[jaclaz]

A small advise.

The problem with condensation can be reduced greatly if using one of those bags with a valve and using a vacuum pump (or a small vacuum cleaner) to remove air from it.

Something like this:
http://timbuk2andtippycanoe.blogspot.com/2...acuum-bags.html

Even the poor man's method:

Quote

I hate to give a hint to take the place of the vacuum sealer, but what I do is put whatever I want to save in a re-sealable plastic bag, seal all but about 1/2 inch, put in a straw, then suck out the air and quickly close the last half inch. Gives you a completely airless package.

is better than having (humid) air inside the bag.

The bag itself should have been kept in a warm dry place before using, of course.

jaclaz

[novosadk]

Hi. Is this repair also for maxtor diamondmax HDDs? My drive is also dead, and is affected by this problem... I would like to test this solution, but there are no images in forum... It is not complicated solution for me, but I dont know, where is Tx and Rx on HDD. Thanks for your reply.

[Honkers]

A big heartfelt thank you to all those who have helped in providing the instructions and support on the forum. I have just managed to resurrect my Seagate drive with a USB to TTL Serial Cable (TTL-232R-3V3).

I did encounter 2 issues however:

1) I put a business card between the head contact and PCB, and rescrewed the PCB board back onto the hdd. I however tightened the screws too much and couldn't get the drive to spin down as I kept getting the LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569 error! I restarted the procedure after Aviko's post #465 (I believe I had retightened too much and hence there was still contact) and managed to get back to the magical F3 prompt!!

2) Second time round I managed to spin down the motor, but couldn't spin it up! This was because I was hoping that only screwing 5 screws (i.e. not screwing the one near the head contact) would be sufficient. After reading through the posts again, someone had kindly noted that the "Error 1009 DETSEC 00006008 Spin Error error" was due to lack of contact Post #701. I very tentatively placed the screw back (making sure it didn't touch the PCB) and its all back now!!

I am totally ecstatic that my hdd is back and that I can now recover all my photos - Again, thank you all to all those that have contributed, my success would not have been possible without your patience and willingness to help!

[Annihilator]

Again, with the freezer method you will most likely kill your harddrive and if it works you only have 20 minutes at most until it dies, to copy off your data.


I wouldn't do it as long as you arent totally desperate, it should really be the last try. Also be sure to keep the hdd cool when using it, so you can maybe get a few more minutes out of it. Also keep it out of the case while running if possible. A

I wouldn't recommend it tho, because it will only work in certain cases if you harddrive has a physical damage and if you have a defect firmware etc, it will just kill it.

[LED_000000CC]

Try these commands
Press Ctrl+Z and wait for the prompt
F3 T>
Enter commands
F3 T>i1,1,22 (and Enter)
F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 (and Enter)
This helps to fix the problem for sure

This post has been edited by LED_000000CC: 17 April 2009 - 09:00 PM

[didste]

I have a ST 31000340AS with SD81 firmware and had the busy problem.
I followed accurately the procedure and got m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 sucessful.

My hard-drive is now recognized by the bios but when I want to explore it I get the following message:

F:\ is not accessible
The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error

I have been trying to fix my HD problem for two months now since the different CA-42 cables I ordered online were not good ones and decided to use USB-RS232 + Rs232-TTL instead. It worked but I am now facing the problem as above descrided.
I am getting mad! Is there any specific command I need to use when I communicate with the processor of the card.
Thanks for your help.

[Annihilator]

And could somebody here maybe answer me the question I posted here? http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=129263

Because I don't know if my hdd is stuck in BSY state, somehow the program says BUSY even when the defect hdd isn't connected.

[ElectroGeeza]

Hey guys!

I just got my RS232 - TTL adapter yesterday. I also got the USB - RS232 adapter cable which seems to be working properly after installing the driver for it (there is continuity and voltage between pin 5 and 3, and the listed device in Device Manager has no exclamation mark). Now, the next thing I would like to do is to perform a loopback test to verify that the RS2323 - TTL adapter works properly as well.

