The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs

[robintay]

ive got a st1000340as drive. dead since october last year. all the family vacation photos are on it. argh!

following this forum ive purchased almost every single cable mentioned and none has worked. loop through all works. the last cable bought was the ftdi 232r 3v3 usb cable. plugged in the tx/rx to the drive. ground to the drive. rts and cts plugged in together etc. hyperterminal set up to 38400 bps... no response when entered ctrl-z or ctrl-Z.

again i would like to ask if anyone is in the uk particularly in london, please help. i am willing to pay for your help and incovenience.

[CarterInCanada]

ive got a st1000340as drive. dead since october last year. all the family vacation photos are on it. argh!

following this forum ive purchased almost every single cable mentioned and none has worked. loop through all works. the last cable bought was the ftdi 232r 3v3 usb cable. plugged in the tx/rx to the drive. ground to the drive. rts and cts plugged in together etc. hyperterminal set up to 38400 bps... no response when entered ctrl-z or ctrl-Z.

again i would like to ask if anyone is in the uk particularly in london, please help. i am willing to pay for your help and incovenience.

Hi Robin,

Hang in there! Your problem sounds like one a few posts back where the loopback works but the communication goes wonky once the drive is introduced. Have you confirmed the hard settings on your USB port aren't doing something to interfere? I'm talking about port settings on your computer's BIOS that might be over-riding the soft setting within Hyperterminal. Another friend of mine had similar problems and we discovered her BIOS had set the USB port to a hard setting different from what the drive expected. Flipped it to "auto/software controlled" and the prompt came right up.

Since you've had a sucessful loopback (wires are dumb and don't care about settings), I'd focus on the communications settings on the port and inside windows just to make sure something there isn't fouled. Slim help I know but it sounds like you're really close to getting there.

Good luck!

CinC

ps. Too bad I'm in Canada, but I come to London every fall so if you're still having problems in October...LOL (sorry, I know you don't find it funny but I couldn't resist)

[robintay]

ive got a st1000340as drive. dead since october last year. all the family vacation photos are on it. argh!

following this forum ive purchased almost every single cable mentioned and none has worked. loop through all works. the last cable bought was the ftdi 232r 3v3 usb cable. plugged in the tx/rx to the drive. ground to the drive. rts and cts plugged in together etc. hyperterminal set up to 38400 bps... no response when entered ctrl-z or ctrl-Z.

again i would like to ask if anyone is in the uk particularly in london, please help. i am willing to pay for your help and incovenience.

Hi Robin,

Hang in there! Your problem sounds like one a few posts back where the loopback works but the communication goes wonky once the drive is introduced. Have you confirmed the hard settings on your USB port aren't doing something to interfere? I'm talking about port settings on your computer's BIOS that might be over-riding the soft setting within Hyperterminal. Another friend of mine had similar problems and we discovered her BIOS had set the USB port to a hard setting different from what the drive expected. Flipped it to "auto/software controlled" and the prompt came right up.

Since you've had a sucessful loopback (wires are dumb and don't care about settings), I'd focus on the communications settings on the port and inside windows just to make sure something there isn't fouled. Slim help I know but it sounds like you're really close to getting there.

Good luck!

CinC

ps. Too bad I'm in Canada, but I come to London every fall so if you're still having problems in October...LOL (sorry, I know you don't find it funny but I couldn't resist)

Oh well yeah could be... will have another try tonight. I was actually just browsing for another same drive to try the replace pcb trick. Heck if it is still not working by October let me know when you're in town.

Edited April 29, 2009 by robintay

[sergsw]

Hello and BIG thanks for this super helpfull and detailed topic!

I've near successfully recovered my ST31000340AS by aviko algorithm (which has commands to issue if first try fails)

So with nokia's cable CA-42, 2 wires Rx/Tx and 2xAA as 3v power all was made in second try. Got my HD visible in BIOS. Full size.

But some BSY behavior remains -- system slow down loading when this drive is connected. And when it finally loads -- it visible empty and only in Disk Management Console.

I tried to flash from SD15 to SD1A. Tryied to repeat commands along with clearing G-list. All the same -- drive is in BSY-like behavior ((

What can I try else? And is there data remains?

[CarterInCanada]

Oh well yeah could be... will have another try tonight. I was actually just browsing for another same drive to try the replace pcb trick. Heck if it is still not working by October let me know when you're in town.

You might want to read back a few posts before you start swapping PCBs, Robin. A few folks were convinced that was a bad idea and way back in the dark recesses of my brain, I think I agree with them. My highly UNeducated guess is that dropping another PCB on the drive before you can give the spin down command might, at worst, send things wonky and at best, be a waste of time. Just another tidbit to worry you in all this but your mileage may vary on that solution.

As an aside, does Seagate's "official" repair/data recovery not cover you there in the UK? Just curious for anyone else that may be in your situation nearby.

The first pint in October is on you, but here's hoping we get you sorted out long before then. Cheers!

- CinC

[puntoMX]

I still have this 30 611 byte of text on the computer, and if anyone is interested I would try to finish it and publish it as a new thread here at MSFN.

