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The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs


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The CP2102 Data Sheet shows that the output is 3.3v.

I also have another drive identical to the problem drive (other than the serial number, they are the same) that works fine.

I've tested just the circuit board (powered) for both drives and I get the exact same results.

When unpowered it appears to be in loopback mode because everything I type (alphanumeric) shows up in HyperTerminal. I've also tried Putty with similar results.

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The CP2102 Data Sheet shows that the output is 3.3v.

It may not be enough that the signal is 3.3V. The shape of the signal could interfere too.

I would try an RS232 adapter as most USB adapters don't work with the Seagate HD.

It could also be important how low the low signal is, 0.79 V is quite high for being a low signal

and may not be low enough for the HD to recognize it as a low signal, as the signal toggles up

and down during communication. Also verify that the GND on the adapter is the same GND on

the PCB side, by connecting each to a multimeter and getting a resistance of max 5 Ohm.

400px-Waveforms.svg.png

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The CP2102 Data Sheet shows that the output is 3.3v.

Where exactly? :unsure:

Mind you, I am not saying that the CP2102 does not support the "lower" TTL levels (I simply DO NOT know for sure that :ph34r: ) , only that I cannot find (and I doubt you were able to :whistle: ) this particular spec on the provided datasheet.

If you review the "readme first":

(Point #6)

you will find a link to here:

http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html

where the thing is graphically explained.

We have an indirect report here:

The description states:

"The Silicon Labs CP2102 USB to TTL Serial Cable is designed to allow simple rapid connection of microprocessors to the USB interface. It allows legacy products using PC serial ports to be easily upgraded to USB. The cable contains a USB to serial converter chip and is terminated in a standard 0.1” pitch header. The serial data is at standard 5v TTL levels allowing it to interface directly to the micro-processor of the intended application. The RX input is also 3v3 compatiable and if your 3v3 microcontroller is 5v tolerant then it can be used directly with 3v3 systems. All inputs/outputs are protected for shorts and ESD, and the +5v output is regulated."

notable parts bolded for your convenience.

IF this is the case, that adapter WILL NOT work to "talk" to the Seagate drive.

See what was replied at the time:

No, that converter you were talking about may work, but you are taking chances that the controller on board is "5v tolerant" something for which we do not have definitive evidence, in a nutshell:

  1. 3.3v will work
  2. 5v/3.3v may work
  3. 5v WON'T work

Based on just this partial info I would confirm what you have already been told:

I think your adapter either sends or expects 5V signals as there is a clean USB-connector on the PC side. You should try another adapter which is sure to send 3.3V signals.

If it doesn't work, there are 4 possibilities:

  1. you connected the the wires "badly" (I don't believe this)
  2. the adapter is a "dud"
  3. the adapter is NOT a "dud" but it outputs "something" that the PCB doesn't like, so it is not an"absolute dud" but rather a "relative dud"
  4. the PCB - for any reason - cannot communicate through the TTL port

Once discarded #1, your only choice (as you can't do anything about #4 ) is either ascertain if #2 or #3 apply (oscilloscope) or presume anyway that one of them applies and try with another adapter, possibly one already mentioned in this thread and known to be among the "working ones".

again bolded the relevant parts for your convenience.

Since the Seagate circuit FOR SURE does not "like" 5V TTL/CMOS levels and operates at 3.3V TTL levels, IF the adapter you have is "3v3 tolerant" on the Rx line (which obviously ANY adapter would since the 0.8÷3.3v range is WITHIN BOTH TTL/CMOS and TTL specs per given linked page ;)) you may want to get something like this:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8745

Or TRY mkaing a similar voltage divider with two small resistor on the adapter Tx line (HD Rx) to lower it's peaks (you will need a 10K and a 20K resistor

Of course the above may or may not work, and you would have an easier life by just getting an appropriate adapter.....

I also have another drive identical to the problem drive (other than the serial number, they are the same) that works fine.

I've tested just the circuit board (powered) for both drives and I get the exact same results.

Can you "talk" to that other HD with the same USB/TTL adapter?

If NO, it will be a confirmation that there is some problem with that particular adapter (again cannot say if with the "model" or the actual "specimen" you have :ph34r:)

When unpowered it appears to be in loopback mode because everything I type (alphanumeric) shows up in HyperTerminal. I've also tried Putty with similar results.