Before you jump on me and telling me that my question has been answered already and that I should read from the beginning of the thread, I can inform you that I have read through exactly all the posts in the first half of this loooong thread (first 31 pages out of 60). So please, please do me a favor and either tell me how to do it or give me a direct link to the post which you think explains it well. Please, please, please don't tell me to read the whole f***ing thread, because, as I said, for one I have already ready half of it (which turned out to be more than enough), and for two I don't see any point in reading it any further when there is so much bulls***ting going on and off topic spin offs throughout the whole thread so I don't feel encouraged to read it anymore.

I have read about doing the loopback test, and I got the link to the "How to Do a Serial Loopback Test" article in the NI Developer Zone that Jaclaz posted earlier in post # 385. But that article seem to be just too overwhelming and doesn't seem to be very relevant for this context. I mean in that article they are explaining how to do a loopback test with real serial ports (DE-9), it has no coverage on the TTL adapters we are using here, and we have already established early in this thread that attaching "pure" or "direct" RS232 cables to the disk drive won't work.

So please, can someone tell me how to do a loopback test so that I can verify that my RS232 - TTL adapter works? It would be of great help.

I understand that the TX and RX must be connected together on the TTL adapter. But how do I set it all up? How do I set up the terminal emulation software? What are the exact messages I need to send? People are talking about typing "random" characters and check that they can receive it. Is that really it? Is that all I have to type? No special commands needed for loopback testing? So I can just type "ffkjfnl fkj knj fjn fjao3ofpe n fkdfs bla bla bla bla" et cetera and see if I get the same in return?

I would really appreciate some further explanation on the loopback testing part.

Thanks in advance!

This post has been edited by ElectroGeeza: 18 April 2009 - 07:16 AM

[jaclaz]

ElectroGeeza, on Apr 18 2009, 02:54 PM, said:

I have read about doing the loopback test, and I got the link to the "How to Do a Serial Loopback Test" article in the NI Developer Zone that Jaclaz posted earlier in post # 385. But that article seem to be just too overwhelming and doesn't seem to be very relevant for this context. I mean in that article they are explaining how to do a loopback test with real serial ports (DE-9), it has no coverage on the TTL adapters we are using here, and we have already established early in this thread that attaching "pure" or "direct" RS232 cables to the disk drive won't work.

So please, can someone tell me how to do a loopback test so that I can verify that my RS232 - TTL adapter works? It would be of great help.

I understand that the TX and RX must be connected together on the TTL adapter. But how do I set it all up? How do I set up the terminal emulation software? What are the exact messages I need to send? People are talking about typing "random" characters and check that they can receive it. Is that really it? Is that all I have to type? No special commands needed for loopback testing? So I can just type "ffkjfnl fkj knj fjn fjao3ofpe n fkdfs bla bla bla bla" et cetera and see if I get the same in return?

A terminal program converts your input on the keyboard into text that is shown in the terminal window and to "something" that is sent to the RS232 interface (directly or through the USB adapter).

Basically a Serial port (RS232) sends the "something" through the TX cable (and can receive "something" from RX cable).

The terminal program converts back the "something" it receives from the RX to text in the terminal window.

The RS232to TTL converter converts "something" to "something else", both inbound and outbound.

You do not need to know what is the "something" or what is the "something else".

You type some text, possibly human readable one, say for example, "HELLO".

HELLO is displayed on the terminal windows and converted to "something" sent to the RS232.

If nothing is connected to the RS232 bus this "something" is lost forever.

If a converter is connected to the RS232 this "something" is converted to "something else".

If nothing is connected to the converter this "something else" is lost forever.

If you connect the TX and RX of the RS232 port together, the "something" loops back, gets to the terminal and is translated back to "HELLO", which is displayed.

If you connect the TX and RX of the TTL converter together, the "something else" loops back, gets to the RS232 RX, it is converted to "something" and then gets to the terminal and is translated back to "HELLO", which is displayed.

In other words, a loopback test is the same no matter how long is the "chain" involved, you type some text and the same text should appear TWICE in the terminal window.

Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to RS232 port->TX and RX together->loops back to RS232 RX->terminal display: HELLO

With the TTL converter:
Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to RS232 port->TTL Converter->TX and RX together->loops back to TTL Converter RX-> RS232 RX ->terminal display: HELLO

If you have previously a USB adapter:
Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to USB adapter->RS232 port->TX and RX together->loops back to RS232 RX->USB adapter->terminal display: HELLO
or:
Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to USB adapter->RS232 port->TTL Converter->TX and RX together->loops back to TTL Converter RX-> RS232 RX ->USB adapter->terminal display: HELLO

of course, even if everything works well, if you input "garbage" like

ElectroGeeza said:

"ffkjfnl fkj knj fjn fjao3ofpe n fkdfs bla bla bla bla"

it is more difficult to understand if what you get back is the same "garbage" you sent.

jaclaz

[Annihilator]

Could somebody who fixed his seagate hdd, maybe help me with my questions? I'm totally lost and I don't know how to do it without getting these questions answered.

[uzi18]

Gradius2: please reupload Your photos (sea dir), Thanks

[ElectroGeeza]

jaclaz, on Apr 18 2009, 04:37 PM, said:

ElectroGeeza, on Apr 18 2009, 02:54 PM, said:

I have read about doing the loopback test, and I got the link to the "How to Do a Serial Loopback Test" article in the NI Developer Zone that Jaclaz posted earlier in post # 385. But that article seem to be just too overwhelming and doesn't seem to be very relevant for this context. I mean in that article they are explaining how to do a loopback test with real serial ports (DE-9), it has no coverage on the TTL adapters we are using here, and we have already established early in this thread that attaching "pure" or "direct" RS232 cables to the disk drive won't work.

So please, can someone tell me how to do a loopback test so that I can verify that my RS232 - TTL adapter works? It would be of great help.

I understand that the TX and RX must be connected together on the TTL adapter. But how do I set it all up? How do I set up the terminal emulation software? What are the exact messages I need to send? People are talking about typing "random" characters and check that they can receive it. Is that really it? Is that all I have to type? No special commands needed for loopback testing? So I can just type "ffkjfnl fkj knj fjn fjao3ofpe n fkdfs bla bla bla bla" et cetera and see if I get the same in return?

A terminal program converts your input on the keyboard into text that is shown in the terminal window and to "something" that is sent to the RS232 interface (directly or through the USB adapter).

Basically a Serial port (RS232) sends the "something" through the TX cable (and can receive "something" from RX cable).

The terminal program converts back the "something" it receives from the RX to text in the terminal window.

The RS232to TTL converter converts "something" to "something else", both inbound and outbound.

You do not need to know what is the "something" or what is the "something else".

You type some text, possibly human readable one, say for example, "HELLO".

HELLO is displayed on the terminal windows and converted to "something" sent to the RS232.

If nothing is connected to the RS232 bus this "something" is lost forever.

If a converter is connected to the RS232 this "something" is converted to "something else".

If nothing is connected to the converter this "something else" is lost forever.

If you connect the TX and RX of the RS232 port together, the "something" loops back, gets to the terminal and is translated back to "HELLO", which is displayed.

If you connect the TX and RX of the TTL converter together, the "something else" loops back, gets to the RS232 RX, it is converted to "something" and then gets to the terminal and is translated back to "HELLO", which is displayed.

In other words, a loopback test is the same no matter how long is the "chain" involved, you type some text and the same text should appear TWICE in the terminal window.

Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to RS232 port->TX and RX together->loops back to RS232 RX->terminal display: HELLO

With the TTL converter:
Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to RS232 port->TTL Converter->TX and RX together->loops back to TTL Converter RX-> RS232 RX ->terminal display: HELLO

If you have previously a USB adapter:
Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to USB adapter->RS232 port->TX and RX together->loops back to RS232 RX->USB adapter->terminal display: HELLO
or:
Input: HELLO->terminal display: HELLO->sent to USB adapter->RS232 port->TTL Converter->TX and RX together->loops back to TTL Converter RX-> RS232 RX ->USB adapter->terminal display: HELLO

of course, even if everything works well, if you input "garbage" like

ElectroGeeza said:

"ffkjfnl fkj knj fjn fjao3ofpe n fkdfs bla bla bla bla"

it is more difficult to understand if what you get back is the same "garbage" you sent.

jaclaz

Wow, that's deep man!!

But what are you saying?... that "something" can become "something else" out of "nothing"?... or that everything can become "something" when you talk to someone who knows "nothing"?

Just kidding! I do like long replies, especially when they are well written or are written in an most uncommon but innovative way!