If it contains pictures that would be great, it seems that Gradius2 (Isn't that a Konami game like Nemesis (MSX)? B) ) has left the forums and killed some pictures with it.

"Gratis" is used in a lot of languages by the way...

[sergsw]

One more detail -- I finally found there's no lag if I set IDE enhanced compatible mode in BIOS (ICH7)

What can it be with SATA mode why it makes line busy and slow down system? Maybe there's a command to reset SATA?

[zeddyh]

Hi Robin

As I successfully unbricked my ST31000340AS drive with the FTDI TTL-232R-3V3 cable I'd thought I'd share what I did to see if that offers you any useful tips to resolve your problems. I went for the FTDI cable as it avoided the need to play around with any secondary power source.

First I used 2 computers to do this. The first was the desktop PC that had to failed drive. I unplugged the SATA data cable from the drive, but left the original SATA power cable plugged in. This seemed much easier than trying to rig up a power source for the drive. It also avoided the issue that people reported on some SATA extension power cables not containing all the required wires. It also meant I could use the normal PC on/off button to control the power to the drive. (if you had any other hard drives I would suggest unplugging them to avoid damaging them)

The second PC was a laptop that was used to run the hyperterminal commands, and had the FTDI cable attached. I had to download and install the VCP drivers for the cable to be recognised as a COM port. You can get the drivers here http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm Once installed I started hyperterminal and doubled checked I had the right COM port by unplugging the FTDI cable and noting which COM port disappeared.

As far as wiring for the FTDI cable I did the following

- Orange (TXD) - Connected to 1st terminal pin on PCB (closest pin to SATA adapter)

- Yellow (RXD) - Connected to 2nd terminal pin on PCB (2nd closest pin to SATA adapter)

- Black (GND) - Connected to 3rd terminal pin on PCB (3rd closest pin to SATA adapter).

I didn't do anything with any of the other cables.

On the disk drive I place a business card over just the centre drive contacts. I then turned on the power to the desktop PC to provide the power to the hard disk PCB. I waited for the disk to spin up. On my drive I could hear it start to spin, and then after 10 seconds or so it didn't make any additional sounds. (it was this that made me think that the drive wasn't really dead, and lucky find this thread) I've had other disks die and they generally made a sound that doesn't sound healthy straight away.

At that point I started Hyperterminal, and used the settings described, making sure to select the correct COM port for the FTDI cable.

- Baud: 38400, Data Bits: 8, Stop Bits: 1, Parity: none, Flow Control: none

As this point I could then use the CTRL+z and got the "F3 T>" prompt.

I then following the exact commands as described by CarterInCanada on his web site.

Hopefully the above gives you a few more pointers to check out if you are still struggling

[robintay]

Hi Robin

As I successfully unbricked my ST31000340AS drive with the FTDI TTL-232R-3V3 cable I'd thought I'd share what I did to see if that offers you any useful tips to resolve your problems. I went for the FTDI cable as it avoided the need to play around with any secondary power source.

First I used 2 computers to do this. The first was the desktop PC that had to failed drive. I unplugged the SATA data cable from the drive, but left the original SATA power cable plugged in. This seemed much easier than trying to rig up a power source for the drive. It also avoided the issue that people reported on some SATA extension power cables not containing all the required wires. It also meant I could use the normal PC on/off button to control the power to the drive. (if you had any other hard drives I would suggest unplugging them to avoid damaging them)

The second PC was a laptop that was used to run the hyperterminal commands, and had the FTDI cable attached. I had to download and install the VCP drivers for the cable to be recognised as a COM port. You can get the drivers here http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm Once installed I started hyperterminal and doubled checked I had the right COM port by unplugging the FTDI cable and noting which COM port disappeared.

As far as wiring for the FTDI cable I did the following

- Orange (TXD) - Connected to 1st terminal pin on PCB (closest pin to SATA adapter)

- Yellow (RXD) - Connected to 2nd terminal pin on PCB (2nd closest pin to SATA adapter)

- Black (GND) - Connected to 3rd terminal pin on PCB (3rd closest pin to SATA adapter).

I didn't do anything with any of the other cables.

On the disk drive I place a business card over just the centre drive contacts. I then turned on the power to the desktop PC to provide the power to the hard disk PCB. I waited for the disk to spin up. On my drive I could hear it start to spin, and then after 10 seconds or so it didn't make any additional sounds. (it was this that made me think that the drive wasn't really dead, and lucky find this thread) I've had other disks die and they generally made a sound that doesn't sound healthy straight away.

At that point I started Hyperterminal, and used the settings described, making sure to select the correct COM port for the FTDI cable.

- Baud: 38400, Data Bits: 8, Stop Bits: 1, Parity: none, Flow Control: none

As this point I could then use the CTRL+z and got the "F3 T>" prompt.

I then following the exact commands as described by CarterInCanada on his web site.

Hopefully the above gives you a few more pointers to check out if you are still struggling

Hey zeddyh

Thanks for your info. I'll have to set up the laptop to give this a try. Pray for the light at the end of the tunnel for this drive...

