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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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I am not using any power source, just t he Ground cable on pin2 of the drive remember?

I don't think you understand what I mean :whistle:

Standard RS-232 ports (wether it be the COM-port on your motherboard or an external USB-device),

outputs RS-232 levels at +15V for a "Space" (0) and -15V for a "Mark" (1).

The drive's controler needs TTL levels: +3V to +5V for a "Space" (0) and 0V for a "Mark" (1),

but it is using the RS-232 protocol to communicate.

Let me try to explain it with a simple picture:

post-277568-127249685604_thumb.gif

On the left you'll see the pins coming out of the COM-port (using -15V to +15V levels), in

the middle is a level-shifter (can be a MAX232, for instance) and on the right you'll see

the desired TTL-levels the controler on the PCB needs.

You cannot just connect a COM-port directly to the drive, it most likely will blow up

the controler's diagnostics-port; the controler's port, unlike a "Normal" COM-port, is

not protected to withstand higher voltage levels than expected.

Would you recommend for me to purchase any specific parts to try again?

Yes... get yourself a TTL-level RS232 adapter, like mentioned all over this topic.

It could either be just a level convertor (like a MAX232) to convert the levels from an on-

board COM-port (if your PC has them) or a USB-device that outputs TTL levels, like a Nokia

CA-42 cable.

Greetz,

Peter.

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Thanks Peter. I will get the cable.

Just to contribute to the topic - I have 2 identical Maxtor drives 500 GB each.

One Brick and one good.

Today I tried upgrading the firmware via dos program (bootable) and it succesfully upgraded for my "Good Drive". The Bad Drive was not recognized at all.

So I tried switching the PCB's. Now the Bad Drive with the upgraded PCM is seen by BIOS but wont work (makes noise). Firmware wont update either.

The Good Drive with the "bad PCB" wont be recognized and wont upgrade (and it makes noise as well at initial spin.

I switched them back.. They both are quite spinners again. But the BRICK is STILL A BRICK!!!!

Argghh

:wacko:

Im going to get a Nokia Cable CA42 and a TTl board as well. Last 2 tries...if not instead of putting it in the freezer I'll probably put it in the microwave!!!

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All,

I wanted to encourage all new members to read carefully the first post of this thread. I think we are now observing a phenomenon that is unfortunate. People with different versions of the firmware or with slightly different symptoms are coming to this site and trying the fix and when it doesn't work, they are posting for a solution. I am not technically capable enough to help folks with different HDDs and different firmware. I can only speak of my own experience in successfully trying this fix.

I would encourage you all to try this solution if you have the bad SD15 firmware and the correct 7200.11 HDD from Seagate. I feel for you that your HDD is not working properly but I'm not sure we can be of much help if yours does not fall into the correct specs.

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I think we are now observing a phenomenon that is unfortunate. People with different versions of the firmware or with slightly different symptoms are coming to this site and trying the fix and when it doesn't work, they are posting for a solution.

I guess it's pointless (as much as these HD fails are unfortunate).

I tried to convey this same message n times, but it simply does not "pass-through". :(

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&st=2690

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&st=2535

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&st=1770

I do understand (and sympathize with :)) people having problems with their hard disks and that are looking for a solution, but, once again, this is NOT the miracle cure for ANY disease of ANY hard disk. :(

The fact that switching boards is PERFECTLY unuseful on modern hard disks (unless special procedures with special Commercial software and/or hardware changes are performed) and it WON'T solve ANY problem, BUT may create more AND ruin also the "donor" drive, has also been written tens of times in this thread, and what you get?

So I tried switching the PCB's. Now the Bad Drive with the upgraded PCM is seen by BIOS but wont work (makes noise). Firmware wont update either.

The Good Drive with the "bad PCB" wont be recognized and wont upgrade (and it makes noise as well at initial spin.

With all due respect to joejetson2 :), I do read it very like:

I completely ignored the n places where it is clearly written to NEVER swap a PCB of modern hard disks and tried doing.

Guess what?

They were right and it didn't work.

:w00t:

Just in case:

DO NOT TRY SWITCHING HD PCB BOARDS, EVER!

(unless you are explicitly told to do so by someone who knows where his/her towel is AND the FULL procedure is explained AND you have completely understood it AND you have available the needed software AND hardware tools)

jaclaz

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Well..I hope that this Thread is not still dead.Hi guys...good to know that there are people who really care and share their knowledge to solve over's burduins.I got a Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (engineering sample).Same diagnostics: after a restart the computer hangs a lot at POST and doesn't recognise it at all.The problem happend to me about 5 months ago,I went to warranty but there it was said to me that the warranty does not recover the data.I can't give my HDD for a new one because Ihave my Diploma Project on it.I read this thread and decided to take my chance.I buyed a Ca-42 cable.Unfourtanetly I can't get it work.My cable is Made in Thailand (CM09083821) with 5 wires (ble,red,white,black and yellow).Even if i strip it the internal structure is molded,there a better chances to destroy it than to see what it is inside.I read over the internet and the required setups doesn't work for me.But I managed to do something.