Yep :), you see, if the PCB is not powered it cannot - obviously - "boot" the "miniOS" which is it's "firmware", when unpowered it may either "short" the terminals or leave them open, but it is pointless to try to "talk" to an unpowered device anyway.

jaclaz

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The CP2102 Data Sheet shows that the output is 3.3v.

Where exactly? :unsure:

Mind you, I am not saying that the CP2102 does not support the "lower" TTL levels (I simply DO NOT know for sure that :ph34r: ) , only that I cannot find (and I doubt you were able to :whistle: ) this particular spec on the provided datasheet.

Page 14 / Section 8. Voltage Regulator / Table 10.

I'm currently working on a soft-o'scope utilizing an Arduino board for the measurements. Which may yield some useful results for the thread.

Back to the original problem; the drive appears to have died. The motor doesn't appear to spin up now and makes a slight, repetitive hum/buzz sound.

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Page 14 / Section 8. Voltage Regulator / Table 10.

That has NOTHING to do with TTL levels.

That part is about the Voltage regulator that is included in the chip and is abiut Vcc ("power") and NOT "signal". :w00t:

Back to the original problem; the drive appears to have died. The motor doesn't appear to spin up now and makes a slight, repetitive hum/buzz sound.

Since you removed the board, and also used the "cardboard", check thoroughfully contacts between HD and PCB:

jaclaz

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Hi,

i am new to the forum and having the same exact problem with my barracuda 7200.11, well I think I do. So I thought I should briefly explain

the symptoms and how I got here to you experts, to make sure I am right here.

My harddrive is an external maxtor case with a seagate barracuda 7200.11 (I can post the serial if that helps). It is a few years old and just stopped

working about 3 weeks ago, meaning It turns on completely fine, spinning normally, but wouldn't be recognised by my laptop. Not in the explorer,

not in the device manager, nowhere. So after trying the usuals (different case, different usb cable, different laptop...) and googling for a week,

I rang up the *free* seagate support. And although my drive is definetly out of warranty, there was a very friendly guy picking up and trying to help me.

And he quite quickly asumed, that my drive would be busy or bsy, because of very certain circumstances and accidents, that I didn't quite understand

(but would like to if you guys can explain them to me). Anyway he told me, that I would have two chances, either a professional data recovery firm or

and I found that funny, THIS board "MSFN". And since I am willing to try it myself, I am here ;) but before I start, I'd like to ask:

1. do you think my problem is the busy or bsy error and it is worth trying the tutorial?

2. Which description should I follow? The one on the first page? or the shorter "bsy only" one?

3. Since both sounds complex, is there any other way getting my drive running, e.g. exchanging the PCB?

4. What does this dial up thing exactly do? Will I need an internet connection?

5. Can I come back to you and ask for help if I have any problems while doing this? ;)

Thank you guys a lot, I am very happy about having found this place !!!

Cheers

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1. do you think my problem is the busy or bsy error and it is worth trying the tutorial?

Cannot say, you should check yourself by connecting the hard disk "directly" (without the USB enclosure) to a desktop and see what the BIOS detects.

2. Which description should I follow? The one on the first page? or the shorter "bsy only" one?

THIS guide:

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

3. Since both sounds complex, is there any other way getting my drive running, e.g. exchanging the PCB?

See here:

APTLY titled:

DON'T EVEN think of swapping PCB's on 7200.11 (meaning DO NOT, like in DO NOT, DO NOT)

Also ;):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain't_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch

4. What does this dial up thing exactly do? Will I need an internet connection?

There is NOTHING connected with dial-up, EXCEPTION made for this :whistle: :

You may want to re-read (actually READ for the first time) the mentioned guide.

An internet connection may be handy if you need help, but there is no actual *need* for one.

5. Can I come back to you and ask for help if I have any problems while doing this? ;)

Sure you can :).

jaclaz

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1. do you think my problem is the busy or bsy error and it is worth trying the tutorial?

2. Which description should I follow? The one on the first page? or the shorter "bsy only" one?

3. Since both sounds complex, is there any other way getting my drive running, e.g. exchanging the PCB?

4. What does this dial up thing exactly do? Will I need an internet connection?

5. Can I come back to you and ask for help if I have any problems while doing this? ;)

Answers, partly based on my experience and partly on what I've read:

1. If the HD doesn't show up in BIOS at boot time, there is a higher likelihood that the fault is the so called BSY error. If your data is interesting for you and you have no backup, you should try.

