The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs

[RFlagg_NY]

Don't bother with the battery, it's a time waste.

Do not assume too much.

It didn't work for you with the particualr converter you had, no point in telling people not to do something that has worked and does works perfectly, with the appropriate board, as it is simply not true.

Read here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&st=2338

jaclaz

True. I am using the alldav.com converter. I would recommend people not use the battery if they buy this converter.

Any thoughts as to my possibly fried board? Is it fried, or can it be saved? I don't see any burn marks anywhere on the board.

Any help appreciated.

-RF

[mundy5]

The only way to know for sure whether it is fried or not is to use a working usb or rs232 converter to check. you would need to obtain another one. Make sure that it is working currently to determine whether it is your converter that somehow got ruined.

[VideoRipper]

In my experience, the board of the drive isn't that picky (at least not on the drives

I tried) about the used voltages, as long as it's below about 5Volts.

I un-bricked my ST350032AS drive with a standard MAX232 (5V) RS232<=>TTL convertor and

it worked flawlessly.

Of course this isn't a guarantee, so your mileage may vary, but unless you've put more than

5 Volts on it there's not much to worry about, I guess...

However: I did fry a PATA-drive the other day by accidently applying 12V, instead of 5V,

to one of the other pins (it were the Master/Slave-pins) and the PCB instantly became very

hot, with everything blown to pieces (it really was entirely dead after that).

Greetz,

Peter.

Edited February 19, 2010 by VideoRipper

[RFlagg_NY]

I got the Sparkfun converter in the mail today. I wired it up and am getting an RX red light.

I've checked continuity and all that and the red light will not go away. TX is green.

I guess this means the PCB is fried?

Any help appreciated.

-RF

The only way to know for sure whether it is fried or not is to use a working usb or rs232 converter to check. you would need to obtain another one. Make sure that it is working currently to determine whether it is your converter that somehow got ruined.

[RFlagg_NY]

Thanks for the help.

The RX/TX cables pulled loose after I spun down the drive. I wondering if the PCB is locked up somehow, and not burnt.

Any help appreciated.

-RF

The only way to know for sure whether it is fried or not is to use a working usb or rs232 converter to check. you would need to obtain another one. Make sure that it is working currently to determine whether it is your converter that somehow got ruined.

[photog47]

Any entrepeneuring person care to sell or rent their cable/adaptor setup for doing this? Anyone in the St. Louis area around here that would like to help me unbrick my drive? I'm willing to compensate for the service. Any help would be appreciated.

[absentdream]

Hi.. I have a dead seagate ST31000333AS that appears to have a translator error and comes up in the BIOS as 0GB.

hdpram -i 
/dev/sda/dev/sda: Model=ST31000333AS                            , 
FwRev=CC3H    , 
SerialNo=            9TE1FQAA 

Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16? CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}

 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4  DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 *mdma2  UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6  AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled Drive conforms to: unknown:  ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode

the key bit is LBAsects=0

are there any commands i can send it to get it back..

many thanks

[VideoRipper]

I assume you already tried the LBA0-solution on the first page?

Greetz,

Peter.

Fixing 0 LBA error:

Note: All commands are case sensitive !

To correct 0 LBA error, you'll need to do a quick format in order to regenerate the partition, just with m0,2,2 and the rest can be left blank by putting only commas or filling out with zeros. At the end you need to use a "ValidKey" code, or 22.

Attention: The commands must be used 100% equal as showed here, wrong cmds could lead to data loss or HD loss! Double or triple check the cmd before to press enter!

So we'll have to enter:

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter)

For reference: F3 T>m does:

Level T 'm': Rev 0001.0000, Flash, FormatPartition, m[Partition],[FormatOpts],[DefectListOpts],[MaxWrRetryCnt],[MaxRdRetryCnt],[MaxEccTLevel],[MaxCertif

yTrkRewrites],[ValidKey]

Now wait 15~30 seconds until something like this appears (it will vary a bit):

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 00, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 0000

User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00008DED, ErrCode 00000080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs

User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs

ONLY after the message like above you can turn off everything.

[...]

Gradius

[absentdream]

I assume you already tried the LBA0-solution on the first page?

not yet as mine is firmware "CC3H" so not sure if it would do more harm than good.

