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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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What do I tell Seagate if I want to return it? Allthough my drive is still under warrenty till 2014, I now have a perfectly working Hdd which is not on their list of affected drives. Do I tell them I performed open heart disk surgery on the drive to fix it? They might throw up their hands in horror when they hear that since they do not officially condone this method as far as I understand it. I am anyway quite confident that the drive won't be any worse than a swapped one after I upgraded the firmware (my next task).

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What do I tell Seagate if I want to return it? Allthough my drive is still under warrenty till 2014, I now have a perfectly working Hdd which is not on their list of affected drives. Do I tell them I performed open heart disk surgery on the drive to fix it? They might throw up their hands in horror when they hear that since they do not officially condone this method as far as I understand it. I am anyway quite confident that the drive won't be any worse than a swapped one after I upgraded the firmware (my next task).

Why it is so difficult to READ the read-me-first BEFORE asking the SAME questions? :unsure:

You do a test with Seagate software of the drive, BOTH the short DST AND the LONG DST one.

If ANY of them fails :(, it means that you THOUGHT you are having a "perfectly functional drive", but that was a mere ASSUMPTION :w00t: on your part, and you SHOULD RMA the drive.

If BOTH the tests are OK, your ASSUMPTION was correct. :thumbup

Now, go to the read-me-first:

and READ point #5 (and given links within).

Let me know if the way I wrote about this in there is difficult and I'll ttry to amend it.

jaclaz

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I followed the Gradius' tutorial and could successfully unbrick my LBA 0 drive. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!:D

I was able to access and back up my data (using an external USB drive), however Windows Vista didn't initialize.

Windows Vista reported something like "Failed in initialization process" and there're two options I could choose "Boot normaly" and "Try to fix". Needless to say that none worked for me.

So, for those who are having the same issue I would like to post the solution that worked for me....

If you have an external USB HDD reader use it, otherwise plug it as a secondary drive in an other Windows computer, and run on the prompt chkdsk /R. You need to be on the unbricked drive (E: or F: usually).

This command should fix bad blocks and get things working again without losing your files....

GL and remember to be cautious and back up your data.

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Thanks Jaclaz,

I sort of have the bad habit of normally not reading the Disclaimer sections in too much detail. :no: I did the "Short DST" AND "Long DST" tests using Seagate's Seatools and my drive passed both, which probably meant my ASSUMPTION was correct. :yes: I was just wondering if there were any way to RMA it to be sure (except waiting for it to brick again by not installing firmware update and waiting 1-2 years)? :wacko:

Blou

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I want to thanks everyone who contributed on this thread, for the detailed guidance on the BSY unbricking issue for Seagate 7200.11 / SD15 / Made in Thailand drives. I have an identical issue with my 500 GB Seagate Barracuda (confirmed the suspect model with Seagate helpline) . After all research at this forum, I am ready to attempt the m0,2,2…. Procedure.

I am planning to use a Nokia CA-45 serial cable (on which I have successfully done the loopback test) and an external SATA power supply. I have also identified the GND, RX and TX wires on the serial cable using a multimeter as well as opening the USB plug, where I could see the markings.

At the last minute, while checking and rechecking the steps, I realized that as regards the RX & TX pins on the drive itself, there are two views. I always knew that for the cable there cannot be a standard rule -- no two cables are same but I am confused with the divergent views on the pins on the drive itself.

The diagram in the original Gradius2 post suggests TX pin next to the GND and RX being the last one i.e. a [Null, GND, TX, RX] configuration. This position is also supported in a few other posts.

A different view [NULL,GND,RX,TX] exists on the following links, including one where the post is very explicit in stating that the pin next to GND is RX and therefore TX of the cable needs to be attached here.

http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/

http://howto.starahead.com/?p=61

In all cases the HDD is assumed PCB side up.

While I know that it is safe to do “trial and error” for checking this but would be really grateful if someone can definitively clarify this so that I start with the correct position.

Thanks in advance for a reply.

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While I know that it is safe to do “trial and error” for checking this but would be really grateful if someone can definitively clarify this so that I start with the correct position.

Thanks in advance for a reply.

In this case some advice from several hundreds years ago remains valid:

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

The whole problem is that you will never know which one is the right one, since there is an incorrect naming convention.

Check this photo in the the brad garcia's guide you posted:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_iEh-WLXnVwk/Sarl-KWIdOI/AAAAAAAAAKM/-5tCWn_nCkI/s800/Seagate%20Fix%20030.JPG

in it the Rx has OUTBOUND arrows and Tx has INBOUND ones.

In his guide he uses a black wire to connect Left pin, Rx in this photo:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_iEh-WLXnVwk/SaqL4ivjiyI/AAAAAAAAAFw/7BPTMNeEa0w/s800/Seagate%20Fix%20015.JPG

to the pin on the converter board marked as <-Tx<-

and a whitish wire to connect Right pin, Tx in the above photo,

to the pin on the converter board marked as ->Rx->.

Now check again the images in Gradius2 post and the images of the adapter he used:

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=449

On the converter boars the pins are marked:

Tx-O (i.e. probably Tx-Out)

and

Rx-I (i.e. probably Rx-In)

Then he connects via a black wire Rx-I with the Rightmost pin (Rx in Gradius2 photo) and with a red wire Tx-O to the left pin (Tx in Gradius2 photo)

Think a bit about the above.

Now compare with the photo and the instructions on the (actually Recommended) guide:

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

The matter is (intentionally) left open to the experiment, because that's the only safe way to do it!

And now let's go to a more recent quote ;):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/quotes

Mr. Ping: The secret ingredient is... nothing!

Po: Huh?

Mr. Ping: You heard me. Nothing! There is no secret ingredient.

Po: Wait, wait... it's just plain old noodle soup? You don't add some kind of special sauce or something?

Mr. Ping: Don't have to. To make something special you just have to believe it's special.

[Po looks at the scroll again, and sees his reflection in it]

Po: There is no secret ingredient...

Just §@ç#ing connect the two wires at random, and if it doesn't work, invert them!

You have EXACTLY a 50% probability, you can increase easily them by knowing that Murphy's Law will apply ;), so convince yourself that the Red cable goes to the right pin on the drive and that the Green one goes to the left pin, and just immediately before actually connecting them, invert them.

Haven't you seen the logic usually used in movies where the good guy has to de-activate a bomb? The same applies here. :)

The only one that may be able to reply to you is VideoRipper, since he built his own converter, he should know from which pin of it the signals go out (Tx) an on which pin on the hard disk he attached that wire... :yes:

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Thanks Jaclaz..your answer is very helpful and I appreciate the time taken to answer.

But as another saying goes... "one thing leads to another...." :yes:

After reading the guide at http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html I became aware that in some cases covering just the head contact won't work and one may need to 'attempt' with the motor contact. I have seen your views on this post :

" .... And the answer, is, as it seems to me clearly written in the quote:

1.try with the HEADs contacts.

2.If it doesn't work on your drive, try with the MOTOR ones.

We don't have a database of which contacts for which model are better, but you do not risk anything by using trial and error, in most cases #1 will work, in some it won't and you'll have to use method #2."

That was a couple of months back. Do you have an updated view on this? My HDD model is ST3500620AS ; ver 7200.11; Date Code 09053 ; Firmware SD15;

Swapping RX / TX wires for 'trial and error' is one thing but swapping insert card positions during the operation will surely give me the jitters ! Regards GAG

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Swapping RX / TX wires for 'trial and error' is one thing but swapping insert card positions during the operation will surely give me the jitters ! Regards GAG

Yep. :)

What is recommended in newer versions is to use a cardboard to cover EITHER one OR the other set of contacts.

I.e. the general idea is to flip a coin, if it comes out head you cover the head contacts ;) and attempt the procedure.

If it comes out cross, you cover the motor contacts and attempt the procedure.

If the procedure doesn't work, you re-do from start, i.e. you power off EVERY device involved, take all the time needed to unscrew/disassemble again the PCB and place the card on the "other" set of contacts.

Unfortunately we have a very small number of people willing to re-brick their HD to see if the "other" procedure works...:whistle: so we have NOT a reliable database of which of the two set of contacts has given "better" results.

But we have a single positive, documented result (in the mentioned guide):

(Note: Some guides on the web have suggested insulating the *other* set of contacts (the "head" contacts) you see in the lower left of the above photo to the right. I tried this originally and it didn't work for me but obviously others have had some success with it. In *my* case, with 1TB model drives, I can assure you that insulating the slightly easier to access motor contacts worked where the head contacts method didn't. I suspect the specific model of your drive will account for the varying levels of the results so if one way doesn't work for you, think about trying the other. You'll know to look here if the HyperTerminal session won't allow you to spin down the drive and continues to give you the BSY error in reply - "LED:01...blah blah blah". If you're allowed to spin down the drive, then this bit isn't your issue.)

You might also want to notice how it is perfectly possible to insert the cardboard under the "motor" contacts by unscrewing/loosening one single screw, though it is NOT recommended (but there is no need to completely remove the PCB, at the most you need to loosen another one or two screws), whilst to try inserting the cardboard under the "head" contacts you need to unscrew/losen at least three of them or, more likely, the complete removal of the PCB may be necessary.

Try passing the above over Occam's Razor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

And see which choice is more worth trying as first attempt :angel, then make your choice, but choose wisely...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/quotes

Grail Knight: But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.

:ph34r:

:lol:

Seriously, there is no actual way to know this whole topic is permeated by some kind of "magic", we miss too many proper reports and actual knowledge on the way the stoopid hard disk works to be able to suggest one or the other.

The theory is clear: induce an error on the board in order to allow access form the terminal, the original guides, which said to completely remove the PCB and re-mount it whilst powered, obviously created the error by disconnecting BOTH sets of contacts.

Though actually not that difficult, it is potentially very dangerous as a simple slip of the finger or a screw falling may fry the powered-on board, I would estimate that in the hands of an average user doing 15 times the cardboard trick for each set of contacts is roughly as dangerous as doing it once with the removal/re-assembling while-powered-on approach.

jaclaz

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Hey there hard drive warriors!

