The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs

[FluffyKitten]

A quick thank you to everybody who's contributed to this thread - my Maxtor DiamondMax is now unbricked

In case it's of any interest to anybody, I went with the CA42 cable solution - the one I ordered turned out to have 5 wires (black, white, blue, green and orange) and the USB plug could be opened to reveal a circuit board marked DKU5 but only the GND connection (black wire) was labelled. White and blue were TX and RX (not sure which way round) and to get the cable to work at all, I had to connect the black and orange wires to 2 1.5V batteries.

I didn't need to connect up the ground pin on the hard drive. Presumably because I was powering the drive from the PSU in the PC that had the CA42 connected, everything would have had a common ground anyway.

I put card under the head connectors, not the motor connectors. I completely removed the screw from above the head connectors and didn't bother attempting to replace it when the card was removed. Seemed like an unnecessary risk to try to get the screw back into the live PCB without it touching something it shouldn't.

Initially I tried the final step without power cycling the drive as suggested in Aviko's instructions but this resulted in nothing happening as far as I could tell. After 30 minutes of waiting for a response to appear in hyperterminal, I power cycled the drive, got the prompt back up in hyperterminal and tried the final command again, this time successfully.

[Falcon7]

So this will not work (AT LEAST NOT EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED) for my Seagate ST3500620AS from a HP computer with HP24 Firmware which bricked last Fri. Correct?

If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

[CarterInCanada]

Hey there hard drive warriors!

Hi Carter long time, no see.

Happy that both you and cats are well.

It would be appreciated, since you are in "update mood", if you could cross link from your guide to the read-me-first:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=143880

so that the number of people that will read AFTER will decrease.

jaclaz

No worries jaclaz. Updated the links a bit and tried to make it clear to read your starting point BEFORE this monster. Well done putting that filter up to help sort out the potentially happy bunnies from the permanently angry lizards. And good luck in here, I'll try to check back in more often than every 50 pages. Cheers!

- Carter in Canada

[GAG]

You guys (jaclaz especially and you too Videoripper) are doing great work in here.

Amen.

Thanks Jaclaz.

Request for one more clarification:

It is ideal that the Hyperterminal contact is not broken during the process except during the intermediate power down step. Given that the connections are "home made" if one is using a Nokia cable, is there a risk if any of the TX / RX / GND pins loose contact during the procedure?

At what stage is it ok to have a pin coming loose and at what stage it can screw up the procedure? Below, I am numbering as 1 to 11, the key steps post initial connection. My understanding is that it is safe to loose contact till step 3. One can just start again. I am more worried about step 4 when the process of card removal may be a bit rough and a small jerk may cause a connector pin to move.

1. ctrl+z

2. /2 (press Enter key

3. Z (press Enter key)

4. Remove card

5. U (press Enter key)

6. /1 (press Enter key)

7. N1 (press Enter key)

8. Power recycle / call disconnect reconnect

9. ctrl+z

10. m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (press Enter key)

11. wait for Max Wr Retries = 00, Max .......

Is there any step when a disconnected HT connection means a permanently bricked drive?

[BlouBul]

Hi Gag,

The way I see it (Jaclaz,VideoRipper and Carter can correct me if I am wrong), the cable is just there to send short commands to your HDD in very basic language. It is not communicating all the time, but only send and receive short command bursts each time you press enter. If a Rx or Tx connection comes loose, you will immediately see it on your screen (no loopback, thus you will not see what you are typing)then you can reconnect it and make sure you re-type the full command (if your screen missed something due to no loopback) If grnd comes loose, same thing, there is lots of reports of people who didn't ground it, and redo it with grounding and not bricked their drive. Best is obviously to not loose contact, but as ong as you do not touch the wires during the process you should be OK.

BlouBul

[GAG]

Thanks BlouBul.. any other observation / tip is welcome..Regards GAG

[jaclaz]

If grnd comes loose, same thing, there is lots of reports of people who didn't ground it, and redo it with grounding and not bricked their drive. Best is obviously to not loose contact, but as ong as you do not touch the wires during the process you should be OK.

Very well said.

So this will not work (AT LEAST NOT EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED) for my Seagate ST3500620AS from a HP computer with HP24 Firmware which bricked last Fri. Correct?

NO.

I'll try again to break down the structure in priorities for you:

Facts:

• you have a bricked drive
  
• this drive is bricked presumably because a stoopid software in the drive has been made in such a way that every time you position 320 of the log (or multiple mod 256) is hit , the drive gets bricked when powered on
  
• you have valuable DATA on the drive, but not valuable enough to pay several hundred dollars to a recovery firm, or however you want to take your chances trusting a bunch of crazy people on an internet forum and follow the procedure suggested
  

1. PRIMARY Objective:
   
   • save your otherwise UNbacked up DATA by having a TEMPORARILY functional unbricked drive
     

[*]SECONDARY objective (SUGGESTED):

• set things so that such a problem won't happen again (learn from experience=BACKUP!)
  

