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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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2xaa batteries for power.

It is very possible you simply have NOT enough voltage.

These thingy usually need something MORE than 3 V and up to 5 V.

See here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1592

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1594

jaclaz

So I've switched to 5v from a USB port. Now the red rx light is pinned on, and tx flashes when I type a command. I'm unclear what a loopb ack test is supposed to do. When I connect the tx to rx on the adaptor, type something, the lights flash. Am I supposed to get a duplicate character back? i.e. if I type 'x' should I get a second 'x' back, displaying 'xx' on the screen? Tried seaching, but couldnt find specifics, only references.

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I am asking this question only so that I don't have to search through this entire Thread for the answer ... ummm, are there people actually reporting that regardless of following the instructions here that their HardDrive never recovered? And, if so, what was the reason given for such a circumstance?

I thought that the HardDrives were failing only because of a Firmware fault and that the remedy was to 'unlock' the busy state in order to update the Firmware.

Are these HardDrives also failing because they are basically a bad product too?

Is anyone recommending that the HardDrive be remedied only to enable recovery of the data to a entirely new HardDrive and ditching the Seagate altogether?

Thanks!

There are a lot of misunderstandings going on on this topic, your question may be the occasion to attempt clearing some of them.

This thread and the nice page by CarterinCanada:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1232

http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html

and various similar hints/guides linked to or various information posted on the present thread, are aimed to recover or "debrick" a specific Seagate series drive suffering from the problem initially explained in this same thread (links given in this post):

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1589

THIS problem may appear with two different symptoms: 0 LBA or BSY state.

There may be tens or maybe hundreds of different problems leading to the same symptoms.

Moreover several people with a failed or failing drive come here thinking this represents a miracle cure for any desease. (even if Symptoms are different)

It is NOT.

There are NO reports of drives suffering from THIS problem, to which THESE remedies were PROPERLY applied, using PROPER interfaces/cabling/power supplies, PROPERLY connected, which were not fully and integrally recovered.

There is NO rational reason to presume that once THIS problem has been resolved and the PROPER firmware upgrade has been applied, the drive is not anymore dependable: it is EXACTLY as DEPENDABLE as any other Seagate Hard disk of the same series that was NOT affected by the problem.

Whether this particular series of drive is more or less dependable than series X of manufacturer Y is higly debatable, there are NO publicly available extensive studies in this direction, and anyway by the time (exception made for early failures) the data would be available, a new (or more than one) series will be available and common, both from Seagate and from manufacturer Y.

Borrowing the words Peter Gutmann used to describe the misunderstandings about his reknown paper:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html

this thread and the info within it has been sometimes interpreted/used more as:

a kind of voodoo incantation to banish evil spirits than the result of a technical analysis

If the problem is THIS one, the "cure" does work, if the problem is not exactly THIS one, who knows? :unsure:

jaclaz

so is there a surefire way of finding out if this is my problem. it seems sort of suss that my hd just happens to be same firmware and drive model, serial no's as everybody else here. i tried victoria, did a pci scan and clicked on the drive and got an error. don't think the busy light was on though:(

what i am wondering though should i be able to hear or feel the hard disk working when i plug it in? even for a few seconds? just gonna read some of them links you posted to see if anything new pops up.

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THIS IS THE SETUP I USED TO RECOVERY MY HARDDRIVE.

img5197b.jpg

EXACTLY! This is the identical configuration I used to remedy my HardDrive too.

Worked like a charm for me on first try.

Needless to say: the critical ingredient was the communication parameters to use through HyperTerminal.

We owe a tremendous gratitude to the person who started this Thread. I am sure that it has saved alot of people a helluva lot of grief; not to mention a near cost-free ability to recover their data.

I have a question which you might be able to clarify for me: I can't seem to decipher from the photo how you managed to connect to the Adapter ... was it via Serial or USB Port?

Edited by TorontoOntario
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So I've switched to 5v from a USB port. Now the red rx light is pinned on, and tx flashes when I type a command. I'm unclear what a loopb ack test is supposed to do. When I connect the tx to rx on the adaptor, type something, the lights flash. Am I supposed to get a duplicate character back? i.e. if I type 'x' should I get a second 'x' back, displaying 'xx' on the screen? Tried seaching, but couldnt find specifics, only references.

