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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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I was thinking about starting with LBA0 fix first since it seems easier as I don't have a Torx 6 and stuff ... any reason in particular why I should start with BSY first?

A man goes to the Doctor....

Doctor: you have a rally bad pneumonia, you need to take these antibiotics thrice a day for one week.

Patient: I'd prefer to take an aspirin once.

:whistle:

:w00t:

:lol:

Now seriously, if your drive is sometimes detected (even improperly) and sometimes not, your drive is NOT affected by ANY of the TWO problems this thread is about:

  1. BSY
  2. LBA0

so it is actually pointless to apply to it the (hopefully) cures for them.

If you read attentively the read-me-first:

you should be able to see in point #1 that this is pretty miuch a "non-target" of this thread.

jaclaz

I never said that my drive sometimes is detected, I just asked how to tell if it's 0LBA or BSY case stating what I see on my BIOS, and Peter replied "you don't want to know", so I had no idea which case I was in and I was thinking about starting with the easiest fix because removing the electronics from the HD I think is too difficult for me.

I also found searching this thread that having HP24 firmware this fix won't work, so never mind.

Elena

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I never said that my drive sometimes is detected, I just asked how to tell if it's 0LBA or BSY case stating what I see on my BIOS, and Peter replied "you don't want to know", so I had no idea which case I was in and I was thinking about starting with the easiest fix because removing the electronics from the HD I think is too difficult for me.

I also found searching this thread that having HP24 firmware this fix won't work, so never mind.

Elena

Yep :), I am sorry :( I mistook abnfire's post as coming from you, my bad.

However the doctor joke is still valid.

You did report that your BIOS did not detect the drive (which IS a symptom of BSY state and NOT of LBA0).

Applying to the drive the fix for LBA0 would in the best case, do nothing, in the worst one create a worse situation.

The "doctor" (VideoRipper ;)) may have worded it in a bit too "funny" way, but given the symptoms you reported, his diagnosis was correct.

Thinking to apply a fix "because it's easier" sounds NOT logic (at least to me and to my Vulcan influenced mind) .

I wouldn't be so sure about the HP24 firmware not being fixable, though of course NOT part of this thread original scope.

I mean, the BSY caused by the stoopid firmware bug bricks the drive.

A drive in BSY state can be re-vived by using the BSY (and NOT the LBA0 ;)) fix.

Basically the fix is a "low-level" kind of re-set.

It is possible that the reset will "unbrick" also a drive gone into BSY state for a different cause,

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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I never said that my drive sometimes is detected, I just asked how to tell if it's 0LBA or BSY case stating what I see on my BIOS, and Peter replied "you don't want to know", so I had no idea which case I was in and I was thinking about starting with the easiest fix because removing the electronics from the HD I think is too difficult for me.

I also found searching this thread that having HP24 firmware this fix won't work, so never mind.

Elena

Yep :), I am sorry :( I mistook abnfire's post as coming from you, my bad.

However the doctor joke is still valid.

You did report that your BIOS did not detect the drive (which IS a symptom of BSY state and NOT of LBA0).

Applying to the drive the fix for LBA0 would in the best case, do nothing, in the worst one create a worse situation.

The "doctor" (VideoRipper ;)) may have worded it in a bit too "funny" way, but given the symptoms you reported, his diagnosis was correct.

Thinking to apply a fix "because it's easier" sounds NOT logic (at least to me and to my Vulcan influenced mind) .

I wouldn't be so sure about the HP24 firmware not being fixable, though of course NOT part of this thread original scope.

I mean, the BSY caused by the stoopid firmware bug bricks the drive.

A drive in BSY state can be re-vived by using the BSY (and NOT the LBA0 ;)) fix.

Basically the fix is a "low-level" kind of re-set.

It is possible that the reset will "unbrick" also a drive gone into BSY state for a different cause,

jaclaz

I didn't understand that Peter's reply meant my drive was in BSY state, sorry :)

I am a poor girl not trained at all in electronics, so I'm not sure I can manage to apply the BSY fix, it scares me a bit when I read it (in Italian!) and not understand many of the terms, :o that's why I was hoping it was LBA0 state. But since the drive is already dead, I might as well give it a try. By the way, in the Italian version of the fix the pictures don't show up, I thought I'd mention it in case you didn't notice and maybe want to fix it :)

Elena

EDIT: I already have a question, bear with me!

I read the whole procedure again, and I don't understand this part:

"First, make sure you have your hard drive accessible; on a table with open access to the drive is best.

