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Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Troubles


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Mine is not that straight forward. There's a separate console that connects to the PC via USB. The serial cable is then connected to the console.

What is the full chain?

PC ----USB----console-----serial cable------? special adapter ? ----- harddrive?

-IDE - IDE/SATA adapter (requires another power cable) - HDD SATA data

PC - USB - > console < -serial transmitter - pin adapter - jumpers on HDD

power adaptor -molex power - molex/sata power adapter - HDD SATA power

tried to be as descriptive as possible. does that make sense? the chevrons are splits

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FWIW, for my recovery the price I paid for my serial to sata cable + software was $500.

Can you please post a picture of the Serial to SATA cable? I've never seen one of these before. :blink:

Mine is not that straight forward. There's a separate console that connects to the PC via USB. The serial cable is then connected to the console. It's definitely something I could NOT put together. The repair kit I got came with this and a whole bunch of adapters. The documentation and support was a bit painful and patience is definitely needed.

Someone suggested teaming up in our locales and splitting the cost of the kit. As I doubt Seagate is going to do anything about it (they can't, really. The liability alone in this economic climate?) I would say this is probably the easiest method for anybody who needs their data back. I myself already have a couple people online shipping their drives to me to unbrick. I called a couple of Data Recovery sites and the cheapest quote started at $1500 low priority. I don't mind referring to these guys if you've dropped your hard drive while it was on or flooded it in the basement but for a simple firmware fix that should never have been there in the first place it seems like using a chainsaw when all you need is a pocket knife.

For what it's worth I know someone who's trying to get Italy up and running but no repair kit yet. I'm in Toronto, Canada with a kit and a rescued ST31000AS SD15.

---

Rule #1 Always back up your data

Rule #2 Always back up your data (This is a backup to Rule #1)

hey FUZZBY,

can you give us detail pics of what the hardware setup looks like, for some of us willing to tinker :hello: thanks

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-IDE - IDE/SATA adapter (requires another power cable) - HDD SATA data

PC - USB - > console < -serial transmitter - pin adapter - jumpers on HDD

power adaptor -molex power - molex/sata power adapter - HDD SATA power

tried to be as descriptive as possible. does that make sense? the chevrons are splits

Thanks, I get it now :)

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Most probably the e-mail addresses "reserved" for press only, which can be found here:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/

under "media"

could be used in this particular case, CCing them to actual News..... in order to make the people in "communication" aware of the size and gravity of the problem, it is also possible that Seagate officials from the Support did not mention the matter with them....

jaclaz

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I've tried asking SalvationDATA if they had cheaper solution or even group discounts, unfortunately they don't.... heck, I wouldn't too, if I were them, seeing that they are the ONLY commercial solution that is even remotely affordable.... I'm surprised they don't even increase it just because of this issue...

Anyway, fuzzby, it looks like you're doing a great service for the folks up in Canada... I know this may be too much to ask (and maybe even bordering on breaking some copyright or IP laws), but perhaps you could help this forum by looking at what's going on in the serial ports... I'm sure someone on this forum can make an adapter that you could use to peek into the serial port activity... that would certainly speed up our efforts here to come up with a solution... just a thought, and I fully understand if you or others don't think it's a good idea... it is, after all, some form of stealing....

Like you, I am willing to pay some amount to recover my data, but USD500 is still rather steep....

I'm a little reluctant to peek inside it or modify it yet as I'll still need it in 100% working condition for other people sending me in drives. I would imagine I'd be offering this for a few more weeks but after that I'm game with whatever will help get to the bottom of this. Funny you mention Canada that as its Americans that are sending me these drives. PM me if you want my help. I'm not out to profit from this. I work in IT support at a major Canadian bank so I'm familiar with confidentiality/privacy procedures. Anyways I'll be doing it for the a few weeks and then hopefully by then we'll have more people here with the kit that can help uut and share the burden of cost.

