[BlouBul]

QMEDLAM, on 01 November 2010 - 12:08 AM, said:

A week ago when I start up the PC in the morning, as ever, I din´t found the Seagate any more!
It appeared in WExplorer but the directories only. When I try to open them nothing happens.
I began, in great despair, to google and somewhere I read ¨bricked¨ and from there on I reach your site.
After reading many pages I am in a really mess and I don´t know what to do.
According with some of you, I noticed that it appeared in the POST correctly with 500 Gb, UDMA 6, etc.
Going to the setup it appeared also with 500 Gb, SATA 2, etc.
I take it off the PC, and tried it in my hand and it seems to me that it spin well, without any noises.
In the site of Seagate it appeared that I have the last firmware update. Of course I don´t update for myself, it is as I bought it.
I need a great help, I suppose. Can you help me?

Your drive is not bricked. Different symptoms and SD1A is immune against the bug.

Give us more details of what exactly the symptoms are. When you try to open folders, does it open and show empty or doesn't it open at all? If you rightclick - properties, does it show the right size?

[QMEDLAM]

Hi BlouBul
I thank you for your fast answer.
1 - When I try to open folders, WE seems to hang, and after a couple of minutes return to show the directories without open them.
2 - When I open Properties it shows the right size AND shows the usage in both partitions.

I have partitioned the disk in three partitions: a) 6 GB. to put in it the swap file. 228 Gb. for Data. c) 220 Gb. for Data. In and c) the usage is near the 90 %.

I risk myself running HD Tune, Info Tab, and it shows the following:

HD Tune: ST3500320AS Information

Firmware version : SD1A
Serial number : 5QM3W8X3
Capacity : 465.8 GB (~500.1 GB)
Buffer size : n/a
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-0 - SATA I
Supported mode : UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA/133)
Current mode : UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA/133)

S.M.A.R.T : yes
48-bit Address : yes
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: no
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : no
Power-up in Standby : no
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : yes

Partition : 1
Drive letter :
Label :
Capacity : 8001 MB
Usage : 0.00%
Type : NTFS
Bootable : No

Partition : 2
Drive letter :
Label :
Capacity : 234464 MB
Usage : 0.00%
Type : NTFS
Bootable : No

Partition : 3
Drive letter :
Label :
Capacity : 234472 MB
Usage : 0.00%
Type : NTFS
Bootable : No

That´s all for now.
Quique Villalba

[BlouBul]

That's strange.
Can you copy folders to your working drive? Does it work in safe mode? Can you access the folders in your other drive?

[jaclaz]

QMEDLAM, on 01 November 2010 - 04:20 PM, said:

I risk myself running HD Tune, Info Tab, and it shows the following:

It sounds like a perfectly working hard disk that has serious partitioning/filesystem issues.

Just open Disk Management, take a snapshot of it and post the screenshot.

Open a command prompt and try running in it CHKDSK (without ANY command parameter BUT the drive letter) example if the three partitions on that disk are E:\ F:\ and G:\ try running:

CHKDSK E:\

repeat with F: and G:

Post what chkdsk says.

Please also, start a NEW THREAD about your issue, it seems like having nothing to do with this thread scope.

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 02 November 2010 - 02:34 PM

[QMEDLAM]

Last post in this thread.
To BlouBul and jaclaz:
Many thanks for your concern.
I´ll do my homework and open a new thread called:
QM NEEDS HELP WITH ST3500320AS-SD1A.
Cheers

[damocles]

Hi, I havejust been reading about baracuda 7200.11 drives. Mine is st3500620AS serial 9qm7a9es firmware SD25 date code 09123 site code kratsg, product of thailand. It was supplied as part of a fujitsu siemens computer with a 1 year guarantee. I appreciate this thread has been going a long time so information may have changed, and I have not read every word. At some point it lists an announcement from seagate that this bug did not affect drives made after jan o9. I dont understand the date code so I dont know if it would or would not come into that range. The drive failed gradually. Windows vista became difficult to boot, stuck for long periods but then did boot on a known good configuration. Then next time around total failure and the drive is not recognised. Seagate list the drive serial as needing an update, but they also give a list of firmwares affected and say to get in touch if you have a different one, which this is. I await their response.