[magictrick]

Hi there,

I've been reading through this massive thread as recently my Seagate hard drive just stopped working. No longer recognized in BIOS, like it doesn't exist. I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500gb HD. This is my one and only hard drive on the desktop so its the one I use to boot the OS (Windows XP).

I've read through many posts and I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the information. I would like to use the SchmartBoard approach in order to avoid the soldering as I don't have the iron and feel uneasy using it on wires (no experience doing this at all). Is one method better than the others (Phone cable vs Serial converter vs SchmartBoard)?

What steps from the original post change if using the SchmartBoard? I tried finding the answer while reading through the posts but as you can imagine 126 pages of posts makes this quite difficult.

Would Frys be the only place to get this SchmartBoard? I assume I probably couldn't pick it up at the local computer hardware store.

Thanks.

[valkyrio]

Hi there,

I've been reading through this massive thread as recently my Seagate hard drive just stopped working. No longer recognized in BIOS, like it doesn't exist. I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500gb HD. This is my one and only hard drive on the desktop so its the one I use to boot the OS (Windows XP).

I've read through many posts and I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the information. I would like to use the SchmartBoard approach in order to avoid the soldering as I don't have the iron and feel uneasy using it on wires (no experience doing this at all). Is one method better than the others (Phone cable vs Serial converter vs SchmartBoard)?

What steps from the original post change if using the SchmartBoard? I tried finding the answer while reading through the posts but as you can imagine 126 pages of posts makes this quite difficult.

Would Frys be the only place to get this SchmartBoard? I assume I probably couldn't pick it up at the local computer hardware store.

Thanks.

Quite honestly I'd use (and have used) the serial converter (TTL to USB) it's the easiest method imo.

Edited February 23, 2010 by valkyrio

[magictrick]

Quite honestly I'd use (and have used) the serial converter (TTL to USB) it's the easiest method imo.

I'm just not too keen on soldering wires, never done it before and I don't want to mess anything up.

[mundy5]

Hi there,

I've been reading through this massive thread as recently my Seagate hard drive just stopped working. No longer recognized in BIOS, like it doesn't exist. I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500gb HD. This is my one and only hard drive on the desktop so its the one I use to boot the OS (Windows XP).

I've read through many posts and I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the information. I would like to use the SchmartBoard approach in order to avoid the soldering as I don't have the iron and feel uneasy using it on wires (no experience doing this at all). Is one method better than the others (Phone cable vs Serial converter vs SchmartBoard)?

What steps from the original post change if using the SchmartBoard? I tried finding the answer while reading through the posts but as you can imagine 126 pages of posts makes this quite difficult.

Would Frys be the only place to get this SchmartBoard? I assume I probably couldn't pick it up at the local computer hardware store.

Thanks.

Or another easy solution for me was to use the CA-42 Nokia cable method. It works great and you can use any computer since it uses usb as an interface. It's also cheaper for me. it cost me ~$4.

[ShaynePierce]

I got my data back! I bought a CA-42 from Amazon ($1.50 plus $3.00 shipping) and had no troubles at all following the steps. The hardest part was attaching the little wires from the CA-42 cable to the jumpers. I stripped back the wires about 3/8", twisted them, and then folded the end over to make a little loop. Then I used a 1" long piece of scotch tape (electrical tape might have been easier - maybe). By placing the tape just 1 mm (or less) beyond the end of the looped copper wire and then rolling the tape in a tight roll so that the there is a nice little opening showing the copper wires inside, I was able to make a jerry-rigged jumper.

After placing the three wires on the proper terminals, I taped them down so they would not move during the operation.

All other instructions worked perfectly. Also, I did not need to "short" the head contacts. I just used a business card cut to about 3/8" X 2" inch and only needed to loosen the one PCB screw close to the motor contacts. The narrow end of the card only had to slip about 1/2" under the board to separate the motor contacts.

I have a "slightly used" CA-42 cable properly labeled that I am willing to resell to get back my cost and research time (maybe $15 plus shipping costs). Just email me and I will send today!

Thanks to so much Gradius and others for keeping hope alive on the stupid Seagate firmware problem of 2009/2010!

[valkyrio]

Quite honestly I'd use (and have used) the serial converter (TTL to USB) it's the easiest method imo.

I'm just not too keen on soldering wires, never done it before and I don't want to mess anything up.

You don't need to solder anything. Either do the Nokia cable one or look at this:

and this one: