The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs

[BlouBul]

Thank You!!

All set, another success with this method!

Your Welcome

Glad you managed to fix it.

[ernesto]

Greetings.

Ca the BSY error be fixed by replacing the PCB?

May thanks and best regards.

[jaclaz]

Greetings.

Ca the BSY error be fixed by replacing the PCB?

May thanks and best regards.

Refer to this thread:

Why it is so difficult?

(No, don't reply it is a rhetorical question)

jaclaz

[Jamesblond]

Hello guys I am an Newbie,

and i come from the good old Germany.

My seagate ST3500320AS with the SD15 goes to 0LBA state two months ago.

I began t read athe first sites, but ts is for me difficult to understand.

Is there anybody who can translate from the beginning the steps from Gradius2 or aviko.

Thanks a lot.

Sorry for my very bad English :-(

Hello,

before i start to read this forum i send my seagate bzw. maxtor ST3500320AS with the SD15 to Seagate i386, and i get this answer:

"We are sorry to inform you that the firmware upgrade has not been sufficient to restore your drive functionality. Your drive is also affected by some reading errors.

This issue needs a complete data recovery process which is not included in the warranty. You will find attached a quote for your data recovery.

We have finished examining all physical and logical components of your storage media. Based on your situation we have determined that your media has sustained a logical damage to the storage media. The main cause of damage is bad blocks which are present on the media, as well as media surface damage which prevents the read write heads from locating the data stored on the platters.

For the recovery process we need to analyze and repair these bad blocks, read out all data on a sector level, and reconstruct the complete file system. Afterwards we will mount the data onto an offline server in order to check the integrity of your data(partitions, directories and the different file types)."

Is there any possibility to get my data back? with the instructions from gradius, aviko or all the other?

[stevepud]

Well, I got myself a different cable,

http://cgi.ebay.com/Seagate-Drive-BSY-Bug-LBA0-Repair-Fix-Cable-Tool-USB-/170582785802?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item6d6f27651c

Tonight I'm going to go home, read the FGA a few times!! and try again.

Just awaiting confirmation from the seller of the connections.

His cable is labled...

1-White

2-Blue

3-black

he has a photo of them connected to the drive though, as

1-Blue

2-White

3-Black

And the SATA and Power are connected.

So I'll get a reply, get ready, and get fixing :)3

[jaclaz]

Is there any possibility to get my data back? with the instructions from gradius, aviko or all the other?

MInd you the following is my PERSONAL opinion.

There are reports of the i365 guys to be either extremely correct and honest or completely nuts and false (up and beyond the border of "robbery")

I suspect that this may depend on several factors including:

• the actual "channel" through which your drive was sent to them
  
• the actual "operator" that actually puts his/her hands on your drive
  

Point is whether your drive was originally affected by either LBA0 or BSY problem, what we commonly define as "bricked" as in:

For what we know:

1. it is NOT possible to upgrade the firmware UNLESS the drive is "unbricked" first.
   
2. once the drive is unbricked (and WITHOUT ANY firmware upgrade) it won't re-brick itself spontaneously for at least three months of daily use (six to twelve month being proven to be the most likely cases)
   
3. logically NO data recovery service would (though it is possible) re-brick the drive after the firmware upgrade
   
4. actually upgrading the firmware has NO (immediate) consequence to the actual "brick status" of the drive
   

If I were you (and mind you - AGAIN - this is just my PERSONAL take on the matter), if you are sure enough of the symptoms your drive had when it failed, i.e. you are confident enough that it was in a LBA0 or BSY state, I would call the bluff and get the drive back.

Mind you also that there is a line that is quite "elastic" between "recovering a drive" and "recovering the filesystem", and even another elastic line between "recovering the filesystem" and "recovery of MOST contents of it".

PLEASE go to "Search" and search for "i365" make sure you select "Show results As posts" and take some time reading the results (you'll get two pages of results):

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?app=core&module=search&search_in=forums

Come back when you have read ALL those posts and have a better idea of the past experiences of the other members, as said quite contrasting.

jaclaz

Edited March 2, 2011 by jaclaz

[corkyblue]

Barracuda 7200.11... do I have this same problem??