[*]TERTIARY objective (OPTIONAL):

• attempt to have the once bricked drive fully functional or have a new working one
  

THEN:

1. Procedure to reach PRIMARY objective :
   
   • unbrick the drive as per instructions
     
   • image (or however copy/recover the DATA in it) to another, surely working, drive
     

[*]Procedure to reach SECONDARY objective:

• make an additional copy (better, TWO of them) of the data on different media
  

[*]Procedure to reach TERTIARY objective (IF first two succeeded):

• test thoroughfully the unbricked drive
  
• IF anything is not OK, and if under warranty RMA it
  

• IF
  RMA is not possible or the drive shows no errors, decide if you prefer:
  
  
  1. to throw into the dustbin the stoopid drive anyway
     
     
     OR
     
     
  2. to continue using it
     
     
  IF
  you chose to continue using it, decide
  IF
  :
  1. you prefer NOT to risk a firmware upgrade of the firmware and you will likely need to unbrick it again after no less 6 to 12 months of "normal" use, many more months if you don't powercycle it often
     
     
     OR
     
     
  2. you prefer to risk a firmware upgrade
     
     
  IF
  you decide to perform a firmware upgrade, choose the firmware file
  wisely

In other words, updating the firmware is the LAST and LEAST of your problems, and you have at least 3 months of time (since a hopefully successful unbricking ) for safely deciding whether you really want to upgrade it and do researches to find out which is the "right" firmware.

Now, the fact that it bricked last Friday, may be a problem, but only if it was full moon where you live.

Apart from that, you should have no problems in reaching the important objective: GET YOUR DATA BACK by following the suggested procedures (EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED).

jaclaz

[CarterInCanada]

Unbrick -> Backup Data -> Firmware Update Agreed! Once the data is safe-ish, you can afford to be a bit more cavalier with the (formerly bricked) drive.

I suppose it pays to re-read my old prose as well as get a fresh cup of tea. I realized after reading this post that I didn't actually bother to TELL people to do their backups in my guide so I've fixed that oversight. I suppose I just assumed they'd be dancing about with joy so much that it would be obvious. Spot on again jaclaz. Well done mate.

Cheers,

Carter in Canada

[VideoRipper]

The only one that may be able to reply to you is VideoRipper, since he built his own converter,

I'ld need to check it first, of course, before I can give you a final

answer on that, but I'll have a look B)

I recall a small and easy tip of one of my professors (about 20 years ago)

on university to find out what pin/wire is the RX and what's the TX.

It had something to do with being actively high or low in its idle state and

measuring that level with a multimeter to determine which is which.

(I believe RX is active high when idle, but it could be the other way round)

Don't think I will be able to find that note after 20 years, but I will take

my multimeter with that tip in mind and tell you the result.

Greetz,

Peter.

[jaclaz]

Don't think I will be able to find that note after 20 years, but I will take

my multimeter with that tip in mind and tell you the result.

I would have thought that you have the schematics of the "super-deluxe" thingy, problem would be if you remember how you connected the cables to the HD pins, on the MAX232 side, Tx should be the whatever connected to pin 10 or pin 11 (T1IN and T2IN) (or the 9 and 12 R1OUT and R2OUT? ).

jaclaz

[VideoRipper]

A schematic would be too obvious, wouldn't it?

Nah... I did everything from the top of my head; it isn't "Really" a schematic, is it.

But... your wish is my command and I pulled out my trusty screwdriver to see what

goes where (I used a 2mm connector at the drive's end, so I wouldn't have to wrestle

with loose cabling and pins) and these are the results:

1. goes to pin 9 of the MAX232, so that would make it RX
   
2. goes to pin 10 of the MAX232, making it TX
   
3. goes to GROUND of the MAX232, making it... GND

Designators are for the drive, so you connect pin 1 of drive to TX of the PC, 2 of

drive to RX of PC, 3 of drive to GND of PC; the 4th pin on the drive is not used.

Greetz,

Peter.

[GAG]

Peter.. Thanks. I am yet to attempt the debricking operation (scheduled now for the coming weekend) so really appreciate your efforts. While I have some technical background but that is motor cars and IC engines related stuff so this 9th pin / 10th pin is very Greek and Latin to me.. but your diagram and the post is crystal clear

[VideoRipper]

The pin-numbers are just those on the integrated circuit ("Chip").