My setup:I put the plastic between the PCB and the rectangular connector so when the HDD is powerd on it must not spindle,only the PCB must work.Here it comes my confusion:the only way to make my CA-42 to be seen in the device manager is the following:the red and blue wire must be connected to the TX and RX of the PCB (it doesn't matter how: blue-TX and red-RX or red-TX and blue-rx ) AND the Sata power cable from the Power supply must be conected to the PCB of the HDD.If the power supply connector is not connected the recognise in the device manager does not work.Does this mean that I had discovered the RX and TX terminal of the CA-42?I tried to disconnect the power supply,the blue and red wire connected and to see if the CA-42 cable can be supplyed with power from a 3V battery (round battery from a motherboard).I tried different configurations with the remaining 3 wired (white,black and yellow) but i get so far no result.From this comes my confusion.How did it work with the Power supply cable?Do I require more thatn 3V?I tried also to make the followingower supply connected to the PCB and to short the blue and red...but no sound...no CA-42 in device manager.I don't know if it make sense i just thought that the RX and TX terminal of the CA-42 when connected will trigger the CA-42 to appear in Device Manager.But my conffusion is:how it works on the PCB connected.Do the 2 wires do another phenomena in that moment?

Thank You.

P.S.:finnaly i had managed to unrwap and to see whats inside.It is a ATMEL chip made in Korea.I shall post a photo in the evening of the containts of the CA-42.

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I think we are now observing a phenomenon that is unfortunate. People with different versions of the firmware or with slightly different symptoms are coming to this site and trying the fix and when it doesn't work, they are posting for a solution.

I guess it's pointless (as much as these HD fails are unfortunate).

I tried to convey this same message n times, but it simply does not "pass-through". :(

http://www.msfn.org/...=128807&st=2690

http://www.msfn.org/...=128807&st=2535

http://www.msfn.org/...=128807&st=1770

I do understand (and sympathize with :)) people having problems with their hard disks and that are looking for a solution, but, once again, this is NOT the miracle cure for ANY disease of ANY hard disk. :(

This fix has mostly been used on the 7200.11 ST3500320AS and ST3500340AS drives, I don't know 500GB, 750GB or so. With the SD-Firmware. However there have been reports of some people getting this fix to work on OEM drives with the HP-Firmware as well. That is why I am trying to figure out if my ST3500620AS with the Dell DE11 firmware would work with this fix.

Just an idea.

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Thank You.

It looks like you got some things wrong here :unsure:

A CA-42 cable is a USB to RS232 (TTL-level) interface, originally used to connect

a Nokia mobile phone to your computer.

The cable first has to be installed correctly on a PC and in working order before

you can use it for other purposes, like communicating with a harddrive.

Once its drivers have been installed (and the CA-42 is plugged in) it should show

up in device-manager as a COM-port communication device (labeled "COMxx",

where xx is its com-port number).

The next step is to figure out what wires are RX, TX and GND.

Because CA-42 clones are made all over the world, by different manufacturers, it's

impossible to rely on the used colour-coding of the wires given by others.

The best way to figure out what wire goes to what terminal, is by using a multimeter

to follow the pins on the phone-plug to the wires inside the convertor.

Below is the pin-designation of the phone-plug end of a CA-42 cable:

ca42-plug.png

Examining:

Cut off the phone-plug, leaving about an inch (2.5cm) of wire.

Strip the cable (at the phone-plug end) to expose the wires and by using a multimeter

(or if you don't have one, a battery and light-bulb will also work), find out what pins on

the plug go to what (coloured) wires and make a note of it.

Testing:

Make sure the cable is correctly installed on your computer (it should be visible in device-

manager when plugged in) and make a note of the designated COM-port number.

Start HyperTerminal (or similar terminal program) and open a new connection:

  • COM-port: the port reported in device-manager
  • Speed: 9600 baud (as a first test)
  • Data bits: 8
  • Parity: None
  • Stop bits: 1
  • Flow control: None

With an open connection: when typing something on your keyboard, you should not see

anything displayed in the window, which is correct.

Now, with the connection still active, short the TX-wire to the RX-wire (leave the GND as is)

and again type some characters on the keyboard: you should now see the characters typed

echood back in the terminal window.

You've just done a so called "Loop-back" test and if successful, you've found the correct

wires... if not: start over from the top until this step works.

Because the CA-42 cable was originally intended to work with 9600 baud only, some cheaper

clones are only able to work at that speed and not at the 38400 baud we need to communicate

with our drive, so we first have to make sure it does work at that higher speed.

To check that, simply close the connection, set the speed to 38400 baud, re-open the connection

and re-do the "Loop-back" test, this time at 38400 baud.

If that test is also successful, you can continue trying to unbrick your drive, if it fails,

don't try to take the next step, since you will never be able to succeed. :no:

Summery:

  • Get a working RS232 connection with TTL-levels; you can use a good CA-42 cable, although
    your milage may vary depending on its quality (clone?)
  • You don't need an external battery when using a CA-42
  • Correctly install the CA-42 drivers; it should show up in device manager as a COM-port
  • Figure out what wires are TX, RX and GROUND (GND/0V)
  • Do a "Loop-back" test (at 38400 baud) before proceding.

