The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs

[jaclaz]

@Sovereign01

Are you positive that that battery is a 5 V one? Can you post it's Part #?

Are you also positive (test with a multimeter) that it actually delivers 5 V?

@Strawhat12

Wait until you have the torx screwdriver, you should be able to "talk" to the hard disk with the board connected, of course , but DO NOT try "random" or "semi-random" commands.

In the best scenario you won't do nothing useful, in the worst one you could lock yourself out of the drive PERAMNANTLY. Wait, be patient, data won't disappear (evaporate) overnight, whilst they may actually be unrecoverable if you go on fiddling "blindly" with that disk.

jaclaz

[Strawhat12]

@Sovereign01

Are you positive that that battery is a 5 V one? Can you post it's Part #?

Are you also positive (test with a multimeter) that it actually delivers 5 V?

@Strawhat12

Wait until you have the torx screwdriver, you should be able to "talk" to the hard disk with the board connected, of course , but DO NOT try "random" or "semi-random" commands.

In the best scenario you won't do nothing useful, in the worst one you could lock yourself out of the drive PERAMNANTLY. Wait, be patient, data won't disappear (evaporate) overnight, whilst they may actually be unrecoverable if you go on fiddling "blindly" with that disk.

jaclaz

Thanks for the response.

You said I should be able to talk to the HDD with the board connected but thats not the case with me. I guess its a good thing as you said not to type random commands, (I have randomly hit a few keys on the keyboard to see if anything would come up and 'Ctrl+Z but nothing shows up) so hopefully there shouldn't be any problems?

[Sovereign01]

@Sovereign01

Are you positive that that battery is a 5 V one? Can you post it's Part #?

Are you also positive (test with a multimeter) that it actually delivers 5 V?

@Strawhat12

Wait until you have the torx screwdriver, you should be able to "talk" to the hard disk with the board connected, of course , but DO NOT try "random" or "semi-random" commands.

In the best scenario you won't do nothing useful, in the worst one you could lock yourself out of the drive PERAMNANTLY. Wait, be patient, data won't disappear (evaporate) overnight, whilst they may actually be unrecoverable if you go on fiddling "blindly" with that disk.

jaclaz

I'm using a 3V CR2032 battery, as per the OP. Should I have used a different battery?

Edited October 12, 2009 by Sovereign01

[banjaluka]

I have a question about this disk that is brought to life - since I would need to hassle with Seagate, sending the disk and waiting for replacement - do you, respected community, think it would be better to flash it with the newest firmware and continue using it, or it is better anyway to get rid of it and look for replacement?

Thanks and regards.

[jaclaz]

I'm using a 3V CR2032 battery, as per the OP. Should I have used a different battery?

The schematics you posted for the FTDI USB to TTL clearly shows that that adapter definitely runs on 5 V.

The one you are using now is the RS-232 to TTL you should know whether it needs 3,3 V (and thus will work allright on a FULLY charged 3 V battery) or if it needs a 5 V supply.

Compare with this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate...-page-1773.html

It is possible that the adapter is under-powered, it may also be a 3,3 V one that should be running OK on a CR2032, but the actual CR2032 could be a bit discharged and output a lower voltage.

More generally, the HD board should be of course powered from a PSU AND, to be on the "safe" side it should be grounded together to the adapter.

Ground, and expecially on very low voltage in DC circuits, is a "strange beast":

http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate...-page-1684.html

jaclaz

[KlingKlang]

To Strawhat12:

DO A PINOUT CHECK!!

You and everybody else who doesn´t know the colors on the cable has to do a pinout check!

It is a absolutely necessary thing to do.

There is really no point to short circuit cables at random, typing a few characters in, if you have to

for example power the cable with +5V.

Chances are that you might fry your cable/components/converter/USB-port.

You can´t rely on somebodys else work!

To all:

USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION!

I dont want to be rude, but some questions are self-explaining and many of the questions

has been answered before.

[Twittwilly]

This very well may be a stupid question, but I'm gonna ask anyway.

Does an internal modem have to be installed in the computer in order for any of the fixes for the 7200.11 to successfully communicate with Hyperterminal?

[KlingKlang]

To Twittwilly:

You can´t use the standard RS232 (the standard serial) but you have to use a "serial-to-ttl"-adapter!

"Serial-to-ttl"-adapters are built-in in some cellularphone-cables, such as CA-42 and DKU-5 Nokia cables.

This cable will work without any problem: http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_pag...products_id=70)

Expensive, but it is reported to work at once, without any modifications, AFAIK.

Almost any "serial-to-ttl"-adapter will, although some require external power to work, other are

powered from the usb-port.

The only thing you have to be absolutley sure of, is that it uses TTL-signals!

Conclusion:

You do not need a modem in your computer.

You need either a com-port or a usb-port.

You need a converter/adapter that converts serial-to-ttl.

Hope this helps.

[olnabe]

Hi all,

I have a hard drive(7200.11, 500G, ST3500320AS, firmware sd15,

purchased around August 2008) which just failed. The data is

completely inaccessible. Before any further action, I would like to

confirm if it is caused by the firmware issue discussed here.

The hard drive behaves as follows.

When power on, BOIS can detect the drive with correct LBA.