See if this clears the matter:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1194

jaclaz

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does anyone know is the SD35 firmware dodgy too?

i searched this thread and no definite answer, i'm assuming not seeing as they would have had time to fix the problems since SD15 but not sure. my drive is not recognised by bios and is ST3750330AS 750Gb SD35. just wondering if it could have the busy error or something else. seagate link says no - not affected but still not seen by bios.

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Hi all, I've been reading the forum for a month now, I got all my tools assembled. I am having a problem though. I went ahead and purchased the - 1 (one) FT232BM/BL adapter. I was hopeing that it would be easier because of the already USB port. Well the connection goes pc=>USB=>ft232bm/bl adapter=> cr2032 3v button battery (via jumpers). Also I did connect the harddrive tx and rx pins to the adapter the first few times.

My problem is when I connected the adapter to my pc, NOTHING. Would happen. Usually windows prompts u that a device had been connected and drivers needed to be installed. I did install the drivers that fdti recommended which is version 2.04 I believe. I opened up control panel to see what happens when I connected the USB adapter nothing would happen to USB section or com port section. Usually when u plug it in something would pop up, especially in the USB section. This is my first time doing this, so when I connectd the jumper cables slid snuggly into place. Do they need to be crimped? I don't think so. So I don't know if I have a dead adapter or if that adapter requires more power( my current button battery is fully charged) because it's USB. I've tested this adapter on three pcs with three different operating systems.

Tested on:

pc with both windows xp sp2

pc with xp sp 3

laptop with vista home premium.

I tried the last two to see if I would get any response from the adapter when plugging it in, I did not. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

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After reading through this board many times, taking notes, and assembling wires and parts, I was successful! Thank you all very much!

I wanted to post some of the problems I had to maybe help someone else.

First I had a 500G HD from a new desktop PC HP computer; it has their HP24 firmware and failed in 1 month with both the busy and not recognized by BIOS errors.

I used a laptop, a cheap CA-42 cable, the desktops power supply (for the failed hard drive), and some wires.

Problems I had were:

1. Hyperterminal on laptop, running XP, would not work--downloaded tera terminal on to the laptop and it worked. See message #1464 page 74.

2. Powering off the hard drive after the "spin up complete" prevented further repairs. I believe the terminal disconnects so I could not do the M0,2,2,,,,,22 command. This is noted by others in post #442 on pg 23.

3. The initial part of the fix did allow the PC's bios to recognized the drive, but it showed 0 bytes.

4. Connecting up cables again I did just the control z to get F 3 T> prompt and entered the m0,2,2,,,,,22 command; and it was completely fixed.

Other comments which may be helpful to someone: Used just 3 wires from CA-42, took a while to find correct driver (used version 2.0.0.19), grounding properly will prevent odd characters in the terminal mode, did not use any batteries for 3 volts, hyperterminal could not open COM port-hence used tera terminal, wires from CA-42 worked with TX to TX and RX to RX--at least the way I understood their configuration

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29FztWJVxbM

Here's a video I uploaded to show the instructions and an alternate (cheaper!) way to set up the cables using crimp pins so it's straight from the CA-42 to the hard drive pins.

thumbup.gif

This post has been edited by nitrohelix: Today, 12:01 AM

pm'ed you - great video btw and love the music in it.

Should i be able to hear my hard disk if i have the busy error? I held it to my ear and couldn't hear or feel any vibration when i powered on the computer. also one of the chips on the pcb got very very hot is that normal? the seatools for DOS didn't detect the drive either. but there is definitely no noise coming from it:(

Edited by breadbin
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Should i be able to hear my hard disk if i have the busy error? I held it to my ear and couldn't hear or feel any vibration when i powered on the computer. also one of the chips on the pcb got very very hot is that normal? the seatools for DOS didn't detect the drive either. but there is definitely no noise coming from it:(

When I first had the busy error my hard drive turned on but wasn't recognized in BIOS so in my case, it did spin but no activity afterwards. I pm'd u as well. I assume you've tried reversing the rx/tx plugs to get a connection on the hard drive?