Second, you need to remove the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) from HDA case using a Mini Torx 6 screw driver.

Third, connect RX & TX cables from your RS-232 adapter, verify that all is correct, and then connect the power supply to Hard drive circuit board."

QUESTION: How do I connect the power supply to the circuit board?

Edited by halbarad
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Actually you may find a more clear tutorial guide here (still in English):

http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html

(it is actually preferred - by me - as it is very well written and less "confusing" then summing up the original Gradius' guide + the Aviko's mods + the whatever came after it on the present "mega-thread")

If you check these pictures:

connector.jpg

05.jpg

you will see how the connector on the right is the SATA power connector, you simply plug in it the cable coming from your PC (or from an external power supply, like one of these):

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&view=findpost&p=890636

the connector is actually soldered to the PCB.

Yes, I do know about the images in the italian version, I will see if I can talk a Mod into fixing them.

jaclaz

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I also have a Seagate from a customer, who was bricked up.

I read the tutorial on the first page and also the tutorial from Mapleleafmountain.

I used an Sparkin RS232 adapter and installed it as told on the tutorial.

The loopback worked fine but at first i had no connection to the drive.

Changing wires etc, did not work out and finally i founded the first help guide where was told about the 3.3v and 5v.

On Sparkfun site i found information about voltage you connect on VCC. 5V input is 5v output, 3.3v input is 3.3v output.

Somewhere else was written that the drive only worked by 3.3v and i changed the voltage to 3.3v with a external variable supply.

In the tutorial of Mapleleafmountain was told to use the power supply of a computer with 5v output (red and black wire).

After changing all this, the terminal was putting out strange symbols like smyley's and other things but was not responding at Control-z.

In the "read-me-first" tutorial was something written about grounding all ground-wires together but it was a very small text about it.

For some strange reason i went in the reply's to the last 4 pages and there was a remark about, why the groundings were not displayd at the photo's but only the connections rx, tx ,VCC, ground and the RS232 adapter.

This person was answered by someone who told, a lot of people sended reply's with problems about the terminal and no connection to the disk.

He came with a fact that not grounding all grounds together at one point, the connection should not work.

Connect them all should make the connection to the drive work fine.

So i changed my settings and putted the grounds together and yes, the connection did work.

Unbricking the drive was easy in my case from the moment i changed the groundings.

At this very moment i am coppying the data to a different drive (wd).

So, for me worked this:

Folow the fix explained on first page but also connect all grounds together to one place.

This grounds includes:

-Power (from power supply or battery) for RS232 adapter

-Power to hard disk (i used the black wire ground from the diskette connection)

-Ground pin on hard drive (2e pin from left)

Maybe it is a good idea for the autors of this fix to explicit mention the ground connections to be made.

It should make a very difference in fixing problems.(less posts)

Thank you for posting the fix. My client would have lost lots of data.

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Maybe it is a good idea for the autors of this fix to explicit mention the ground connections to be made.

It should make a very difference in fixing problems.(less posts)

Maybe it is a good idea to READ FIRST the read-me-first sticky in this very sub-forum:

It is there EXACTLY to avoid this kind of problems and reports!

Points #7 and #11 deal EXACTLY with the "problems" you reported.

jaclaz

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i got following msg and my hard drive partitions show now, but i cant access data, it ask for format the hard drive, when i click on them.

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewr

ite Retries = 00C8

User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 00 secs

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abnfire,

you are OUTSIDE the scope of this thread.

Your drive has probably had some intermittent failure - completely unrelated to the actuall "base" issue - that by pure chance appears like solved by forcing the same "reset" as the BSY fix.

Now you have an "unbricked" drive with possibly corrupt partitions/data on it, and you don't even know how long it will last.

You should start a NEW thread, asking for help about attempting recovering your data.

The general ideas are detailed here (examples):

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=138816

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144232

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144418

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=141687

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=141448

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=138162

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=84345

jaclaz

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abnfire,

you are OUTSIDE the scope of this thread.

Your drive has probably had some intermittent failure - completely unrelated to the actuall "base" issue - that by pure chance appears like solved by forcing the same "reset" as the BSY fix.

Now you have an "unbricked" drive with possibly corrupt partitions/data on it, and you don't even know how long it will last.

You should start a NEW thread, asking for help about attempting recovering your data.

