The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs

[drewlsvern]

PrOfiLer,

It would appear You're using a SATA to Molex power adapter which doesn't have the orange line(3.3V)....That is why You won't have any communication with the drive...Make sure You use an actual SATA power connector from a power supply. I had the same issue, swapped the power connectors and voila!!!!!

Edited January 26, 2009 by drewlsvern

[Anth]

Hi,

Firstly swap the rx and tx over, in the phone pin out, those lables are the phones rx and tx not the cables, what you have right now is rx>rx and tx>tx.

But

That cable don't look like a true fbus cable....not even a manually switched one.

Its got to be either a manually switched (between fbus / mbus) cable or a true fbus cable.

AUTO SWITCHING OR MBUS CABLES WONT WORK.

Also with the fbus type cables there is no need to connect the gnd or vpp, just the rx and tx.

Hope that helps

Anth

[Anth]

I used a sata to molex adapter on all of the ones i have recovered, and i hav'nt had any problems....

Then again with the Nokia 3210 data cable im using i don't even use power just RX and TX.

Two wires

[kiwiguy]

Kiwi,

I am going to "claim" that I was the person who really kicked this whole quest off with pichi.

I have never made a negative post in the hddguru forums, due to 3 reasons.

A) What's the point?

B) You never know when someone will extend you a helping hand

C) I knew what the answer was going to be (Contact a DR company)

Did the pretentious(and sometimes arrogant) attitude that the users there showed bother me? Yes, it did, however I also accepted the fact that this is their lives and living.

The things that the hddguru forums did to kick off this quest was:

The posting of the 0GB LBA=0 video

Someone made a post about "3 wires and a terminal connection"

The non-soldering option to connect to the drive

The link to some russian sites which actually showed the command list of the 7200.11 drive, as well as many other tips.

After I found this information, it then led to the 0GB recovery document released by Salvation Data with the Salvation fix for 7200.11 drives.

After that, everything just snowballed until Graduis found the exact commands. I would like to say that pichi and I were close, but we really weren't. (after seeing the final command set)

So don't get into a flamewar with them. Thank them for their useful posts, that were almost all posted in a totally arrogant "I know and you don't" fashion. They can complain all they want, but in hindsight, it all started with their forum.

Cheers,

G

Gradius2, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

I repaired my ST31000340AS SD15 by your tutorial.

Circuit from http://forum.hddguru.com/tutorial-resolve-...ize-t11040.html

was soldered and works fine.

spellcasterbr

I did power off ONLY before the last command:

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

(This is my choice)

I had a look at that forum and the guys over there are a bunch of pretentious w*****s.

I vote that everyone who has successfully used this Gradius2's method (not the PCB swap method) go over there and let them know.

http://forum.hddguru.com/tutorial-resolve-...-t11040-20.html

Good point.

If they were just saying be careful then I would be fine but when they throw around word's like "idiots" it gets under my skin.

Also after reading what they have to say they clearly know what they are talking about in general but seem to have a real lack of understanding of the details and history behind this specific issue.

[Anth]

WHO CARES!!!

Who really cares what people think????

Bottom line is Gradius's method works.

I for one have got my data back for £0.00. I'll be an id*** all day every day just to have my data back.

So lets not decend into a childish slagging match, lets just stick to trying to help people get their data back as Gradius intended when he started this thread, as it appears to be going slightly off topic here.

Thanks

Another id***!!!!

[NEO_AMiGA]

Awesome work Gradius2, can't wait to get everything I need to fix my ST3500320AS.

I have one question & it may be a dumb one, however...

Would a "TTL-232R Converter Cable" found here: http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/TTL-232R.htm bypass having to use most of the equipment you have suggested.

It can be powered via USB and if I can figure out what colour the TX and RX are I'd be set.

Of course this seems far to simple

There are also alternate cables on that link.

It will works, the IC is inside the USB connector, choose TTL-232R 3V3 model.

Here is the IC, this is the PCB version:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Documents/DataShee...2R_PCB_V100.pdf

Can confirm that this cable works. Really nice solution! I just removed the two pins from the connector, extended them with these babies. So now they are shielded and protected. I have not completed the whole process since I'm at work now. But connected it to a seagate disk and got to the promt. So thumbs up so far for that cable. WIll try to rescue my disk at home tonight with it. Report will follow.

[ViniciusFerrao]

Just ignore the flamewar people, this is just stupid.

Gradius method saved all of us.

[Gradius2]

@PrOfiLer

If you're having too much problem with that cable, it doesn't hurt to spend $10 (or less) on a simpler adapter.

[spellcasterbr]

Hello,

I have adapted a nokia DKU-5 cable and connected to my hdd (st3500320as).