If you play around with modern cars and engines, you would have already

seen lots of them in the engine management ("ECU").

Basically this is what the schematic (using a MAX3232 this time) of

a home-made convertor might look like:

The only real difference between a MAX232 and a MAX3232 is that the latter

uses TTL (3.3V) logic, while the former uses CMOS/TTL (5V) logic.

Of course you don't actually need this info, since you're going

to use a Nokia cable, but the pin designations on the drive might

be of help

Greetz,

Peter.

[jaclaz]

and these are the results:

1. goes to pin 9 of the MAX232, so that would make it RX
   
2. goes to pin 10 of the MAX232, making it TX
   
3. goes to GROUND of the MAX232, making it... GND

Designators are for the drive, so you connect pin 1 of drive to TX of the PC, 2 of

drive to RX of PC, 3 of drive to GND of PC; the 4th pin on the drive is not used.

I particularly appreciate the fact that you managed to draw the drive "upside down" from all the photos and schematics seen before , and knowing that I tried to describe the pin on the drive as "rightmost" and "to the left", this helps a lot in the disambiguating process , expecially since the drawing has not the 1., 2. 3. with which you designated the pins.

So, in a nutshell, let's forget about Tx and Rx.

The pin nearest to the SATA and power connector "expects" to Receive signals from the TTL adapter.

The next pin Transmits data to the TTL adapter.

The next pin is GND <- that was an easy one.

jaclaz

[Falcon7]

If grnd comes loose, same thing, there is lots of reports of people who didn't ground it, and redo it with grounding and not bricked their drive. Best is obviously to not loose contact, but as ong as you do not touch the wires during the process you should be OK.

Very well said.

So this will not work (AT LEAST NOT EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED) for my Seagate ST3500620AS from a HP computer with HP24 Firmware which bricked last Fri. Correct?

NO.

I'll try again to break down the structure in priorities for you:

Facts:

• you have a bricked drive
  
• this drive is bricked presumably because a stoopid software in the drive has been made in such a way that every time you position 320 of the log (or multiple mod 256) is hit , the drive gets bricked when powered on
  
• you have valuable DATA on the drive, but not valuable enough to pay several hundred dollars to a recovery firm, or however you want to take your chances trusting a bunch of crazy people on an internet forum and follow the procedure suggested
  

1. PRIMARY Objective:
   
   • save your otherwise UNbacked up DATA by having a TEMPORARILY functional unbricked drive
     

[*]SECONDARY objective (SUGGESTED):

• set things so that such a problem won't happen again (learn from experience=BACKUP!)
  

[*]TERTIARY objective (OPTIONAL):

• attempt to have the once bricked drive fully functional or have a new working one
  

THEN:

1. Procedure to reach PRIMARY objective :
   
   • unbrick the drive as per instructions
     
   • image (or however copy/recover the DATA in it) to another, surely working, drive
     

[*]Procedure to reach SECONDARY objective:

• make an additional copy (better, TWO of them) of the data on different media
  

[*]Procedure to reach TERTIARY objective (IF first two succeeded):

• test thoroughfully the unbricked drive
  
• IF anything is not OK, and if under warranty RMA it
  

• IF
  RMA is not possible or the drive shows no errors, decide if you prefer:
  
  
  1. to throw into the dustbin the stoopid drive anyway
     
     
     OR
     
     
  2. to continue using it
     
     
  IF
  you chose to continue using it, decide
  IF
  :
  1. you prefer NOT to risk a firmware upgrade of the firmware and you will likely need to unbrick it again after no less 6 to 12 months of "normal" use, many more months if you don't powercycle it often
     
     
     OR
     
     
  2. you prefer to risk a firmware upgrade
     
     
  IF
  you decide to perform a firmware upgrade, choose the firmware file
  wisely

In other words, updating the firmware is the LAST and LEAST of your problems, and you have at least 3 months of time (since a hopefully successful unbricking ) for safely deciding whether you really want to upgrade it and do researches to find out which is the "right" firmware.

Now, the fact that it bricked last Friday, may be a problem, but only if it was full moon where you live.

Apart from that, you should have no problems in reaching the important objective: GET YOUR DATA BACK by following the suggested procedures (EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED).

jaclaz

Thanks everyone, worked perfect (verbatim as described by you guys and Carter) and that was for my (Seagate ST3500620AS from a HP computer with HP24 Firmware)

Now do I try to upgrade the HP24 firmware to HP26 (I have win7 on the computer)?

Oh yea, seatools for windows would not work to test the drive, it would see the drive and firmware but when I tried to run a test it says "Test unavailable". It would run a generic "Short Test". I guess that is a HP thing.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Falcon7