2. You should go the RS232 adapter route in my experience, since a clean USB-to-TTL adapter most often doesn't work with the HD. I did most of the gradius method, with the exception of isolating the HEAD contacts, see this link . Look for example up ebay MAX3232 adapters. Going the mobile phone cable route also seems to work for many people, when they get a working cable with active components (Window drivers too), but some cables just don't cut it. I don't know what you mean with "the-shorter-bsy-only-one". There probably are no short 15 minutes fixes for this problem.

3. Switching PCB is an absolute last resort and the only case it has seemed to work is when someone has had two identical HDs (one working fine, one having BSY error), switched PCBs and powered them up with BIOS (which is rumored to reset at least on of the PCB's firmware), then switched back the PCBs to their original HDs. It's _not_ recommended as it may put the PCB/HD in an undefined state from which there is no recovery.

4. No internet connection is needed for the actual unbricking. Read carefully everything you can find on it, beginning with the start of this thread, also helpful and important is this link and also this link (which are mentioned several times elsewhere). Read, read, read, puke, read, read.

5. Yes.

Edited by Huygens
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3. Switching PCB is an absolute last resort and the only case it has seemed to work is when someone has had two identical HDs (one working fine, one having BSY error), switched PCBs and powered them up with BIOS (which is rumored to reset at least on of the PCB's firmware), then switched back the PCBs to their original HDs. It's _not_ recommended as it may put the PCB/HD in an undefined state from which there is no recovery.

NO. :realmad:

Totally UNdocumented, UNreliable, DO NOT EVEN THINK of doing this! :ph34r:

We have a sticky EXACTLY to avoid this kind of senseless and risky attempts. :angry:

Doing a PCB swap REQUIRES exactly matching PCB's (much less easier to find than you might think) AND REQUIRES a ROM swap, which involves quite tricky de-soldering and re-soldering.

If you come here and ask what to do you simply CANNOT (meaning that you miss the NEEDED knowledge/experience involved) in doing this (and you will get it only after you have "fried" several hard disks or their PCB's making practice).

jaclaz

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Thanks a lot for your advice I did read all the links now and started gathering

the gear. Since I have a farly old laptop with a serail com port, I am in the lucky

position of not needing a USB adapter. But I couldnt find the nice little R232-TTL

Adaptor they have on sparkfun wich is linked several times here. But I found this one:

http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/MzY5OTgxOTk-/Bausaetze_Module/Bausaetze/RS232_TTL_Wandler_Bausatz.html

Sorry the link is in german but maybe you can tell from the look?

from the from the description, does roughly the same... will it work or is it something

completely different? Does anyone know where I can get the switcher in germany?

The ones from Hong Kong usually takes 4-5 weeks to be delivered to germany because

of the customs.

cheers

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Doing a PCB swap REQUIRES exactly matching PCB's (much less easier to find than you might think) AND REQUIRES a ROM swap, which involves quite tricky de-soldering and re-soldering.

I'm not so sure. Seems some data recovery companies can use slightly different PCBs like in this clip.

There are also sold 7200.11 replacement PCBs for data recovery, from this site. And here is another clip for a DIY Seagate PCB drive swap (not 7200.11, but 7200.10 it seems).

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But I couldnt find the nice little R232-TTL Adaptor they have on sparkfun wich is linked several times here. But I found this one:

http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/MzY5OTgxOTk-/Bausaetze_Module/Bausaetze/RS232_TTL_Wandler_Bausatz.html

Sorry the link is in german but maybe you can tell from the look?

from the from the description, does roughly the same... will it work or is it something

completely different?

The ones from Hong Kong usually takes 4-5 weeks to be delivered to germany because

of the customs.

Hmm... Seems like your German adapter is fed with 5V, which may result in 5V output and you want 3.3V. I would try a plain 3.3V adapter like

this one from Portugal, which you can feed with anything from 3.0V - 3.6V (and most likely up to 4.5V) to get the correct output signals.

Delivery from Hong Kong to Europe doesn't take more than 2-3 weeks even with customs.

If the first adapter doesn't work you may want to try buy a second or third. Some adapters have been reported being duds (I have experienced it myself).