But, besides the LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051 error, I get some garbage characters.

And when I turn on the PCB, I receive the prompt F3> along with several spaces and garbage characters.... And these garbage characters don't stop popping out.

Is anything wrong with my cable? Since I can see parts of the command prompt and parts of the error message, it seems I'm getting close.

Edited January 26, 2009 by spellcasterbr

[Gradius2]

Hello,

I have adapted a nokia DKU-5 cable and connected to my hdd (st3500320as).

But, besides the LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051 error, I get some garbage characters.

And when I turn on the PCB, I receive the prompt F3> along with several spaces and garbage characters.... And these garbage characters don't stop popping out.

Is anything wrong with my cable? Since I can see parts of the command prompt and parts of the error message, it seems I'm getting close.

O seu problema é simples, ou é mau contato, ou os fios que vc está usando são muito finos, ou o terra deles é mal feito, ocasionando o lixo na serial.

Verifique os cabos, é algum problema neles.

---

I would blame the wires, it's a contact problem, or poor GND, or too long wires, or some interference, etc. Just verify them and retry.

[mikesw]

Hello,

I have adapted a nokia DKU-5 cable and connected to my hdd (st3500320as).

But, besides the LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051 error, I get some garbage characters.

And when I turn on the PCB, I receive the prompt F3> along with several spaces and garbage characters.... And these garbage characters don't stop popping out.

Is anything wrong with my cable? Since I can see parts of the command prompt and parts of the error message, it seems I'm getting close.

O seu problema é simples, ou é mau contato, ou os fios que vc está usando são muito finos, ou o terra deles é mal feito, ocasionando o lixo na serial.

Verifique os cabos, é algum problema neles.

---

I would blame the wires, it's a contact problem, or poor GND, or too long wires, or some interference, etc. Just verify them and retry.

Well if the transmission speed is to high on the RS232 port, you'll have to tell Microsofts OS to use hardware handshake RTS/CTS to do

control flow. The other possibility is to turn on software flow control that imitates hardare RTS/CTS. ALso turn off the parity bit too.

However, I think the solution of connecting to the drive doesn't allow for RTS/CTS but probably only between Windows PC and the adaptor

people are using. If this is the case, try slowing the windows transmission speed down to lets 9600 baud or less. Since the

data going back and forth between the drive and the computer is only a few characters, you won't know the difference even if it is

300 baud. This should get rid of the garbage characters.

In the setup used to fix the problem, are we just setting up a NULL modem?

Edited January 26, 2009 by mikesw

[bsobel]

Hi...back to the pooched pcb swap. is there anyway to bring the clicking drive back to life? if I hook up the TX/RX can I issue some "init" commands for something?

[Gradius2]

However, I think the solution of connecting to the drive does allow for RTS/CTS but probably only between Windows PC and the adaptor

people are using. If this is the case, try slowing the windows transmission speed down to lets 9200 baud or less. Since the

data going back and forth between the drive and the computer is only a few characters, you won't know the difference even if it is

300 baud. This should get rid of the garbage characters.

Slowing will do no good, since Seagate 7200.11 uses 38400 8 N 1 by default (factory). To change speed he will need to enter a cmd @ 38400 on Seagate to slow to 9600 on Seagate first, then, and only then, he will be able to use 9600 (by configuring the PC to 9600).

[mikesw]

However, I think the solution of connecting to the drive does allow for RTS/CTS but probably only between Windows PC and the adaptor

people are using. If this is the case, try slowing the windows transmission speed down to lets 9200 baud or less. Since the

data going back and forth between the drive and the computer is only a few characters, you won't know the difference even if it is

300 baud. This should get rid of the garbage characters.

Slowing will do no good, since Seagate 7200.11 uses 38400 8 N 1 by default (factory). To change speed he will need to enter a cmd @ 38400 on Seagate to slow to 9600 on Seagate first, then, and only then, he will be able to use 9600 (by configuring the PC to 9600).

Is that one of the commands one can send to the seagate drive? and is this hardware setup acting like a NULL modem? Curious.

Moreover, since this doesn't seem to be a true modem, it can't negotiate the speed change with the seagate drive.

Edited January 26, 2009 by mikesw

[Gradius2]

Is that one of the commands one can send to the seagate drive? and is this hardware setup acting like a NULL modem? Curious.

Well, to setup the speed is simple:

At level T:

F3 T>Bnn

Where nn is:

- 1152 (for 115200)

- 384 (38400)

- 192 (19200)

- 96 (9600)

- 48 (4800)

So for 9600 it would be:

F3 T>B96 (enter)

There are other speeds, but it will be dangerous since it would make the drive not accessible anymore (rare speeds on PC).

Edited January 26, 2009 by Gradius2