Suggestions on Seagate ST3500320AS

[gitman]

I had this drive running in a rented server with firmware SD15. One day, the SMART daemon began to report unrecoverable sectors, but it didn't happen the next couple of days, so I thought it was just an anomaly.

I logged in this weekend to find more serious errors. As soon as I attempted to backup my data, the system encountered a "Bus error" and halted.

With the help of the hosting company, I was able to update the firmware on the drive to SD1A. However, this did not solve the problem.

The drive is detectable by the BIOS and OS after a cold start. I am able to list the partitions with fdisk -l. As soon as I attempt to mount the drive, it is no longer detected by the OS or BIOS, even after rebooting. Only after a cold start does the system detect the drive. I loaded up SeaTools (DOS) and ran the "long" test which found a few errors, and I told it to skip doing any repairs because I did not want to risk damaging my data. When I tried to run the test a second time, it said the drive was no longer responding to commands.

Does it sound like I am experiencing the "BSY" problem or something completely different?

Your assistance is much appreciated... thanks