The drive seems to run ok without strange noises and holds up boot when fitted in a computer, presumably as it tries to read the drive. It is then not recognised. It failed this summer, but the computer hasnt been used much since new.

I was wondering if people had more information about a wider range of affected drives and if this would be one of them. The slow failure might be indicative of a separate problem with windows, which however caused a sudden rash of power off restarts and thus triggered the disk shutdown.

[BlouBul]

damocles, on 02 November 2010 - 02:42 PM, said:

Hi, I havejust been reading about baracuda 7200.11 drives. Mine is st3500620AS serial 9qm7a9es firmware SD25 date code 09123 site code kratsg, product of thailand. It was supplied as part of a fujitsu siemens computer with a 1 year guarantee. I appreciate this thread has been going a long time so information may have changed, and I have not read every word. At some point it lists an announcement from seagate that this bug did not affect drives made after jan o9. I dont understand the date code so I dont know if it would or would not come into that range. The drive failed gradually. Windows vista became difficult to boot, stuck for long periods but then did boot on a known good configuration. Then next time around total failure and the drive is not recognised. Seagate list the drive serial as needing an update, but they also give a list of firmwares affected and say to get in touch if you have a different one, which this is. I await their response.

The drive seems to run ok without strange noises and holds up boot when fitted in a computer, presumably as it tries to read the drive. It is then not recognised. It failed this summer, but the computer hasnt been used much since new.

I was wondering if people had more information about a wider range of affected drives and if this would be one of them. The slow failure might be indicative of a separate problem with windows, which however caused a sudden rash of power off restarts and thus triggered the disk shutdown.

All SD25 firmware is affected.

I think you are right about it being a separated problem in the beginning, but if it is now constantly not being recognised in bios, it *might* now be suffering from BSY.

A good place to start is http://www.msfn.org/...-read-me-first/ where you will get all the details of what is wrong and how to fix your drive.

[damocles]

havnt built a serial interface to connect something for 20 years, but hey. Cant help thinking that it ought to be possible to reprogram the disc via the pc sata connector. Would that be one of the big secrets seagate want to keep hidden? Anyone know what my date code 09123 translates as?

And thanks to everyone who wrote the threads here. It was fun reading your chase trying to figure this out.

[jaclaz]

damocles, on 02 November 2010 - 05:07 PM, said:

Cant help thinking that it ought to be possible to reprogram the disc via the pc sata connector. Would that be one of the big secrets seagate want to keep hidden?

Good luck on your wild goose chase.

damocles, on 02 November 2010 - 05:07 PM, said:

Anyone know what my date code 09123 translates as?

Yes.
http://homepages.tes...no-answers.html

See here :
http://tinyurl.com/2ccy9yx

jaclaz

[karas667]

ok so this is the best place i've been able to find for help with my problem, so i bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (in the form of a buffalo 1TB external drive) and its worked fine for me for about 2 years now, a couple of weeks ago i got a virus/error/my computer was just being retarded and wouldn't let me install any new programs or updates (it got to the "i've read and agree to the terms and conditions" page then the installation window just dissapeared) so i moved "everything" (every file, movie and photo i own) onto my external taking it to about 950GB full out off 1TB and began a full clean reinstall of windows xp my external worked fine for another couple of days, then one day i turned in on and nothing.

The disc spins up fine but my computer and laptop dont even recognise that ive plugged something in, then i heard of then type ofproblems being talked about here so i started reading the thread and got to about page 7 befor i realised a ) this thread is really long and b ) most of waht is being said is going over my head (i have no idea what most of the abbreviations stand for) , im not some computer illiterate goon but im not as advanced as some of the users on here.

as such im going to post as much information as i can here and see if anybody can give me instructions as to a home fix. the external inself is currently in multiple pieces as i took it appart and tried to install it as an internal drive and force my bios to detect the drive, this didn't work at all, obviously i can put it back together if needed.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB

S/N: 9QJ16WXB

ST31000340AS

P/N: 9BX158-501

Firmware: SD15

Date Code: 08513

Site Code: KRATSG

WWN: 5000C5000D4D6A88

(MIC)
STX-ST31000340AS ( B )

this is all the information that there is on the acctuall HD in question any help appreciated and while waiting i will continue to slowly work my way through the rest of the thread, however i dont think this will be much help as most of the links are now dead.
thx in advance to anybody who reads this and/or helps.

