Seagate Barracuda XT Resuscitation

[rodyefew]

Hi,

I have 2x ST32000641AS drives. One of them went into a coma a few months ago.

Some background info:

My computer has a peculiar problem when it is asked to (soft) switch on - most of the time it will power on for a few seconds, then off for a few seconds; then on for a few seconds, then off for a few seconds; - 3 cycles - and then on the fourth power-on, it will usually POST.

If I've been using the machine and just switch it on (or restart - PITA) it will hang before POST, with CPU at max and even reset won't work. I have to switch it off at the PSU, then switch it on and let it go through the motions as mentioned.

Only sometimes it will power on from the first button press (soft switch), usually after I haven't used it for a while (1/2 a day or so). Note that discharging the motherboard and then switching it on is not the same as not using it for a few hours. Thermals are okay. There is something more sinister at play.

The on/off for a few seconds isn't enough for the hard drives to fully spin up / down. The next power-ons happen before the drives fully stop spinning. These drives take about 14 seconds to spin down. I *think* up is a bit faster.

The important parts:

So one day one of the the drives causes the computer to hang for a few seconds when the BIOS detects the drives on boot, and then the computer will proceed without detecting the drive in question. Seatools, etc - nothing managed to have it show up.

After searching, it looked like a typical 7200.11 issue, and I proceeded to repair it in the same manner as described on other threads and sites. I don't know which specific issue this was - LBA0, BSY, etc. I trawled a bit of info to determine into which category this fits in, but couldn't work it out.

I cut a CA-42 cable and successfully established a terminal link to the PCB. No batteries involved. I found that if I disconnected the heads or the motor, I could not communicate with PCB at all. If both were connected, I could. I didn't try completely disconnecting the PCB.

So I issued all commands with the PCB fully connected.

I tried the usual sequence of commands. Sin Down, Spin Up, and then N1.

As soon as I get to the N1 command, I get what seems to be a continuous loop of errors likeso:

LED:000000CC FAddr:00???????

I saw an article (http://computersciencelabs.blogspot.com/2011/02/seagate-720012-sim-error-firmware-fault.html) which mentioned issuing the m0 command after spin-up and then the N1 command later, quoted below:

The initialization of SMART module is failed even though the hard drive passes the Spin up and Spin down operation. To solve this problem, instead of doing N1 to clear the SMART after comand U, we use command m0 first.

That worked. I got access to my data.

Also, after the successful N1 command, I got the following messages:

F3 1>N1

Clear SMART is completed.
F3 1>
Rst 0x???
(P) SATA Reset

This is the first time I saw the message "(P) SATA Reset", even though the page referenced in the URL above shows that appearing in various locations before this last appearance.

I hope this helps someone. If I have to repeat this on another of my drives, I'll remember to take more detailed notes.

After preparing the cable, I found that the biggest throw-offs were trying to figure out why the HDD wouldn't talk with the heads or motor isolated, and the sequence of commands.

I must say thanks to all those people who discovered the problems in the first place and then went to the trouble of preparing images and guides for all to benefit, and the others who help in the forums.

Poo on Seagate.

[jaclaz]

I tried the usual sequence of commands. Sin Down, Spin Up, and then N1.

Could you replace the "usual" with the actual EXACT set of commands you issued?

There is very little of "usual" in this kind of things, expecially if you don't specify if what you tried initially was the BSY or LBA fix, since you are talking of spin down/spin up and of detaching the board, I presume you used the set of commands for BSY, but it would be really of help if you could post the full list of commands you issued or confirm that those that ended up successfully were EXACTLY those on the mentioned page:

http://computersciencelabs.blogspot.com/2011/02/seagate-720012-sim-error-firmware-fault.html

F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

Spin Down Complete

Elapsed Time 6.035 secs

F3 2>U

HighPowerMode

ExecuteSpinRequest

Spin Up Complete

Elapsed Time 3.573 secs

F3 2>/

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

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 16, Max Certify Rewr

ite Retries = not supported

User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 00 secs

F3 T>/1

F3 1>N1

Clear SMART is completed.

F3 1>

Rst 0x08M

(P) SATA Reset

jaclaz

[allen2]

As for the "background" problem, it seems to me that it might be coming from an overloaded power supply. To find out , you can unplug all drives and usb devices from the mainboard and power supply and then power on. If it power on "normaly" then you'll have to buy a power supply designed to deliver more power.

[rodyefew]

As for the "background" problem, it seems to me that it might be coming from an overloaded power supply. To find out , you can unplug all drives and usb devices from the mainboard and power supply and then power on. If it power on "normaly" then you'll have to buy a power supply designed to deliver more power.

Thanks for the suggestion. The only parts I haven't been able to test are the CPU / mobo. I've checked everything else with working replacements, and haven't been able to make the problem go away. I suppose using one of a pair of identical sticks of RAM could have a slim chance of slipping through the tests, but I would be greatly surprised if this were the case.

[rodyefew]

but it would be really of help if you could post the full list of commands you issued or confirm that those that ended up successfully were EXACTLY those on the mentioned page: http://computersciencelabs.blogspot.com/2011/02/seagate-720012-sim-error-firmware-fault.html

Hi jaclaz,

The command sequence is most likely the same as the one you quote, which is the (second) sequence of commands. Sorry I can't be more certain than that.

I presume the problem I had was a BSY (i.e. not detected *at all* by BIOS, momentatily hangs system, not detectable by any other software).

Thanks,

rodyefew