If not, perhaps you may need to try and replace your PCB with another somehow to test it. But that's only like a last resort. Just make sure it's the EXACT same board model, firmware, etc. or it will do a lot more damage.

That's going to be a pain cuz I have another HD (a SEAGATE, no surprise there) that doesn't power on so I have to replace the PCB.

Edited by nitrohelix
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SO, is there anyone who successfull recovered a drive that had more than one partition?

My busy drive is divided into 3 NFTS partitions and i'm a bit worried about doing the fix right now. Most of the important data is in the extended third one.

Like Hazor stated, it is possible to do a fix on multiple partitions

Edited by nitrohelix
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SO, is there anyone who successfull recovered a drive that had more than one partition?

My busy drive is divided into 3 NFTS partitions and i'm a bit worried about doing the fix right now. Most of the important data is in the extended third one.

Like Hazor stated, it is possible to do a fix on multiple partitions

Correct, my 1TB Seagate drive has two partitions. It has failed twice and I have recovered it successfully both times with no loss of data.

After the second time I also applied the SD1A firmware update so we shall see how long it lasts this time.

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Hi there Graduis2, first id want to thank you for the awesome guide on "The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs, How-to fix 0 LBA and BSY errors" i think guys like you really makes a difference in the world in terms on sharing knowledge instead of taking advantages of the unfortunate people who encounter problems.

I'd like to ask for your advice regarding my attempts to follow your guide.

I'm from the philippines and i found it difficult to find the rs232 to ttl converter that was required. so what i did was find some schematics online for a ttl converter and tried to make one. i ended up making use of a schematic that doesnt require an IC but only uses transistors. so i tried using that for te BSY error guide. when i hooked everything up, my hyperterminal showed me a lots of characters ((*#&@^*@&^$&) even smileys.... :(

im afraid now, regarding the fate of my drive. hope you can help me out. thanks a lot...

fixed mine using the instruction and the following tools:

1. DKU-50 data cable (bought it from cdrking) connect rx-rx, tx-tx

2. Prolific PL2303 driver (for the cable)

3. realterm (i'm using vista)

i'm sure you'll find your way around :)

Many thanks to Gradius2!!!

Edited by plops
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Great place! My Seagate 7200.11 (with two partitions in a USB box) is not detected by the BIOS. Yet, I am not 100% sure that the cause is a BSY Error (I had the day before in fact an (extra) voltage quirk due to lightening with the USB HD box switch off, but with the power cord attached. I think this unfortunate event could also explain the faulty unit - I fear a damage in Heads/preamp since TVSs and PCB seem ok).

I want to run therefore a terminal session to check if the error is the typical Error LED:000000CC, which should make the hypothesis "BSY Error" more certain. I do not want make mistakes (I have vital data on the HD), and I am stacked at the very beginning. Please be kind and guide a novice.

Material available:

Notebook Lenovo X40 (without serial ports and CD)

USB cable Nokia CA 42 (original)

USB-Sata Bridge (where I take the power for the HD)

I am stacked at the very beginning because I want to test that the cable CA 42 works, before connecting it with the HD. This is what I did:

a. I installed from the Nokia website the drivers (6MB): Nokia_Connectivity_Cable_Driver_ita.msi

b. I connected the cable (I do not have any Nokia mobile) only with the USB (i.e. without nothing on the other side), and I do not have in the Lenovo any kind of detection in the Windows devices, nor any message "new hardware found".

c. Without seeing the USB cable I cannot complete the setting (COM port,etc) and test it, by shortcircuiting the poles Tx & Rx, so to check if typing in the Hyperterminal will be echoed (loop-back test).

So my question is on how to install the USB CA 42 on the Lenovo. Do I need to install drivers? The ones I did are correct? How can I detect that the Cable works ok, and made before proceeding further the hyperterminal test described above?

Thanks for these very preliminary advices

Edited by science2002
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