for the "Serial FLASH boot code checksum Failure!" issue? I have a drive which is in that state.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

Does this mean the drive firmware is not even loading ?

Cannot say.

Try a CTRL+L:

http://www.msfn.org/board/seagate-barracud...-page-1105.html

and post results.

If there was a problem you should get this also:

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

TetonST Boot ROM 2.0

Copyright Seagate 2006

Serial FLASH boot code checksum failure!

before.

See if anything in the "commands" help:

http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate...07-page-15.html

Doesn't CTRL+Z do anything?

jaclaz

[PHOBoS]

Another Succes!

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, 500Gb

firmware: SD36 !

I'll probably post some more information later,

but for now big THANX! to Gradius & Aviko

and everybody else who posted useful information!

Merry X-Mas!

Gree(n)tingZzz PHOBoS

[genka]

After some playing with wires I easily unlocked 750GB drive. Thanks a lot for the guide!

Initially I bought a CA-42 clone cable on ebay, but it didn't work at all- Windows couldn't initialize the com port. So I went with RS-232 converter from alldav.com

Edited December 27, 2009 by genka

[chouberry]

Then go to Level 1 (by typing /1):

F3 T>/1 (enter)

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

F3 1>N1 (enter)

Now turn off (or power off) the drive. At this point I don't know yet if the drive power off alone after N1 command or not (I'm still need to order my RS232 to TTL adapter). So, I'll just mention that as "Power OFF/ON" process.

G-List Erase (cert the reserved cyl):

F3 T>i4,1,22 (enter)

For reference:

Level T 'i': Rev 0001.0000, Overlay, InitDefectList, i[DefectListSelect],[saveListOpt],[ValidKey]

Power OFF/ON

Partition regeneration:

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

Now i'm just curious before I start working on the BSY fix for my drive, I wanna be clear about the BOLD parts above in the quote.

Since It seems as though Gradius2 was uncertain of the power off/on part. Do I just unplug the drive at this point, and then plug it back in right away?

Help! Honorific specialist

How can I do if model number and SN appear as messy code? Can we key in correct SN and recover?

[pichi]

Hi dear friends,

I am new user here and I really need to your helps about my problem.

I have a DELL-XPS laptop,some days ago when I was working with my laptop and surfing the web too but my laptop got a blue screen error and it restart very fast and the problem began.

My laptop didnot detect the hard drive now and when I turn on it it give a alarm and show the below error:

internal harddisk drive not found!

To resolve this issue, try to reseat the drive.

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics

I cannot access to the hard details with my PC too and it donot detect in my laptop bios but I think its motor work and I hear its voice good.

because I saved my Maxtor hard drive (STM3500320AS) that donot detected in my pc before with this topic ways,I think maybe I could solve this hard problem too with this way.

My laptop hard information:

Model : WD3200BEVT

S/N : WD - WXE508FH4819

Anybody had this problem before?

Can you guide me?

Best Regards,

SHP

Anybody donot know the answer?

I think you have BSY problem. STM3500320AS of maxtor works as ST3500320AS of Seagate. You need "RS232 to TTL adapter" or "USB to TTL adapter" to repair it. To unmount the PCB you need torx 6 screwdriver.

[Edvin]

Hello again, I managed to install driver for CA-42 cable (prolific USB to serial bridge), although I cannot connect to a terminal service, I tried flipping TX and RX cable, and see not difference, program says it is connected but ctrl-z does not work and just see the blank screen either way, but when swapping the ground cable terminal fails to connect. Please help!

[Edvin]

Managed to connect and done everything that was needed to make it work, although windows cannot boot with this HDD, I tried to connect it while in windows - it sayd it is 7.87GB space, and disc manager shows it is blocked, what do I do?

[executionerr]

hi, i've stuck with repairing my drvie

i bought a ca-42 cable the same as, gnakh's. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=884790

for connecting i used some old cdrom cable

than, 1 connected the cables like this:

blue: data tx to hdd rx

white: data rx to hdd tx

black: gnd to hdd gnd

yellow: power gnd to batteries -

red: power +3v to batteries +

(2 AA battery, without the batteries the ca-42 did nothing)

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/2937/dsc01404a.jpg

the right is tha ca 42 the left is the cd cable

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/1963/dsc01406i.jpg

first i wanted to try tried without inserting a paper to the hdd motor to make sure everything is ok.

-connected the pins, the usb, than the sata power supply for the hdd power

- than windows detected the cable, drivers installed

- i checked which com port i connected it said, COM11

- installed hyperterminal private edition( becouse win 7 dont have hyperterminal)

- made a new connection with COM11, 38400-8-N-1-N

but i cant write anything in hyper terminal. ctrl+z don't work, tried switching rx and tx, but nothing happened.

anyone have any idea what step i missed or what have i done wrong??

sry for my english

[comega]

Is there any way to unblock a drive that was blocked by using the "fix BSY" solution with the PCB connected to the drive (motor disconnected with plastic)?

I got the LED error, disconnected the drive to remove PCB, and now the drive has stopped responding for CTRL+Z or commands.

I was a little bit fooled by using "A direct guide for BSY error", because it did'nt tell that the PCB must be removed. I thought it would be enough to isolate the motor pins.

Afterwards, I created an isolation paper also for the data connector, and premounted the PCB with screws. In that way I would be able to easily remove the 2 isolators with power on, and then secure the screws without riscing to drop them on the PCB. Too late I'm afriad...