Well, anyway. I have it all figured out by now, and I was able to confirm that my RS232 to TTL transceiver is working properly. I got some help from our friends at Sparkfun Electronics forum. They told me I should try the Teraterm terminal emulator software application which turned out to be a pretty good one actually. I will quote myself here now as I wrote about Teraterm in a post over at Sparkfun Electronics forum.

Quote

Overall, Teraterm looks and acts pretty good to me. In my opinion it's only a good thing that it doesn't have "local echo" active as default. It's usually not something that you would want to have active. So for those users who are new to Hyperterminal where you have "local echo" set to active as default you always had to explain to them how to deactivate this thing. Otherwise, Teraterm is not so much unlike from Hyperterminal. I think it's one good if not the only replacement for Hyperterminal. When I say this I have already tested another terminal emulator called PuTTy. But unlike Teraterm, PuTTy is divided in these several different small applications like "Pageant", "PSFTP" and "PuTTy" where "PuTTy" is the main application for serial port communications. But when I launch PuTTy it doesn't seem to recognize my COM port and doesn't prompt me to chose one, so typing anything in it has no response at all, so I can't even use it. It may be a matter of settings only or maybe it doesn't recognize virtual COM ports, but I still find Teraterm better.

So, if you're looking for a replacement for Hypertereminal and are using Windows XP or Vista, I would say go for Teraterm!

You can read my whole thread over at Sparkfun Electronics forum which is titled "Loopback testing RS232 to TTL transceiver".

I am very thankful to those guys at Sparkfun Electronics forum. They are very helpful and very kind, even to a novice like myself. It makes it a pleasant place to hang out at. Thank you!

Please don't feel now like you were useless Jaclaz! Like I said, I have almost read this thread wholly and completely and when you do that you can't help but notice few user names that bring up your attention. Some of them are very common and write often, some don't. Some have a bad attitude, some don't. Some are helpful, some are not. You Jaclaz may not be the most frequent writer in this thread but the actions you've taken in your attempts to help others can, should and definitely will echo in eternity! I see that you at least are trying to be of help, unlike many others, and you are always polite. I appreciate that, thank you!

Note: Sorry about quoting your lengthy reply. Don't take it personal, I will try to quote on every reply I write since people here like so much to edit their original postings and then play dumb and say that they didn't say or write things they actually did. I really wish sometimes it wasn't possible to edit posts once published, just because of this. Since this is not a good thing for those truthful users, the only thing we can do is remember not to believe too much in those posts where it says "post edited" at the bottom, and for those of us who write new posts not to edit the post too much or rather not edit it at all. Or if you do edit your post, please motivate why you edited it. I'll go ahead and be the first one. The reason why I edited this post is because I was not allowed to have as many emoticons in it as I originally added so I then replaced one emoticon with another one since I couldn't keep the last two.

This post has been edited by ElectroGeeza: 18 April 2009 - 01:59 PM

[ElectroGeeza]

Did any of you guys manage to upgrade the Firmware on your HDD after recovering it from the BSY state?

Were you able to upgrade the Firmware without altering/affecting any of the data stored on the HDD?

The reason why I ask this is because I don't have any extra HDD on which the data from the BSY Barracuda HDD will fit. I will order one as soon as possible, but I would rather not wait for it to arrive, I need to save the important data (not all is important) from this BSY Barracuda HDD right now.

[eli2k]

ElectroGeeza, on Apr 18 2009, 12:15 PM, said:

Did any of you guys manage to upgrade the Firmware on your HDD after recovering it from the BSY state?

Were you able to upgrade the Firmware without altering/affecting any of the data stored on the HDD?

The reason why I ask this is because I don't have any extra HDD on which the data from the BSY Barracuda HDD will fit. I will order one as soon as possible, but I would rather not wait for it to arrive, I need to save the important data (not all is important) from this BSY Barracuda HDD right now.

The firmware upgrade is not supposed to affect any of the data. That said, there is a chance something might go wrong. But if you leave the drive on for the time being without turning it off, you should be okay. One reboot should be fine, too, if you have to reboot to install the new hard drive. After I fixed my drive myself and with the help of everyone in the forums, and not Seagate b/c they decided to take a long time to get back to me, I took some of the data I wanted first, and then ran the firmware update. I'm still using the drive today (been about 3 months already), and it's been fine so far.

This post has been edited by eli2k: 19 April 2009 - 01:56 AM

[Latedeveloper]

A success story...