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I'm not so sure.

Well, I am. :whistle:

Seems some data recovery companies can use slightly different PCBs like in this clip.

The hard disk in the link seems an OLD (possibly a 40 or 80 GB IDE "Calypso" series.

I can teach you how to completely disassemble and re-assemble (with nothing but a set of spanners, screwdrivers and a few other tools included in the set you get with the bike) a 1938 BMW motorcycle (actually you could do this as well up to R65 or R70 series, in the '80's :thumbup ).

Now you try doing the same with the S1000RR. ..... :w00t::ph34r:

There are also sold 7200.11 replacement PCBs for data recovery, from this site.

Problems reading?

Click on the 7200.11 board listed there:

http://www.hdd-parts.com/10110501.html

  • Please make sure the board number matches your hard drive.
  • For this model hard drives, every PCB board has unique firmware, only works on it's original hard drive. In order to swap PCB to fix the hard drive problem, firmware transfer is a must
  • please fill the form and ship your board to us,we will copy your board firmware to a working board and ship back to you,
  • if you want to do frimware transfer by yourself, please let us know

It is perfectly possible, with the APPROPRIATE TOOLS to read the data from a "dead board" (if the chip is "OK") and transfer it's contents on another identical board.

Only noone exception made from the pro's have this kind of specialized hardware, and the only "poor man's choice" is to de-solder the chip and transplant it on the identical board.

BTW, professionals have at their hands also tools like the PC-3000 that comprises both the hardware and software to (among a zillion other things on every hard disk ever made) fix the BSY or LBA errors on a 7200.11.

A PC-3000 should sell for something like US$ 3,000,00.

The info in this thread allows to fix the SPECIFIC Seagate stoopid thingy for less than US$ 30,00.

By swapping PCB's WHICH CANNOT BE DONE WITHOUT TRANSFERRING THE FIRMWARE on this SPECIFIC model, you risk to fry the PCB or the disk, or both, for good.

Please, DO NOT post info about something that you are not very sure about, and that NOT ONLY CANNOT WORK, but that can also make things worse.

And here is another clip for a DIY Seagate PCB drive swap (not 7200.11, but 7200.10 it seems).

Cannot say specifically about the 7200.10.

IT WILL NOT WORK on a 7200.11 (check the title of this thread, please)

A video among the "related" on that youtube page:

jaclaz

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But I found this one:

http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/MzY5OTgxOTk-/Bausaetze_Module/Bausaetze/RS232_TTL_Wandler_Bausatz.html

Sorry the link is in german but maybe you can tell from the look?

from the from the description, does roughly the same... will it work or is it something

completely different?

My very scarce German tells me that "5 V-TTL" translates in English to "5V-TTL" ;).

Compare with point #10 of read-me-first:

You want 3.3V TTL, NOT 5V TTL.

These are seemingly suitable (BUT do check with the seller):

http://de.futureelectronics.com/de/technologies/interconnect/usb-to-ttl-rs232-rs422-rs485-cables/Seiten/1177955-TTL-232R-3V3-WE.aspx

http://parts.digikey.de/1/1/1398465-module-usb-srl-3-3v-ttl-conv-ttl-232r-3v3-pcb.html

http://www.tme.eu/de/details/ttl-232r-3v3-aj/ftdi-module/ftdi/ttl-232r-33v-aj/

http://www.ebay.de/itm/FTDI-USB-UART-seriell-Adapter-AVR-PIC-TTL-RS232-/270748929489

This one has several types listed:

http://www.unitronic.de/index.php?id=ftdi-r

  • TTL-232R-3V3 (TTL-232R mit 3,3V IOs) good
  • TTL-232R-AJ (Audio Jack connector, 5V IOs) bad
  • TTL-232R-3V3-AJ (Audio Jack connector, 3.3V IOs) good
  • TTL-232R-PCB (Populated PCB from the TTL-232R USB connector, 5V IOs) bad
  • TTL-232R-3V3-PCB (Populated PCB from the TTL-232R-3V3 USB connector, 3V3 IOs) good
  • TTL-232R-WE (No connector at serial end, 5V IOs) bad
  • TTL-232R-3V3-WE (No connector at serial end, 3.3V IOs)good

This may help you (together with the read-me-first) understand the issue:

http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/Pegelwandler

jaclaz

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