I have a internal Barracuda 7200.11...Firmware SD33 .... Manufac: 11/2008.....and for some reason it refuses to start up when connected via SATA at bootup..

I can hear the drive actually spinning to start with, then it seems to reset itself and try over again, on an endless unsuccessful cycle. it does not want to initiate...however im guessing i would not hear these sounds if it was not spinning up at all?...

this text seems to match my problem:

Reason for the Seagate 7200.11 Failure

This problem is caused by a firmware issue that sets the drive's "event log" pointer to an invalid location. This is detected by the drive during power-up initialisation, and the drive switches to fail-safe mode to prevent further corruption and loss of user data. Once the failure has occurred user data becomes inaccessible.

During power up, if the Event Log count is at 320, or any multiple of (320 + Nx256), and if a particular fill pattern is present in the factory reserved area of the drive, the firmware will incorrectly allow the Event Log pointer to increment past the end of the Event Log data structure.

This error is detected during initialisation and returns an "Assert Failure", which causes the drive to enter it's fail-safe mode. When the drive enters this mode further updates to the event log counter are impossible as the same results occur at each power-cycle.

The problem can only occur if a power cycle initialization occurs when the Event Log is at 320 or a multiple of 256 thereafter. Once a drive is in this state, the user will not be able to resolve/recover existing failed drives.

...but i am not sure...plus i dont know how to get a diagnosis?!?

The drive resides in a clean host system as a back-up drive for data, and has not been dropped or had any form of stress....it just stopped working and disappeared form my computer.

I have contacted Seagate but its an OEM so they will not help me any further....The OEM would not help as i beleive its out of waaranty and even if it was still under, then they would only offer a replacement...which of course, i do not want.....i need the data only - this drive has important stuff and for the record the £600GBP i have been qouted from data recovery is too much...

any help/advice is very much appreciated!!

Thanks in advance,

Corky

[BlouBul]

Barracuda 7200.11... do I have this same problem??

I have a internal Barracuda 7200.11...Firmware SD33 .... Manufac: 11/2008.....and for some reason it refuses to start up when connected via SATA at bootup..

Sounds very familiar... (and firmware is affected) If it is not seen in BIOS then there is a very good chance that it is BSY and you can safely try this method. Good luck

[corkyblue]

Barracuda 7200.11... do I have this same problem??

I have a internal Barracuda 7200.11...Firmware SD33 .... Manufac: 11/2008.....and for some reason it refuses to start up when connected via SATA at bootup..

Sounds very familiar... (and firmware is affected) If it is not seen in BIOS then there is a very good chance that it is BSY and you can safely try this method. Good luck

is there no other way i can establish if its actually in BSY state?? (like i said, it just loops over and over trying to start up)

thanx

[jaclaz]

is there no other way i can establish if its actually in BSY state?? (like i said, it just loops over and over trying to start up)

Connect the hard disk.

Boot and get to the BIOS setup.

Can BIOS see the disk? Yes/No

If No it's probably in BSY state

If Yes, then does it show it's size in BIOS as LBA 0? Yes/No

If Yes it's definitely in LBA0 state.

WHAT caused the BSY or LBA0 state?

Will the proposed fix work on the particular BSY or LBA0 state?

...the answer my friend, is blowing in the wind....

jaclaz

Edited March 2, 2011 by jaclaz

[corkyblue]

hehe thanx jaclaz, well its NOT in BIOS for sure...so I guess I sure got a HDD in BSY state... looks like i'll join the club of trying this tested method!