The general ideas are detailed here (examples):

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=138816

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144232

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144418

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=141687

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=141448

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=138162

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=84345

jaclaz

well my hard drive is seagate too and same firmware issue, which other are having.. it head LB0 and BSY error too. well my last question i guess here is following, if you guys can help. i been trying to run through it again with the help of youtube video.. i get following msg

Spin Up Complete

Elapsed Time 6.852 secs

F3 2>/1

F3 1>N1

F3 1>/T

F3 T>i4,1,22

F3 T>

Rst 0x20M

Rst 0x20M

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22

LED:000000CE FAddr:00289219

Rst 0x20M

Rst 0x20M

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22

LED:000000CE FAddr:00289219

Rst 0x20M

Rst 0x20M

any idea?

after trying some more, i get

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22

DiagError 0000500E Process Defect List Error

R/W Sense 00000002, R/W Error 841C0087, List Offset 00000000, File Error 0000000

1

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I see that it's useless trying to convince you that you have a dying hard disk suffering from intermittent problems and that you should start a new thread about the matter, in order NOT to clog this one, which is about a very simple kind of problem (BSY or LBA0) with a fix that invariably results in a binary ON/OFF, either UNbricked and fully functional or bricked.

jaclaz

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Ok, question I am not finding an answer to, perhaps it is back a hundred pages or so... but I can't find it anyway.

On the first page it states "If you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services. Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business."

If Segate is providing free data recovery services, what is the advantage to me doing all this work and buying this gear etc when I can have Seagate do it for free?

Am I missing a "BUT!!!" somewhere? What is the catch?

Has anyone used these free services from Seagate? How does one go about attaining these free services? I am fairly confident I could get the fix to work, I am just really busy, and if someone would do it for free, I like that option. :) Who am I to stand in their way? Let Seagate clean up their own mess if they are offering to.

Anyone know/have any thoughts on this?

BB.

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Ok, I may have found the answer to my question. Looks like Seagate only helps you if it is a drive that is not a part of an OEM package- Dell, HP, IBM etc.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracuda-XT-Barracuda-and/HOW-TO-FIX-BRICKED-DRIVES-WITH-SEAGATE-TECH-SUPPORT/m-p/23941

Nice work. I guess that is the beauty of OEM agreements at the top level.

I built my PC from scratch, can't remember if it was a Bare Drive, or if it was Retail boxed... hopefully that does not make a difference if it is "OEM" or not...

I guess I will find out shortly.

Thanks again all of you on here. MSFN is an awesome place. This whole hard drive failure MIGHT be worth it just to find this great knowledge base!

BB.

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Thanks Gradius, Jaclaz, VideoRipper ETC, Etc, etc for this extremely good guide. :thumbup:thumbup:thumbup Got my 500 GB Seagate back to working order. :w00t: Can confirm that CA-55 does not work even if salesman tells you it is the same as CA-42. Although the cellphone end looks the same, the usb side is smaller. I used a DKU-5 which worked first time (thanks to among others the previous 2991 posts!). Just to add my own two cents worth: If you want to use a cell phone adapter like CA-42 or DKU-5(yes, I know you do not recommend that :no: ), make sure it has the longer USB side that a little PC board will fit in there. See http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Use_a_Nokia_Serial_Cable_on_an_ARM9_Linkstation .

-Blou Bul

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hopefully that does not make a difference if it is "OEM" or not...

It doesn't really matter actually.

I had this dreadful BSY-problem myself (hey... that's how I joined up here), :hello:

and sent in my drive to Seagate (well... to i365, that is).

And while I had a "Real" (NON-OEM) drive, I was still quoted €900 for just

the data-recovery :unsure:

In the end I was able to retrieve all the data myself for just a couple of Euros :whistle:

and I've got it swapped for a "Certified repaired" drive (which was free of charge)

after having backed up the data myself.

So... to my knowlegde, the offer they were talking about, isn't valid anymore. :no:

Greetz,

Peter.

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Got my 500 GB Seagate back to working order. :w00t:

Great to hear, BlouBul! :thumbup

While, in theory, it's possible to do this procedure with a multitude of

convertor-devices, experience tells us it can only be done successfully

by a small number of them and even a lot less ones are suitable for people

with (very) little knowlegde of electronics. :unsure:

Anyway, glad to hear we can remove another broken drive from the list :yes:

Don't forget to:

  • Back up your (most important) data first!
  • Return it to Seagate for a swap (if the drive is still under warranty)
    If it isn't (or you don't want to): do the SD1A firmware update

Greetz,

Peter.

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