My Seagate ST3500320AS (SD15 firmware, 9BX154-303 made in China, OEM drive) packed up with the BSY issue, and only then did I find out that this issue existed.

I bought a DKU-5 clone Nokia cable online for something like 3 pounds online, and a torx screwdriver set from Maplin for about 8 pounds. The cable did contain the TTL conversion chip, but it took me a while to realise that on my version the chip was meant to be powed from the phone end, not the USB end.

To get it to work, I had to:

• Look up the pins online from http://buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php/U...RM9_Linkstation
  
• Attach a 3v calculator battery across the 3v pin and ground

Then, using Terminal.exe downloaded off the net, I could get the cable to echo commands when the Tx and Rx were connected.

I connected up the drive, following the instructions in this thread, connecting the GND pins of the drive and cable to a molex GND pin on the PC. To power the drive, I used a genuine SATA cable, not a SATA to Molex adaptor.

Initially, I didn't realise commands were case sensitive, and so "z" did nothing (thankfully). Other than that, it went smoothly until I tried "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22". In my case, the drive reported that the format took "0 mins 00 secs".

But then my drive worked again! So I went and downloaded the latest SD1A update for my drive, flashed it, and...

Got a non-funtioning drive, visible in the bios, but non-booting and failing every SeaTools test. Seagate's tech support couldn't help, and thinking it was the firmware, I went looking (to no avail) for a copy of the SD15 firmware to downgrade.

Finally, I found someone on the Seagate forums who had the same issue as me and resolved it by repeating the BSY fix after the flash. I tred that, and it did nothing. As a last resort, I searched this forum and found Aviko's post in which he recommended to someone with the 0 mins 00 secs format that they run "F,,22" and then "m0,6,2,0,0,0,0,22".

And now, just when I was ready to bin it, I have a working SD1A drive. Not that I'm sure I will trust it, or the 2 other SD15 drives I have....

Thanks to everyone who has posted to this thread - it's amazing how helpful it's been. Thanks to Gradius for helping me find this information (even if he didn't create it) and to Aviko for saving my drive when I thought nothing would. Time to get all my data backed up.

[ElectroGeeza]

My HDD is an ST3500320AS with FW SD15. What FW version will I need for it? I read about some SD1A version. Is that the old ("fixed") bad one or the latest good one? Where exactly do I download it? I know about that Knowledge Base article (207931) at Seagate's website. But I am not so sure if the FW available there is the good and working one. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it Seagate have released two FW version since this SD15 vs. Barracuda 7200.11 disaster. One of them fixed the BSY and LBA=0 problem but brought up completely new problems because the software engineers very little time on them to release a solution so they didn't test the new FW properly. Then they released another one which solved it all. Am I right? So you understand my confusion? So, where can I download that latest and stable version?

• Do I have to upgrade FW in any special order, like from SD15 to SD1A, and then from SD1A to the "XXXX" version which is supposed to be the latest and stable one? (I am making a comparison here with BIOS upgrades as example, where it is usually wise to upgrade the BIOS version by version and not make too big jumps from one version to another. So, not like version F3 to F8, but rather upgrade like from version F3, to F4, to F5, to F6, to F7, to F8. You know what I mean?)
  
  
  
• After upgrading to the latest FW version, is it by any chance possible to go back to the original version? Not that I would like to go back to SD15, but just checking, just in case.
  
  
  
• Do I have to make the upgrade from a USB Flash drive (UFD) or is the Seagate proposed method with upgrading from CD okay? I've read here or in the firmware thread that some of you discussed how to upgrade from a UFD. I didn't understand really, why not just write the FW to the CD just like it says on Seagate's website? Is there a reason for not doing so? I mean I do have both a DVD/CD writer and a UFD, but I'm just trying to understand what's the cache here in using UFD instead of CD-ROM.

This post has been edited by ElectroGeeza: 19 April 2009 - 09:31 AM

[didste]

Since my hard-drive is now recognized by the bios (after BSY problem) but when I want to explore it I get the following message:

F:\ is not accessible
The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error

and that despite the successful procedure "to refresh" my HDD

I decided to upgrade the firmware and therefore created the required bootable CD with the correct iso file available on Seagate website corresponding to my case:
HDD Barracuda 7200.11
ST31000340AS
Firmware: SD81

I was about to update my firmware but I actually can't boot on that CD ...
I just created that bootable CD using Alex Feinman ISO Recorder.