It's been a while since I peeked in here and just wanted to say thanks for all the kind words (in here and sent directly) for that little bit of prose I contributed to this monster of a topic last year. You guys (jaclaz especially and you too Videoripper) are doing great work in here.

I just updated my guide at http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html to include some tips on grounding and voltage to perhaps help those that are using setups different enough from the one I wanted to spell out to cause problems. Maybe that will lighten the load a bit with folks getting tripped up with other adapters that need the ground pin connected to behave - you're right that it's never a bad idea if you've got the jumper right there and handy. Seems most of the email I get is about XYZ brand adapter not handshaking properly. If nothing else, they'll have a good pizza recipe if they snoop around the site some. LOL

Apart from the thanks, I wanted to add that the 7200.11s of my own that I've de-bricked are still in service and running fine on SD1A. They've been on mostly 24x7 since early last year when I debricked them. I'm working new 7200.12s into the rotation as I don't keep any drive in service more than say four years but time will tell if I have a higher than normal failure rate on this batch before natural "retirement". Things look good so far. I see a lot of folks asking if they're "safe" after the fix and mine don't seem to have any further problems related to the fix. But then, I also have duplicate hard drives of EVERYTHING plus some emergency drives stashed away. I have to repeat what jaclaz said...ALL drives will fail, it's just a matter of when. DO YOUR BACKUPS. You guys would be amazed at some of the stories I've been getting in email where people that have decades of work and business data and such on only ONE drive. Maddness that is. I think the best story so far was the pie shop in the UK that said they had twenty years of secret recipes (and business data) that was saved by the fix. They told me that if I was ever in Kent, I could have free pie! LOL

Any way, keep up the good work in here lads and lasses. The digital karma will surely come back to you many times over. Cheers!

- Carter in Canada

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Hey there hard drive warriors!

Hi Carter :) long time, no see. :)

Happy that both you and cats are well.

It would be appreciated, since you are in "update mood", if you could cross link from your guide to the read-me-first:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=143880

so that the number of people that will read AFTER ;) will decrease.

jaclaz

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My Seagate ST3500620AS (from a HP computer) bricked last Fri. I just ordered parts to attempt this fix. My question, if I succeed and after back-up should I use the HP firmware update (sp40966.exe) or the (ms-sd1a.exe) from Seagate?

Sorry if this has already been answered. I've been reading this for hours, but I may have missed it.

And thanks so much for this forum!

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My Seagate ST3500620AS (from a HP computer) bricked last Fri. I just ordered parts to attempt this fix. My question, if I succeed and after back-up should I use the HP firmware update (sp40966.exe) or the (ms-sd1a.exe) from Seagate?

Sorry if this has already been answered. I've been reading this for hours, but I may have missed it.

And thanks so much for this forum!

If the drive is "labeled" HP it's an OEM drive and you should use the HP one.

If the drive is labeled Seagate (no matter where it was installed to) use the Seagate one.

(I suspect that there are not many differences between the two at actual code level)

The main thing is that you run BOTH the Short and Long DST tests BEFORE updating the firmware, and if anything is not OK, you try to RMA the drive.

Check also against point #5

Usually if you are within the terms of warranty (and shout aloud enough ;)) you can manage to have a replacement drive, at least from Seagate.

:hello:

jaclaz

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My Seagate ST3500620AS (from a HP computer) bricked last Fri. I just ordered parts to attempt this fix. My question, if I succeed and after back-up should I use the HP firmware update (sp40966.exe) or the (ms-sd1a.exe) from Seagate?

Sorry if this has already been answered. I've been reading this for hours, but I may have missed it.

And thanks so much for this forum!

If the drive is "labeled" HP it's an OEM drive and you should use the HP one.

If the drive is labeled Seagate (no matter where it was installed to) use the Seagate one.

(I suspect that there are not many differences between the two at actual code level)

The main thing is that you run BOTH the Short and Long DST tests BEFORE updating the firmware, and if anything is not OK, you try to RMA the drive.

Check also against point #5

Usually if you are within the terms of warranty (and shout aloud enough ;)) you can manage to have a replacement drive, at least from Seagate.

:hello:

jaclaz

Thanks for your response, the drive is labeled Seagate, but the firmware is HP24. So now what?

Thanks, again.

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Thanks for your response, the drive is labeled Seagate, but the firmware is HP24. So now what?

Thanks, again.

Sure it is labeled Seagate :), point is that if it is also labeled with the HP logo and a HP part number.

Post a photo of it if you are not sure, but if it has an HP firmware it is an HP OEM drive (unless someone already fiddled with it).

jaclaz

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Thanks for your response, the drive is labeled Seagate, but the firmware is HP24. So now what?

Thanks, again.

Sure it is labeled Seagate :), point is that if it is also labeled with the HP logo and a HP part number.

Post a photo of it if you are not sure, but if it has an HP firmware it is an HP OEM drive (unless someone already fiddled with it).

jaclaz

No HP logo at all on drive. I got the computer new, unopened box in Feb. 2009. So it must be an HP OEM drive.

Thanks again.

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