[shivpaul]

Well I finally got my Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB drive back from the dead

So I though I'd share my experience so others with Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB drives could have some hope.

First I bought a nokia CA-42 cable from amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-CA-42-Connecti...6762&sr=8-2

After receiving the cable, cut off the end that goes to the phone, and strip the wires. Five wires in total. Red, Black, White, Blue and Yellow. (please note I never used the Yellow wire at all during the process detailed below)

When i connected the usb end of the cable into my Windows XP pc, it wasn't recognized by my pc. I had to take Red and Black wires of the cable and connect them to my pc's power supply (seems this cable requires power from a nokia phone, which I substituted for the pc's power supply instead).

Once the cable is receiving power, my pc recognized it and asked for drivers. I downloaded drivers previously from Open Drivers website :

http://www.opendrivers.com/driver/230166/n...e-download.html

After driver has been installed for the cable, you can now open up hyperterminal.

When hyperterminal opens up, you will have to specify a name for the new connection(for example, direct-com-1), after which you'll have to select the particular COM port to use. In my case, it was COM 5. When you install the cable correctly, a new COM port will be opened. So you'll have to figure out which one it is from the drop down list within hyperterminal when setting up the new connection. Also make to use the following settings in hyperterminal: 38400, 8, None, 1, None.

Once you have the hyperterminal connection established, when you type anything on the keyboard, nothing shows up. At this point, create a loopback connection with your nokia CA-42 cable by connecting the Blue and White wires together. After this, type again and you should see you characters showing up just fine.

Its now time to connect the White wire to the RX pin, the Blue to the TX pin, and also connect a wire from the the Black wire to the ground on the back of the hard drive.. (you can see which pin is which on the hard drive here: http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home ... just scroll down to the middle of the page for the picture)

(keep the CA-42 cable always plgged into your pc during everything described above)

Once this is done, plug in the sata power plug to the back of the drive. after a little while, if everything was connected correctly, you will start to see a continuous error message being displayed in your hyperterminal window... LED: 000000CC ..

At this point, i began following this guide here : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=129551

The only difference though was that I used the photo reference in post #3 of the above link. That photo showed me exactly where I had to short. After which I just proceeded with those instructions.

At the point where i had to enter m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 and wait though....half hour later I was still waiting for a response from the drive.

So I decided to shut down the hard drive, unplug the CA-42 cable, and reconnect back the cable, start back a new hyperterminal connection, and plug back in the drive.

I then followed the recommendation of post #1010 on page 51 of this thread...

Once I had a connection to the drive once again, I typed in:

F3 T>F,,22

and got... Drive Configuration restored to defaults

then i typed:

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22

After about a minute or so, I got the required response similar to:

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 00, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 0000

User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004339, ErrCode 000

User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00008DED, ErrCode 000

00080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs

User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs

Then I powered down my hard drive, inserted it into my external enclosure, and bam! happy days!

all my info. from the drive was back!

MANY THANKS to everyone who contributed their time and efforts to help us all.

Edited May 1, 2009 by shivpaul

[toniko]

I have this problem with my Seagate 7200.11 too. I'm reading this quide that you have post for fixing the problem and my main problem is that i can't see the pictures shown in the gquide. Is there any video or pictures that i can see to view the whole process, because it's very difficult to understand without it.

[jaclaz]

I have this problem with my Seagate 7200.11 too. I'm reading this quide that you have post for fixing the problem and my main problem is that i can't see the pictures shown in the gquide. Is there any video or pictures that i can see to view the whole process, because it's very difficult to understand without it.

toniko,

try using this guide:

http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html

The "missing images" of the original guide have been re-uploaded here, however:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...807&st=1243

jaclaz

[toniko]

thank you ! . I'm going to try everything, hope it will happen

[Guest msfnuser333]

I unbricked my Maxtor HDD (STM31000340AS) with LBA0.

I used a DKU-5 clone and just connected 3 wires (no external force needed): Tx, Rx and GND.

Thanks!

Edited May 1, 2009 by msfnuser333

[firo]

Finally I managed to do the procedure but the end was not as described. After the first time the disk was still not recognised, spinning, but not read. I wet through the al process again including the optional part ((i4,1,22 command) but with the same outcome. At the end I do have a message

Max Wr Retries ...etc. ending with 00C8,

but the following message from teh manual has never appeared:

User Partition Format complete, Zone 00 ..... etc.

and I got next message

User Partition Format Sucsessful - Elapsed Time 0 min 00 sec. (But some of the others were referring having the same message and it worked for them.)

It is strange, 00s. Is not it? Something is missing.

When I connect it through the USB I can see the drive as mass store device in device manager, but not in My Computer. In the Computer Management the drive is seen as Dynamic, but saying "Foreign" with yellow triangle. When connected normally, it is not seen in BIOS. Also some Seagate diagnostic test passed, some not (short drive self test failed, generic tests passed)

Is there any chance for other steps?

thank you for your opinion

Edited May 4, 2009 by firo