(Sorry if this has been answered before, I can't spend hours on reading 114 forum pages)

[numberonekiwi]

Hi all

jaclaz thank you for your answer but i cant find any TTL here in JORDAN but i can bay the same HDD from the store so if i bot another one and change the electric board can i get to the data ??can i copy it to my external 250 G.B. HDD??

the price of new HDD MAXTOR 1T.B. that i found in the store is about 140$ but i cant risk with any data to be lost :ph34r:

NO!!! DO NOT, FOR ANY REASON, SWAP BOARDS ON MODERN HARD DISK DRIVES. (unless you really, really know what you are doing )

I am of course not familiar with availability of electronic equipment in Jordan, but I doubt you cannot find by the dozen some NOKIA cables or some other USB<->Cellular Phone data cable that "talks" TTL, and an experienced guy to test them.

I pointed you to an alternative very simple DYI circuitry. Even if you cannot find a MAX232 or similar IC, I am pretty sure you can find someone with a solder gun, some soldering paste and flux and some thrown away electronics:

http://www.uchobby.com/index.php/2007/06/1...ptor-explained/

Scrounging

All the parts you need are probably sitting in electronics devices you could scrounge. You don’t have to have 2N3906 or 2N3904 transistors to make this circuit work. These transistor parts are very common so it’s possible that you will find exactly these devices. Look for the small black (T0-92) packages in electronics scrap and remove them. You will need a PNP and a NPN signal transistor. Many Digital Multi-Meters (DVM) have a built in transistor checker you can use. Try and find transistors that check out with a beta of at least 100. I hope to do an article about testing scrounged transistors soon. Maybe someone will do this article to receive a free Arduino kit.

The other parts such as a diode and LEDs should also be very easy to find. The resistors could be more difficult. You will no doubt find plenty of them but they may not have leeds long enough to work with. The best solution here my be to buy a resistor kit. I recomend a kit from All Electronics. If you know of a better kit please let us know in the comments.

jaclaz

Hi first time poster here

If I had read the dont swap boards I may not have tried it but I did before reading this with success

I had 2x st3500320AS drives one with SD15 and one with SD81 firmware when I swapped boards BIOS would detect both drives but with SMART errors and I got a clicking sound from each drive similar to that of heavy disk activity but a little louder but I could not access either drive

The original error was that BIOS would not detect the SD81 firmware drive

The solution was to download the boot CD iso with firmware SD1A and boot from CD and with only one drive attached at a time update the firmware for each drive

After that I still had the SMART error and clicking sound and neither drive could be accessed as before So I just swapped the two PCB boards back to their original drives connected both to the PC and powered up. To my joy I rebooted straight away to the OS on the effected originally effected drive and could access the other drive all seems to work fine

I am not sure why swapping boards back after the firmware upgrade worked and why I could not keep them swapped but I am not worried about that I am just happy to have my drive back working

[executionerr]

another succesfull restore from bsy error, thank you everybody:)

[Han Solo]

So I am trying to fix my seagate and I have the cable but the drivers are not working for me. I installed Handset_USB_Driver_32_v2.6.2.0 drivers for XP and at first I wasn't getting the prompt for new hardware but now I get a code 10 error. For that error I did try to uninstall USB controller drivers and that didn't help, especially if your you disengage the drivers for the mouse and keyboard. So then I installed the PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_10311 drivers that I think Vista recommends. BTW I have a triple OS system: Vista, XP and Ubuntu. The prolific drivers I think gave me a code 1 error in Vista. In short I am having trouble with the drivers that won't install for a new device, assuming I have the connections correct which I think I do then the drivers are the only thing in my way.

Edited January 5, 2010 by Han Solo

[tofy792000]

dear best frinds thank U all for helping me so i couldint find the cable here in jordan but i'm go to electronical inginear so he is my freand to and he make one for me serial RS232 to TTL after i used it my HDD back to life and now i have to reach to all my data on it there is no losting data thank U all

:w00t: :w00t:

[jaclaz]

dear best frinds thank U all for helping me so i couldint find the cable here in jordan but i'm go to electronical inginear so he is my freand to and he make one for me serial RS232 to TTL after i used it my HDD back to life and now i have to reach to all my data on it there is no losting data thank U all

:w00t: :w00t:

Happy to hear you made it .

I am not sure why swapping boards back after the firmware upgrade worked and why I could not keep them swapped but I am not worried about that I am just happy to have my drive back working

A PCB on modern hard disks is "tied" to it's mechanical parts.

To exchange succesfully PCB boards you need to also exchange the data in some flash chips (or physically exchange the chips by de-soldering them from one PCB and re-solder it on the other).

Firmware is (obviously) the same for each "family" of drives, so it doesn't make difference if you flash it with the PCB connected to one or the other drive.

Most probably by exchanging the boards you somehow managed to get the board in an "error" state that allowed re-flashing the firmware and recover from error once the "right" PCB and drive were again coupled.

This is however NOT, NOT recommended as there are concrete possibilities that you can end with two dead drives instead of one.

jaclaz

[vapour]

Thanks for posting these guides everyone, I was able to flas my HDD using a genuine CA-42 cable. The connections were posted earlier for this type of cable.

I have fixed two harddrives so far, an SD15 1tb and an SD81 500gb. After updating the firmware on the SD15 anf my own harddrive (another 500gb SD15) both drives fail the SMART test in Seatools and report 0 hours of use regardless of the time they are ran. The unusual thing is that the SD81 failed and does NOT have a firmware update.

There is something deeper here causing any 7200.11 drive to just up and die randomly. I think Seagate's hiding some serious problems with the drives.

Is there anybody else with the new SD1A firmware have seatools reporting oddly?