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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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I was smart stupid enough to get one of those MAX232EPE-based converters before reading up on it on this resource. Thankfully, the IC chip is socket-mounted and is easily removed. Could I just get a MAX3232 chip (which I understand operates at 3.3V TTL level) to replace the original 5V one? Or will it not work with the rest of the circuitry? I am still planning to supply 5V from USB.

Thanks for being gentle in your replies. :lol:

I guess it would be easier to "dumb down" the Tx line, see here:

If you check the links in READ-ME-FIRST, point #6, you will see:

http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html

how signals emitted from a 3.3V devices (the hard disk) are theoretically compatible with those emitted by a 5V device, so the Rx line of the adapter should have no problems.

The issue is on the Tx line of the adapter that will probably "shout" at 5 V to the receiver of the 3.3 V device (the hard disk) that won't be able to "understand", by limiting the peaks of the Tx you may get it working.

Hi everyone,

So my Seagate 7200.11 500 GB HDD (620AS) died on me, and I've ended up on this thread. I'm a little excited about working with circuits after almost 2 years (I'm an engineer, working in IT now). I have a Nokia CA-101 cable with me. Will it work, instead of the CA-42?

Also, in theory, shouldn't any phone USB cable work? After all, all we need is RX, TX and 5V, right?

Are you sure you are an engineer? :unsure:

WHAT the heck makes you think that each and every phone USB cable uses the same standard?

Anything that trasmits at 3.3V TTL will do, anything that does so at 5V TTL level WILL NOT.

Does the CA-101 trasmits at 3.3V TTL? If yes, it mucht do, if not, it may not.

As a rule of thumb experimenting on experimental procedures is not the smartest choice in the world, actually even the CA-42 (which is known to be a valid adapter) is NOT among the "suggested" choices because of the "fakes" and the general difficulty by a lot of people to find the right pins/cables.

I have NO idea if the CA-101 is a TTL adapter or not, all references I have ever seen are about the DKU-5 or CA-42 cable, so I find it improbable that the CA-101 is a pure TTL converter like the other two mentioned ones.

@BOTH,

please DO READ the READ-ME-FIRST:

PARTICULARLY, but not only, point #6.

jaclaz

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I guess it would be easier to "dumb down" the Tx line, see here:

...

The issue is on the Tx line of the adapter that will probably "shout" at 5 V to the receiver of the 3.3 V device (the hard disk) that won't be able to "understand", by limiting the peaks of the Tx you may get it working.

Thanks for the quick reply. So, if I understand correctly, it is not the IC chip that sets the TTL signal's level but the rest of the circuit. So, even if I dropped in a MAX3232 chip, I would still have to solder in a resistor on the TX line. Right?

The bottom line, I would rather not do any soldering. This is a feeling I am sure many people share.

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Thanks for the quick reply. So, if I understand correctly, it is not the IC chip that sets the TTL signal's level but the rest of the circuit. So, even if I dropped in a MAX3232 chip, I would still have to solder in a resistor on the TX line. Right?

Well NO :(, that is not what I said.

I have NO idea of HOW the circuit is made, so I have NO idea whether you can simply replace the IC.

The IC of course sets the TTL level, I pointed you to a (possibly working) workaround, MUCH SIMPLER (IMHO) than:

  1. tracing your adapter PCB
  2. find and analyze a compatible schematics, comparing it to the schematics you traced
  3. compare the datasheets of the MAX3232 and MAX232
  4. verify which EXACT version of the x232 you have in your hands and which EXACT version of the replacement you can get your hands on (there are different versions which require different capacitors)
  5. risk burning the new chip or the adapter if a mistake happens in any of the above

Putting a pull down resistor will not do any "damage" to anything, in the worst case it won't simply work.

The bottom line, I would rather not do any soldering. This is a feeling I am sure many people share.