But if any "read" action happens, such as try to scan it using MHDD in

dos, the drive fails immediately, the status is DRDY. And it cannot be

detected anymore, even after reboot. But if power down and then

power on, the drive got detectable again.

The failure is not exactly like what have been discussed. Is it just a

coincidence?

Thanks very much in advance for your advice and help!

Edited October 13, 2009 by olnabe

[Strawhat12]

To Strawhat12:

DO A PINOUT CHECK!!

You and everybody else who doesn´t know the colors on the cable has to do a pinout check!

It is a absolutely necessary thing to do.

There is really no point to short circuit cables at random, typing a few characters in, if you have to

for example power the cable with +5V.

Chances are that you might fry your cable/components/converter/USB-port.

You can´t rely on somebodys else work!

To all:

USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION!

I dont want to be rude, but some questions are self-explaining and many of the questions

has been answered before.

My CA-42 cable is exactly the one in this photo. The cable on the left http://buffalo.nas-central.org/images/f/fc...isassembled.jpg

It has orange, blue and red cables as shown in the picture.

I also got my pin-out from this http://buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php/U...RM9_Linkstation (RX-Blue, TX-White, GND-Orange)

No extra cables or anything.

Just need some quick clarification, when plugging into the 3 pins the cable end should be;

* GND TX RX : SATA?

[jaclaz]

Just need some quick clarification, when plugging into the 3 pins the cable end should be;

* GND TX RX : SATA?

And again, you need reading/searching :

In the FIRST post of this thread there are these two images:

Do you need an explanation of them?

jaclaz

[Strawhat12]

Just need some quick clarification, when plugging into the 3 pins the cable end should be;

* GND TX RX : SATA?

And again, you need reading/searching :

In the FIRST post of this thread there are these two images:

Do you need an explanation of them?

jaclaz

So I was right then.

I have researched believe me, gone through this whole thread page by page etc but I've got so many guides saved as bookmarks that one guide has it GND,TX,RX and then another guide has it GND,RX,TX. As you can see it can be confusing trying to figure out which is the right one.

[jaclaz]

So I was right then.

I have researched believe me, gone through this whole thread page by page etc but I've got so many guides saved as bookmarks that one guide has it GND,TX,RX and then another guide has it GND,RX,TX. As you can see it can be confusing trying to figure out which is the right one.

Yes , but you seem to miss a logical step.

Once you have SURELY determined which couple of cables is TX/RX (or RX/TX, it DOES NOT matter) AND which couple of terminals on the device is TX/RX (or RX/TX, it does not matter), you simply TRY connecting them, and if it doesn't work you exchenge them.

There is NO risk whatever to damage anything.

Now, still bear with me.

You have an interface with a pin marked as TX (which is the one from which data exits the interface) and a pin marked as RX (which is the one through which data enters the interface).

When you connect this to a device you shoult connect the TX of the interface to the RX of the device and the RX of the interface to the TX of the device.

The above IS confusing, so it is very likely that some tutorial/guide marks the first pin on the right as "TX" in the sense of "pin to which you need to attach the TX cable from interface".....

jaclaz

[Strawhat12]

I'd like to report that I've successfully recovered my HDD. The questions may have seemed a bit much but I wanted to be doubly sure that I was to do everything right the FIRST time.

Thanks alot jaclaz for the help provided, appreciate it and thanks to the people who created these guides in the first place.

Now off to order an external HDD.

P.S. - Should I go ahead and update the firmware once everything is backed up?

[Twittwilly]

To Twittwilly:

You can´t use the standard RS232 (the standard serial) but you have to use a "serial-to-ttl"-adapter!

"Serial-to-ttl"-adapters are built-in in some cellularphone-cables, such as CA-42 and DKU-5 Nokia cables.

This cable will work without any problem: http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_pag...products_id=70)

Expensive, but it is reported to work at once, without any modifications, AFAIK.

Almost any "serial-to-ttl"-adapter will, although some require external power to work, other are

powered from the usb-port.

The only thing you have to be absolutley sure of, is that it uses TTL-signals!

Conclusion:

You do not need a modem in your computer.

You need either a com-port or a usb-port.

You need a converter/adapter that converts serial-to-ttl.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. I'm working with a CA-42 I've done a loop check on the wiring set up and I am able to see the characters that I type. However, when I attempt to bring up Hyperterminal and enter the settings for the USB com port being used by the cable and the "Port Settings" required I continually receive the following error message:

"Another program is using the telephony device. Try again after the other program completes."

I've noticed in most of the tutorials related to the various fixes, the Hyperterminal "Connect To" screen does not contain an area code entry. Mine does (apparently entered by the maker of this custom made computer at the time of purchase). I have attempted to delete the area code manually and then changing the auto detect setting to ANSI....to no avail.

Having watched nitrohelix1's YouTube video umpteen dozen times, I see that, as she begins the Hyperterminal setup, she goes into device manager and ties in the com port to the pre-installed Motorola modem previously used for a razor phone she had installed. I don't recall anything among the hundreds of pages I've read through thus far related to a requirement for a modem connection. So, without the pre-existing Nokia or Motorola modem, what does one use to

tie in the com port to the CA-42?

Edited October 13, 2009 by Twittwilly