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Most probably the e-mail addresses "reserved" for press only, which can be found here:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/

under "media"

could be used in this particular case, CCing them to actual News..... in order to make the people in "communication" aware of the size and gravity of the problem, it is also possible that Seagate officials from the Support did not mention the matter with them....

jaclaz

A nice formal e-mail, including the "plague" worldmap (with a slightly altered title ofcourse) and the 7200.11 drive life trajectory figure based on the fail & fine list B)

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All these management people should get know the issue. Just no E-mail addresses in the list.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/cor...executive_team/

How about we find E-mails from Seagate managing people and write about the failing HDD problem directly. Cc: will be more visible. Additionally we could include some news agencies (BBS, CNN, etc.). I think then they will start taking the issue seriously - at least when the news would report about it, and share prices will drop.

1. collect E-mail addresses

2. compose the message

3. send.

Here are some news from Seagate site, also on 21st is coming.

From http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?loca...000f5ee0a0aRCRD

About Seagate > News > Press Releases > Seagate Technology Board Of Directors Appoints Chairman Stephen J. Luczo As President And Chief Executive Officer

Seagate Technology Board Of Directors Appoints Chairman Stephen J. Luczo As President And Chief Executive Officer

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Hi all,

My 500 GB 7200.11 went under yesterday, on the same day I lost my job, and that hard disk has my resume on it. It was not a good day. Anyway, I didn't want to risk losing the OTHER 500 GB disk (yeah, shouldn't have bought 2 of it), so I turned it off in BIOS and booted up with SLAX. The funniest thing happened that is the kernel is able to pick up the undamaged HDD even though I disabled it in BIOS! I can even mount it!

Tried it with the broken HDD, detected a hard disk drive but faces a timeout (probably at retrieving device info).

Since the ATA commands are pretty well documented, I was wondering if it is possible to send an unlock ATA command to the drive so the arm will move again? This would remove the need for the R232 serial port connector and make life a whole lot easier. But i think the biggest problem would be t figure out what command to send (if we can send it).

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Hi all,

My 500 GB 7200.11 went under yesterday, on the same day I lost my job, and that hard disk has my resume on it. It was not a good day. Anyway, I didn't want to risk losing the OTHER 500 GB disk (yeah, shouldn't have bought 2 of it), so I turned it off in BIOS and booted up with SLAX. The funniest thing happened that is the kernel is able to pick up the undamaged HDD even though I disabled it in BIOS! I can even mount it!

Tried it with the broken HDD, detected a hard disk drive but faces a timeout (probably at retrieving device info).

Since the ATA commands are pretty well documented, I was wondering if it is possible to send an unlock ATA command to the drive so the arm will move again? This would remove the need for the R232 serial port connector and make life a whole lot easier. But i think the biggest problem would be t figure out what command to send (if we can send it).

You can look around for HEX commands that can be sent, but to my knowledge, every fix needs a serial connection to the drive.

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Finally I wrote down the details of my failed HDD. Please include into the list.

Number in list:Serial N°:Model:Part N°:Firmware:DateCode:SiteCode:PurchaseDate:FailedDate:OEM/RETAIL:UserName:Country of the User

=========================================================================================

43:9QJ0LL4B:ST31000340AS:9BX158-303:SD15:09012:KRATSG:-:-:OEM:rimask:Singapore:(no detect in bios)

S/N 9QJ0LL4B

ST31000340AS

P/N 9BX158-303

Firmware SD15

Date Code 09012

Site Code KRATSG

WWN: 5000C5000CD087A8

STX-ST31000340AS

Product Of Thailand

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Hi all. I just registered after reading the 26 pages in this thread.

I have in my fileserver

2x ST3500630AS

1x ST3500841AS

1x ST3750330AS

I have also bought two 1TB Seagate drives to expand with.

So far none of them has failed, but this thread has really gotten me spooked. With the amount of data, I cant keep backups of it all. But for the essential data, I use on-line and off-line backup. I chose Seagate as they were highly recommended and came with a 5 year warranty, but after reading how they have been treating this problem, I can't keep recommending them.

For people relying on optical media as a backup, I must mention that I have had discs fail (only high quality brand media) after little less than a year. I am looking into buying an Iomega Rev or a RDX backup station.

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