[stevepud]

Right,

I'm REALLY frustrated now

I read the sticky

I read all the FGA's

I plugged my drive into the PC, went to the BIOS,

Nothing - it's not seen in the BIOS

Shutdown, removed drive

I got my new cable My New Cable

Plugged it in,

installed the drivers

checked the port (COM5)

started Hyperterminal

Started a new session,

Set it to 34800, 8, none, 1 none

Did a loop back

Got text in the hyperteminal screen

disconnected the PCB,

isolated the drive teminals with some card

insulated the 3 terminals on my cable

connected the ground on my cable, to the ground on the power plug used for the drive

plugged in the 3,

White to 1

blue to 2

black to 3

pressed CTRL Z

NOTHING,

Reversed the white and blue

pressed CTRL Z

NOTHING

Went back to the port settings for my USB cable in Device Manager,

Checked the settings,

CHanged them to 38400, 8 none, 1, none

Disconnected and reconnected the Hyperterminal session

Pressed CTRL Z

NOTHING.

Now, I'm right in thinking that the cable itself is powered from USB so needs no further power,

I'm right in thinking that as I've joined a wire from the Ground on the SATA power to the Ground on cable and pin3 that I am considered GROUNDED.

I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I'm also thinking that my drives are completely bricked, in a terminal, fatal FUBAR'd kinda way???

I am feeling a bit of a tit, as theres one thing that is different is my drive is a Seagate Barraccuda 7100.10

Yes, a ten, not an eleven

Is this my problem

Or have i broken it myself doing something wrong, or am I just barking up the wrong tree cos I have a different drive

I've tried searching this forum for 7200.10 but it wont search on that criteria.

Any ideas would be gratefully received

Ahh wait, I did find a 7200.10 thread.

It still doesnt help with me not even getting any kind of prompt after CTRL Z

And seeing as theres no update, and even BlouBul said he knows no fix, I'm feeling rather despondant right now.

[BlouBul]

Now I am confused. I thought you said you had two 7200.11's to be fixed?

Hi, I have 2 Seagate 7200.11 drives that have gone into what looks like a locked state...

I am feeling a bit of a tit, as theres one thing that is different is my drive is a Seagate Barraccuda 7100.10

Yes, a ten, not an eleven

And yes, as has been very clearly stated in the READ-ME-FIRST, this method is ONLY for the 7200.11 series

It is like you ask people how to loosen a no.11 nut.

Everyone suggests a no.11 spanner.

You e-mail the seller, tell him you have two no.11 nuts to loosen and asks if his no.11 spanner will work.

When it didn't, you asks around and people suggested you might have the wrong spanner.

You then buy the most expensive no.11 spanner you can find.

When the spanner still doesn't work, you tell people it fits loosely, but slips.

Then you suggest it might be because you have a no. 10 nut (which the people told you before won't work with a no. 11 spanner)

In this example there are no no. 10 spanners

Edited March 3, 2011 by BlouBul

[stevepud]

yes, I guess you're right.

Time to send one of them off to a pro to see what they can do.

The data is still on the platters, so I'm certain someone out there can retrieve it.

I think in my frustration, and excitement at finding this site, I... wellI dunno exactly what I did... 'forgot' 'overlooked' whatever, that I had 10's and not 11's

Easy enough mistake to make I suppose given the panic (despite FGA14 telling me not to)

Easy to panic when you've the prospect fof losing a load of data that you stupidly thought was safe cos you had the drives mirrored!

Makng matters worse, i just noticed that the HD in this pc, is also a 7200.10, as are the 2 others I had setup in another PC (initially as backups)

I've totally lost confidence in them all,

So I'll be backing it all up (when new NAS arrives) and ditching ALL seagate and WD drives.

good bye, and thanks for trying to help, even if your tone is a lot condecending.

[BlouBul]

yes, I guess you're right.

good bye, and thanks for trying to help, even if your tone is a lot condecending.

Sorry if my tone sounded condescending, that was not intended. I just tried to explain to you why your attempts do not work and answer your question in easy to understand language.

Is this my problem

Or have i broken it myself doing something wrong, or am I just barking up the wrong tree cos I have a different drive

The problem with that drive is (as you have read in that other thread), we do not have a solution for that drive. The only way is to send it for data recovering (which won't be cheap).