Sure, life is tough :(, BTW I am pretty sure many people share the feeling of not having hard drives failing on them and/or attempt DIY repairs on them ;).

jaclaz

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Have found my old ST3500320AS in the closet. :) Do you guys have any ideas how to fix BSY with help of Arduino Uno? Can I just use RT, TX and GND outputs? Or can you please suggest any ebay USB cable that will 100% work with my brick. B) Thanks in advance! God save your HDDs!

Please :),

  1. do review the READ ME FIRST:

    particularly point #6: you want a TTL adapter working at 3.3V TTL level (AND NOT one working at 5 V TTL level).
  2. Ask the seller if the device is selling is suitable to operate at 3.3 V TTL level <- you are going to give money to someone in exchange for a device, it's their responsability to guarantee that the device is suitable, if you don't get a clear, baked up by a return guarantee, answer, find someone else willing to sell the device AND guarantee it's specs..

There are tens of posts in this thread with reports of success and links to working adapters, as well as tens of people asking the SAME questions you just posted, come on :rolleyes:.

jaclaz

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there are tens of posts and 2 hundred pages. you could just help a newbie by PM)

I could, were I not a grumpy heartless bastard :w00t: , compare with:

JFYI, this thread has two hundred pages because tens of people, just like you, did not READ the READ-ME-FIRST, and asked AGAIN, and AGAIN and AGAIN, always the SAME questions, which are ALREADY (I hope clearly :unsure:) explained in the READ-ME-FIRST and/or in the FGA's and/or in n previous posts.

You might understand how the Read-me-first, the FGA's and, more generally all the help, support, advice and answers given on this thread (BTW extensively contributed by yours truly) was provided in order to easen life of BOTH the "newbies" AND of the "experts", by giving useful info to the former and to let the latter need NOT to repeat, over, and over and over again the SAME things.

It is frustrating how this effort not only is not appreciated, but from time to time a "newbie", just like you, comes here:

  1. hinting - not so subtly - that I am not as friendly as I should :ph34r:
  2. asking questions already asked again and again (and duly replied to over and over again) frusty.gif
  3. demanding personal assistance for issues already talked over and over n times :blink:

jaclaz

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Since this topic is so old then i'm not sure how many of you still remember the details of solving the issue, but wanted still to share my problems and maybe someone can give some input as to what is going on.

So, the drives head contacts are blocked, I'm connected to terminal and turn on the drive, it will spin up normally. After 30 sec, it will spin down and start giving error in terminal LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67 After this error there is no way to further input anything in the terminal.

Anyway, hence i have 30 secs from switching on the power to input the Crtl+z, /2 and Z because after that the terminal will be blocked. Even though some people in this thread have suggested waiting for 30-60 seconds after turning on the power to enter any commands - don't know how this could be possible if after 30 seconds it will already block the terminal with the error.

Nevertheless i've tried to enter these three commands i don't know how many times in different timing possibilities(i.e. waiting for 10, 15, 20, 30 secs before issuing the Ctrl+z or Z command).

And it will always give an another error LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569 and block the terminal. Some people have received this error when entering lowercase z or not entering slash before 2, or being to fast, but i'm not doing that.

In addition I tried these 3 commands with just motor connection blocked and the PCB completely removed - everything gives same result - LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569 right after Z command or if no commands are given, 10-30 sec after power-up (depending on what contacts are blocked) it will give LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67.

Out of ideas completely.

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Since this topic is so old then i'm not sure how many of you still remember the details of solving the issue, but wanted still to share my problems and maybe someone can give some input as to what is going on.

First thing that comes to mind is that the command is Ctrl+Z, not Ctrl+z.

Is it not - by any chance - and ES2 drive?

You may want to try with all THREE different approaches:

  1. Head contacts insulated
  2. Motor contact insulated
  3. PCB completely detached

You may also want to try with a a N1, see:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=152456431478526

jaclaz

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You may also want to try with a a N1, see:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=152456431478526

jaclaz

Hey jaclaz, thanks for the answer!