[brother]

Hi
Gradius2, THANKS x 1000 !!!
I have a Maxtor DiamondMax 22 500 Gb SMT3500320AS wich had the BSY error. I have followed exactly your tutorial and all is ok now !!!
I didn't need to connect ground on the PCB.
I didn't need to do the G list optional.
I was blocked after the commande : F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 (non response for 30 minutes).
So I power off the Sata, wait 10 seconds, power on, wait 30 seconds, ctrl Z, and F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 again : after 2 minutes, the good answer on the terminal !!!!
I must say that on the Maxtor rx goes to rx and tx to the tx.



Thanks a lot for all this work, you(re the best !

Nicolas

[Annihilator]

If I have the same harddrive x 2 with the other one working, can I just switch the boards? Will that work?

[ElectroGeeza]

If I can just get hold of a new FW version for this HDD, I will be officially ready to kick some Seagate Barracuda butt!!!

I will try using Aviko's (originally Okzo's aka Yura's) method. As the French man wrote (can't remember the name), this method seems to me less disruptive. Apart of that, it seems to be much safer method too. Therefore I have decided to stick to Aviko's method. But I have few questions I need to ask just to be 100% sure of what I'm doing.

• The F3 T>i4,1,22 command at Level T is potentially dangerous for data and is not really needed?
  
  
  
• Erasing S.M.A.R.T with N1 command at Level 1 is only needed for BSY error and not for LBA=0 type of error?
  
  
  
• Is the m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 command the same as m0,2,2,,,,,22 at Level 1? It doesn't matter then which I use?
  
  
  
• Do I have to wait few seconds after pressing CTRL+Z or sending the Z command at Level 2?
  
  
  
• There is no no need to power the drive off and then on again before sending the m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 command at Level 1?
  
  
  
• The F712 command at Level T is only for testing purposes, and it does nothing with the my data?
  
  
  
• I don't really understand how to interpret the results from F712 command, can someone explain? Aviko tried to explain it to one user but I still don't understand what columns and values to look for.
  
  
  
• The F712 command at Level T is only for 500 GB Barracuda 7200.11 models?
  
  
  
• For other Barracuda 7200.11 models, the command should be F without any number? I think I understand why Aviko is writing a number 712 after the letter F. It makes it easy to see the test result values at line 712, that's why he was unsure if it's 712 for this drive family. There is something that should be listed on this 712th line, so you could probably send either the F or the F712 to make it easy to find it. But Aviko also at some point mentioned that it should be listed at line 716 (as he said before, he was unsure of the right line number). So you can probably use either F, or F712, or F716. If you feel unsure, just send F, and then you can look for values and columns between line 712 and 716.
  
  
  
• The F,,22 command at Level T is for restoring drive configuration to default settings when and if the F (or F712, or F716) command above shows negative results?
  
  
  
• When do I send the F (or F712, or F716) and F,,22 commands above?
  
  
  
• The command m0,1,1,0,0,0,0,22, or m0,1,1,2,2,0,0,22, or m0 2,2,0,0,0,0,22 should NOT be used under ANY circumstances, regardless of if you follow Aviko's method or Gradius' method?
  
  
  
• The post # 513 that I have linked to in the reference list below is supposed to illustrate Aviko's complete and official recovery method. Can anyone confirm that? I have compared it with the method that Brad Garcia described in his own guide titled Fixing a Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive at Google Sites and it does seem as he is using Aviko's (originally Okzo's a.k.a Yura's) method. I wonder how many of you have followed Brad Garcias' guide to recover your HDD's, it really does seem to be much easier to follow then this messy guide Gradius posted (and the rest of this thread). However, Brad does recommend others reading this thread first. He also read this thread and then he decided to follow Aviko's instructions just like I will.

I hope to hear from you guys before I continue with my recovery attempt. If there is anything else you would like to add or warn me about before proceeding, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

Referrence:
Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive at Google Sites, by Brad Garcia
Post # 439
Post # 441
Post # 457
Post # 458
Post # 466
Post # 469
Post # 474
Post # 475
Post # 477
Post # 507
Post # 513