This post has been edited by karas667: 18 November 2010 - 01:08 PM

[BlouBul]

karas667, on 18 November 2010 - 12:49 PM, said:

The disc spins up fine but my computer and laptop dont even recognise that ive plugged something in, then i heard of then type ofproblems being talked about here so i started reading the thread and got to about page 7 befor i realised a ) this thread is really long and b ) most of waht is being said is going over my head (i have no idea what most of the abbreviations stand for) , im not some computer illiterate goon but im not as advanced as some of the users on here.

as such im going to post as much information as i can here and see if anybody can give me instructions as to a home fix. the external inself is currently in multiple pieces as i took it appart and tried to install it as an internal drive and force my bios to detect the drive, this didn't work at all, obviously i can put it back together if needed.

Hi karas667

On the top of all the pages in this section, you will find the following quote:

Quote

If you have questions about Seagate 7200.11, do read the READ_ME_FIRST, then read the FGA. If your questions remain unanswered after reading those two stickies, then post.

The READ-ME-FIRST should guide you as to not have to read all the many pages, but only the relevant ones. There you will find a link to the guide by CarterinCanada and the FGA.

After you have read those three documents, and still have questions, you are more than welcome to ask SPECIFIC questions. But don't you think to ask for the whole procedure is a bit much?

[CylonWolf]

Hey guys, so Ive finally gotten around to getting the parts needed to (hopefully) fix my drive. However, I want to clarify one thing that I cant find the answer to before I proceed. Even after reading the stickies and whatnot, I still cant say with 100% certainty that my drive is a victim of this firmware issue, although Im pretty certain this is the case. If its actually some other issue that provides the same symptoms, will I damage the drive by doing this? I guess at this point maybe it doesnt matter, either I get my data back or I dont, but I do have to wonder.

[BlouBul]

CylonWolf, on 19 December 2010 - 10:58 AM, said:

Hey guys, so Ive finally gotten around to getting the parts needed to (hopefully) fix my drive. However, I want to clarify one thing that I cant find the answer to before I proceed. Even after reading the stickies and whatnot, I still cant say with 100% certainty that my drive is a victim of this firmware issue, although Im pretty certain this is the case. If its actually some other issue that provides the same symptoms, will I damage the drive by doing this? I guess at this point maybe it doesnt matter, either I get my data back or I dont, but I do have to wonder.

Hi CylonWolf,
Welcome back!

No problem to do the fix even on a drive that is not bricked. It just resets the settings to factory default (and thereby clearing the error that caused it to brick).

Good luck!

[imawag]

BlouBul, on 19 December 2010 - 11:57 AM, said:

CylonWolf, on 19 December 2010 - 10:58 AM, said:

Hey guys, so Ive finally gotten around to getting the parts needed to (hopefully) fix my drive. However, I want to clarify one thing that I cant find the answer to before I proceed. Even after reading the stickies and whatnot, I still cant say with 100% certainty that my drive is a victim of this firmware issue, although Im pretty certain this is the case. If its actually some other issue that provides the same symptoms, will I damage the drive by doing this? I guess at this point maybe it doesnt matter, either I get my data back or I dont, but I do have to wonder.

Hi CylonWolf,
Welcome back!

No problem to do the fix even on a drive that is not bricked. It just resets the settings to factory default (and thereby clearing the error that caused it to brick).

Good luck!

There should be no good luck involved.

Is not right that seagate get away with this - this is my second "brick"courtesy of them.

Files contained on both my "bricks" are irreplacable. I've paid my hard earned money in order to keep files which are important to me.

Best case scenario is a replacement of my bricks and/or a hugely expensive attempted recovery process.

Not good enough - if they can't provide a reliable product - then they shouldn't try to sell second rate crap and expect us to "suck it up".

Here's a thought - how about we consider taking out a class action against them?

Apologise in advance for such a strong first post - but am very p*ssed off.

Edit: Spelling

This post has been edited by imawag: 22 December 2010 - 05:07 AM

[icefloe01]

imawag, on 22 December 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

There should be no good luck involved.