The drive is not ES.2. It's Maxtor DiamondMax 22.

I'm not sure what you mean by trying with N1? The FB link seems to describe the standard solution.

But otherwise, the possibilities you suggested, unfortunately they have all been tried already.

Ctrl+z or Ctrl+Z does not seem to make any difference, they both bring up the terminal F3 T> but it gets locked with LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67 after 30 sec. Tried entering both Ctrl+z and Ctrl+Z after that in all PCB configurations and the terminal will not unlock.

And i have tried all different timings when entering the commands - also with all different PCB configurations(head blocked, motor blocked, pcb off).

:) I mean it's just rediculous how my drive is in such exceptional situation even though the symptoms are exactly correct with the defect described.

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Ctrl+z or Ctrl+Z does not seem to make any difference, they both bring up the terminal F3 T> but it gets locked with LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67 after 30 sec. Tried entering both Ctrl+z and Ctrl+Z after that in all PCB configurations and the terminal will not unlock.

And i have tried all different timings when entering the commands - also with all different PCB configurations(head blocked, motor blocked, pcb off).

:) I mean it's just rediculous how my drive is in such exceptional situation even though the symptoms are exactly correct with the defect described.

Try at level 8

http://pictatrove.co...harddrives.html

2009-Feb-16: Seagate has a problem with its new 1.5TB drive freezing for 30 seconds at a time. ...

At this point things worked up to issuing the "Z" command to spin down the drive. For me as soon as I issued that command the drive would enter the busy error state. The command sequence looked like:

F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67

In the end I reviewed the various drive commands (a list is listed here) and noted that the "Z" command was also available at other "levels", so I gave level 8 a try and this worked. The output from my command session looked like:

F3 T>/8

F3 8>Z

Spin Down Complete

Elapsed Time 0.161 msecs

F3 8>

F3 8>U

Spin Up Complete

Elapsed Time 9.250 secs

F3 8>/1

F3 1>N1

F3 1>/T

F3 T>

F3 T>i4,1,22

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

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 00C8User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004339, ErrCode 000User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00008DED, ErrCode 00000080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secsUser Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs

F3 T>After I had done this I was able to remove the drive, test it and confirm that it was working fine.

Edited by BlouBul
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Thank you both, here is the latest update then.

So the problem was actually in the SATA data cable. Since i have it as one plug together with the SATA power i had to have the data also connected. Even though the other side of data was not connected to PC it was still for some reason blocking the terminal.

But i was eventually able to find a separate SATA power cable and run through the steps. And obviously since everything that can go wrong is going wrong then I also had the DETSEC error which i was able to overcome by cleaning the PCB head contacts - TWICE.

Now after running thru all the steps successfully, i connect the drive to PC over USB and the PC reaaaally slowly recognizes it as a local disk - but it doesn't recognize it as Maxtor, neither does Seatools. I did the same process some time ago with another disk and in that case it recognized the connected disk as Maxtor.

Once it recognizes it as disk it will start Autoplay which does some ambiguous scanning, but the drive eventually comes up as 0 bytes under my computer. For the other disc i had i saw autoplay actually go thru the directories on the disk and then the files became available.

OK, then i thought it might be the 0 LBA issue then. Start terminal again, and run the m0... command to fix the 0 LBA. But when i connect again over USB, it's still 0 bytes.

I've seen some people suggest just trying it again and again but don't know if that would eventually be of any help.

Edit: Actually it recognizes the disk only the first time i plug it in over USB after doing the fix and it does actually show in device maneger as Maxtor disk with correct model with file system RAW. The second time i plug it in it is unrecognized device, no matter which USB port i use. And if i plug it in to a different PC then it's also unrecognized device.

And another interesting point, the second disk i fixed some time ago behaves the same, the files are no longer accessible and it's either 0 bytes or unrecognized device.

Do you have any additional ideas on this?

Edited by duk
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