Jump to content

Seagate BSY state.. Can it go away, and come again another day?!


Recommended Posts

Hello all

My Maxtor DiamondMax23 STM31000528AS (Maxtor's version of ST31000528AS) had a problem during firmware update, which left it undetectable, although it spins, with a delay when PC boots. BSY state, right?
Well, the drive had this issue for a year. During this year I tested the drive several times on different PCs. Always the same except two times I powered up the PC to find that the driver was detected and functional, and I successfully updated the firmware the 2nd time. but both times after a while of operating the PC, Windows crashed, and the drive went back to the bricked state.

Anyone has any advice here? Does this mean that BSY is ruled out as the problem and fix?

PS1: The drive never had any problems or physical damage before or since the issue. Also SATA controllers, cables, etc. are not causing the issue.

 

PS2: I'm not trying to recover my data. I'm just trying to salvage the drive itself as a project in my free time. HDDs are kinda expensive here.

 

Thanks in advance

Edited by hunted22
Link to comment
Share on other sites


I guess that you are somehow mixing the effects with the cause.

The BSY or "busy" state is a symptom (or effect) of an illness (cause).

If a disk gets onto BSY state, it is because *something* in not working and causes this state.

I am sorry I don't believe you :w00t::ph34r:, in the sense that you missed to detail something that happened (or missed to notice it), it is the first time I hear of a Seagate 7200.1x (please read as Maxtor DiamondMax2x) spontaneously going into BSY state and then "randomly" exiting it (and later "randomly" re-entering it), I mean, there must be *something* that is not affected by or connected to the firmware update that causes this behaviour. :unsure:

The BSY state could be the result of n different issues, but unfortunately we don't have a way to diagnose it (if not running the Seagate Short and Long tests, which however will only tell if the disk is "good" or "bad") and thus no real way to pinpoint the cause  :( , all we know is a procedure that can exit the BSY state and "recover" the drive IF the cause is the known firmware bug or more generally a procedure capable of getting the drive out of it (and then in the case of the original issue the "final fix" is the updated firmware)

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(I could swear that I already responded to jaclaz's post couple days ago and saw my replay posted!!.. weird..)

There is not much to miss really. The drive spend most of the time in a drawer except for the few times I took it out to test. the only thing I could add is that the drive had a few bytes of bad sectors, but nothing else.

 

The issue I'm having right now is that I can't establish a terminal connection with the drive. I was trying to get a post from the terminal (without actually tying the fix. not yet.). I'm using a USB-TTL PL2303HX adapter, the drive is connected to the adapter with GND,TX,RX wires, and using an external PSU to power up the drive. My setup has passed the loop test. but when connected to the drive I get no response at all.. like I don't even get the F3 T> prompt when pressing Ctrl+Z. Checked all the connection and they are OK. switched RX and TX wires, no change.

As I understood, 7200.11 PCB should be isolated before the fix, while in 7200.12 drives read channels should be shortened. I haven't done any of these thing as I'm only trying to get a terminal report. Could this be why I can't get any terminal response?

Edited by hunted22
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(I could swear that I already responded to jaclaz's post couple days ago and saw my replay posted!!.. weird..)

 

Which is good, as jaclaz could swear that he replied to that reply :w00t:, most probably a glitch in the matrix :ph34r: (there have been a few issues with the board in the last few days):

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/161919-why-was-msfn-down-yesterday-and-why-is-it-still-slow/?p=1092824

 

Till now we don't know if your disk is in BUSY state or not.

You should try to check with mhdd or hdat1 or victoria to make sure that it is (or it is not).

 

IF the disk is in BUSY state, it won't communicate properly through the serial (hence the need to "force" a "loop exit" by generating a hardware error, i.e. insulating the PCB contacts, the head ones, or the motor ones or both and/or additionally shorting the Read Channel, depending on models and situation).

 

Imagine that the disk is running DOS and an endless loop batch was started.

You need to press CTRL+C to stop the execution and get to command line, BUT IF BREAK=OFF was specified:

http://www.computerhope.com/breakhlp.htm

you cannot anymore, but if you generate a hardware error execution may well be stopped....

 

There is however a difference between the insulating of one or the other (or both) the contacts and the Read Channel shorting, the first is to access the interface, the second is a way to avoid that a specific command enters another loop of it's own.

 

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well.. first of all, the USB-TTL  just died. I now realize I should've ordered a couple since is was $2. there goes another couple months to get a new one.

 

But anyway.. I'm having a hard time getting a working Windows XP PC together for Victoria. and I wasn't able to find a clear info for first-time mhdd user. it's quite complicated. I tried running it and I could see that it recognized my main HDD (with the model number and capacity), but I couldn't see the bricked Maxtor drive and I also couldn't see a connected USB hdd, the USB flash drive I booted, and ran MHDD from, and couldn't see an IDE drive connected to the PC with a IDE-SATA adapter.

 

What should I expect to see in MHDD if the drive was actually at busy state?

Edited by hunted22
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...