Good luck,

Peter.

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This fix has mostly been used on the 7200.11 ST3500320AS and ST3500340AS drives, I don't know 500GB, 750GB or so. With the SD-Firmware. However there have been reports of some people getting this fix to work on OEM drives with the HP-Firmware as well. That is why I am trying to figure out if my ST3500620AS with the Dell DE11 firmware would work with this fix.

We would certainly like to know if this fix does work with other models and/or firmware,

but was originally intented for use with 7200.1 drives running SD15 firmware.

To not get this topic cluttered with questions about possible solutions for other drives,

I do not think it's a good idea to post these requests to the current thread, since it

already has 142 pages and would only make this topic more obscure; a lot of the same

questions (that were about 7200.11 SD15 drives) have already been asked and answered

before lots of times and also adding questions about other drives would really make

things worse.

The only thing Mundy and Jaclaz are trying to say (and I agree with them) is: this

procedure has been written for and tested with 7200.11 drives using SD15 firmware.

Advice cannot be given on other brands/types/versions of drives, because they haven't been

tested by us and/or we do not own these drives, so we need the input of others that do have

successfully (or not) performed the procedure on other drives.

So basically, if you have another drive: please try the procedure and let us know your findings.

Answers about success-rates on other drives can only be given by looking in our crystal ball. :unsure:

Greetz,

Peter.

Edited by VideoRipper
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Thx VideoRipper.You explained very well.Unfortuantely i had destroyed the plug to the phone ( ironically I wanted to see the GND,TX and GX by eye by stripping completely the connector to the phone - i didnt give a thought to the battery and light bulb).I shall buy another one and follow to work.

P.S.:still, from what I heard there are CA-42 wich shall not be seen in device manager when plugged to the USB unless you plug a phone too.

Edited by popescu
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Before buying a new cable, you can try to figure out what wires are the TX, RX and GND.

The GND-wire is, most likely, directly connected to the USB plug's outer shielding or

to the GND-connection inside the USB-plug.

usb-a-device.gif

The TX and RX connections can be found by shorting every combination of wires while

performing a "Loop-back" test (although this doesn't tell you exactly which is which).

P.S.:still, from what I heard there are CA-42 wich shall not be seen in device manager when plugged to the USB unless you plug a phone too.

No... :no:

You will only have trouble installing the drivers when using the standard installation program

that comes on the CD-ROM; the program needs to see a phone attached when installing it.

You should be able to find the actual drivers somewhere on the same CD-ROM in a separate folder

(should be some *.inf-file), just right-click that file and choose "Install". ;)

Greetz,

Peter.

Edited by VideoRipper
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OK, so when you go past these steps on a ST31500341AS and you keep seeing lots of these "InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: XXXXX" then what can you do?

Rst 0x20M

(P) SATA Reset

PASSPackage Verified

No Phy: Staggered spin bypass

InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 00001273

ASCII Diag mode

F3 T>

I've cleared the SMART status, the G-List but it would keep reallocating the bad sectors how can i get to my data?

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Your error codes are not what we have seen here. what is the firmware on your hdd? it should say SD15 otherwise, all bets are off on this solution.

OK, so when you go past these steps on a ST31500341AS and you keep seeing lots of these "InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: XXXXX" then what can you do?

Rst 0x20M

(P) SATA Reset

PASSPackage Verified

No Phy: Staggered spin bypass

InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 00001273

ASCII Diag mode

F3 T>

I've cleared the SMART status, the G-List but it would keep reallocating the bad sectors how can i get to my data?

Edited by mundy5
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I have a hard drive Seagate (from IBM Server)

ST 3500320NS ERRO FIMRWARE

I have tried with dku5

On Terminal press CTRL + Z: not found "F3 T>"

but failed

Untitled-2.jpg

someone please help me?

P1060135.JPG

DKU5 good, board good. I have successfully hdd 7200.11 STxxxxAS but 7200.11 STxxxxNS failed

P1060137.JPG

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I have a hard drive Seagate (from IBM Server)

P1060135.JPG

As you can tell from this image you uploaded, it does not have the SD15 firmware but some IBM version of it. I'd recommend that you contact IBM to see if they have a solution.

Of course, you could try a CA-42 cable or a RS232-TTL converter, but I'd call IBM first or go to their support website.

I have not seen anyone else with your particular drive on this thread. It might be worth starting a new one. As I said in an earlier post, different firmware, all bets are off since we cannot test it from our end.

Edited by mundy5
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To VideoRipper : what I had mean is that when we plug just the cable CA-42 to the USB of the mobo there is no appereance of the device (Ca-42) in the device manager or the sound (when you plug a USB stick).There are some CA-42 wich will trigger their appearence in the device manager when the tool (Nokia phone) is connected to the CA-42.

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