Is not right that seagate get away with this - this is my second "brick"courtesy of them.

Files contained on both my "bricks" are irreplacable. I've paid my hard earned money in order to keep files which are important to me.

Best case scenario is a replacement of my bricks and/or a hugely expensive attempted recovery process.

Not good enough - if they can't provide a reliable product - then they shouldn't try to sell second rate crap and expect us to "suck it up".

Here's a thought - how about we consider taking out a class action against them?

Apologise in advance for such a strong first post - but am very p*ssed off.

Edit: Spelling

Wow. Just, wow. Thank you for thoroughly reading the thread and staying completely on top of the issue and realizing that big, bad Seagate has truly gotten a huge, evil deed over on us. Fight "The Power"! Down with "The Man"!! Curse them for doing this to us and then offering to repair the drives for free and offer free data recovery!! That's just totally unacceptable because everything they produce should be 100% perfect! No flaws ever allowed!! Nevermind the fact that if we have irreplaceable data we should have multiple, redundant backups (some offsite), and if we don't that's Seagate's fault as well!! D*** you Seagate!! D*** you to H***!!! </sarcasm>

[BlouBul]

imawag, on 22 December 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

There should be no good luck involved.

There is no luck involved. It is very straightforward. Good Luck is defined as

Dictionary.com said:

I wish you success. This term is used both straightforwardly, as in Good luck on your journey , and sarcastically, implying that what someone is undertaking is not likely to succeed, as in If you think you'll find that long-lost letter, good luck to you .

imawag, on 22 December 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

Is not right that seagate get away with this - this is my second "brick"courtesy of them.
Files contained on both my "bricks" are irreplacable. I've paid my hard earned money in order to keep files which are important to me.

Did you not learn after the first brick to update your firmware and to back up your data?

imawag, on 22 December 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

Best case scenario is a replacement of my bricks and/or a hugely expensive attempted recovery process.

Best case is to read the stickies and repair both for a once of purchase of under $20

imawag, on 22 December 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

Not good enough - if they can't provide a reliable product - then they shouldn't try to sell second rate crap and expect us to "suck it up".

It is a reliable product, once you update the firmware and not ignore the fact that some of your previous disks were bricked because you did not upgrade the firmware.

imawag, on 22 December 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

Here's a thought - how about we consider taking out a class action against them?

Good luck to you

imawag, on 22 December 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

Apologise in advance for such a strong first post - but am very p*ssed off.

We can see that. Now calm down, read the stickies, and if you need help to fix your two bricks without any external luck required, feel free to ask specific questions and we will try to help you.
Good Luck

This post has been edited by BlouBul: 22 December 2010 - 02:22 PM

[icefloe01]

BlouBul=

[jaclaz]

BlouBul, on 22 December 2010 - 02:13 PM, said:

It is a reliable product, once you update the firmware and not ignore the fact that some of your previous disks were bricked because you did not upgrade the firmware.

...firmware that was NOT released before the drives started falling down bricking like flies, and additionally the early versions of the firmware update were also no good AND the stupid seagate tool DID NOT (and doesn't still) list correctly drives affected.

... and I don't remember seeing anywhere on newspapers actual recalls....
http://en.wikipedia..../Product_recall

Though there are no safety issues involved, we have the Intel recall of 1994 as a precedent, they could well do somethng like that....

The real issue is not in the actual problem - it may (and it has and it will) happen to *any* hard disk manufacturer, it is in the way it was managed badly once found out.

For the record, these topics have been already talked to death:
http://www.msfn.org/...ndpost&p=935754
http://www.msfn.org/...ndpost&p=905666

jaclaz

[corkyblue]

heres a quick one chaps - in buying the RS232 to TTL converter do I specifically need 3.3v or will a 5v one do the job?

dont want to fry anything!

Corky

[jaclaz]

corkyblue, on 07 March 2011 - 10:48 AM, said:

heres a quick one chaps - in buying the RS232 to TTL converter do I specifically need 3.3v or will a 5v one do the job?

What is the difficult part in the README first?
http://www.msfn.org/...-read-me-first/
READ ATTENTIVELY point #10!

Draw your own conclusions.

jaclaz