[jaclaz]

Please DO NOT EVER double post.
I just replied to your post on the other (WRONG) thread.
http://www.msfn.org/.../page__st__3741

I am re-posting the contents of that here:

jaclaz, on 27 May 2011 - 12:47 PM, said:

spamenigma, on 26 May 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

Can anyone help at all please, are they now totalled or is there any more tricks out there that might get me to progress with this?

What you report is "queer".
"Spin down" is a "normal" and NOT even potentially "destructive" one.
If you:

• power off the drive
  
• completely remove the PCB from it.
  
• verify contacs between PCB and drive (which means visually inspecting BOTH contacts on the PCB and the "springy" ones on the HD - checking that no "springy thingy" is bent or "flattened", and clean them thoroughfully with an eraser -the one on a pencil will do - and clean them thoroughfully with isopropyl alcohol or similar solvent, acetone is OK, as long as you do use it carefully, parsimoniously and quickly)
  
• re-assemple fully hard disk and PCB
  
• try powering it again (without any connection BUT the actual power supply)

What happens?

Since your disks are ES2 you had to do the "short circuit" trick.
Is it possible that you short circuited "something else" or "also something else"?

jaclaz

PLEASE, let's continue here.

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 27 May 2011 - 12:52 PM

[spamenigma]

oops sorry, wasnt sure where to post so went with the two best options

I've removed the board and taken a look and replaced, however this has happened to both drives I've done this with. The method I used was to lift from the head contacts as described in the thread rather than try the short. this appeared to work and the disk did do the spin down on command, but pressing U made it just buzz on its return. The fact this happened consistantly twice makes me believe the lift up trick is flawed in some way?

[jaclaz]

No, there is nothing "flawed" in the "lift".
It simply:

• may apply to head contacts OR to motor contacts
  
• it does NOT apply (without the "short circuit" trick) to ES2 drives (according to the reports we had)

I have no actual "answers", for you unfortunately , only my common sense tellng me that:

• since everyone in an actual BSY or LBA0 on a ES2 drive HAD to short circuit the two pins to get access to terminal
  
• since you did not need the above, then the situation of your dirves is NOT the one for which we do know a remedy

It is very possible that since your drives are 250 Gb we simply miss the "right" procedure or, if you prefer, there is for that model an additional "trick" we know nothing about.

I know that it may sound "queer" and/or "harsh" but all we know (which is very little) is a procedure to revive a given model (actually two of them) of drives suffering from two common problems due to a known firmware fault.

As hinted in the Read-me-first, point #1:
http://www.msfn.org/...-read-me-first/

the known-to-be-working procedure is NOT a "solve-any-problem-you-might-have-with-an-HD", but, since it represents a sort of "reset" it may help also in solving problems due to "other" causes.

The "buzz-buzz" sound you hear may be caused by something else, like a stuck motor (quite common on modern drives), but it may also mean that somehow drive cannot read anymore "calibration data" or whatever.

Are you sure you didn't - by mistake - exchange the PCB's?

Can you "feel" the hard disk spinning?

See here:
http://www.msfn.org/.../page__st__1213

Did you cycle power?

Can you now connect through terminal?

Can you try with the PCB fully connected to issue a "spin up" command?

Please do understand that you are - with all due respect - a blindman guided by (at the most) a short sighted one-eyed-man
Though:

Quote

Blessed are the one-eyed in the land of the blind

I may be blessed what I suggest is not "real" knowledge but rather "some past experience" and may well lead you astray.

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 28 May 2011 - 06:54 AM

[bilalkalil]

I have the same problem
100535537 REV B
seagate
st31000524as
firmware:jc45
What short pins ?
my imag

.My link

help

Attached File(s)

•  22.jpg (84.1K)
  Number of downloads: 21

This post has been edited by bilalkalil: 01 June 2011 - 07:34 AM

[spamenigma]

Thanks for the advice.

The drives have since been taken to a data recovery company who have said that on "both" drives the heads had 'clamped' onto the platter and they can't do anything with them. I can only assume this model is different to the ones others have had success with then as quite simply all I got to do was:
F3 T>/2
F3 2>Z
Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.155 msecs
F3 2>U

So warning to people that Barracuda ES.2 250GB - ST3250310NS does not respond well to this procedure.

Cheers
Paul

[jaclaz]

Sorry, but I completely fail to see the point.

If you have a sore throat or a flu, normally you DO NOT set your left ankle in a plaster cast for 1 month.

This is because casting your left ankle is a solution/cure for a broken left ankle and NOT for the sore throat.

Not really a problem of the "cure" in itself, but rather of applying the cure to a different disease.

Whomever you took those drives to is DOUBTLY a "good" recovery company, drives with sticked heads can normally be recovered by doing a transplant or manually freeing the heads, and at least part of the data can usually be recovered.

Of course this is not "normal" data recovery and has very high costs, but normally it is doable.

If you have nothing to loose (and I mean NOTHING), in a very few cases "percussive maintenance" can free a stuck head, only don't think it will work, chances are very, very, and I mean VERY low.

If you think of it just like playing the lottery, you may win:
http://forum.hddguru...200-t15326.html

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 08 June 2011 - 10:23 AM

[Hicky]

Hey..
...
My issue....
I have this ST31000340NS ES2 drive who was working well until as a test I did a pcb board and rom chip swap and tested it on an ST3750330NS ES2 drive, both have identical board no, but different revision, but ought to be compatible as long as I do the rom chip swap...
After this test ST31000340NS drive spins up clicks 11 times spins down..My humble hope, maybe its been stuck in busy state, not ruined by this silly swap attempt..
It show up after a while when pc initialize, but not detected by BIOS, and off course neither by Windows, SeaTools etc..
ES2 disks has as you sure know terminal lock so I cant enter any commands after hitting CTRL+Z and getting F3 T> prompt without unlocking terminal...
I've been shorting read channels, lifting board from HDA contacts as soon as I get F3 T> promp for days and hours,.but F3 T> will stand forever when I do this, but as soon as I go on and hit the command 2 + enter this "FlashLED - Failure Code 000000CC Failure Adress 0025c8af" pops up over 2 lines in Hyperterminal, and repeats itself every 60 second or so..
I'm stuck, and hopefully someone can give some advice..

[Kelsenellenelvian]

You've ruined your drive in your haste to fix it...

[Hicky]

Kelsenellenelvian, on 30 January 2012 - 03:04 AM, said:

You've ruined your drive in your haste to fix it...

On what grounds do you base this conclusion?...
Cant get this...The drive was working well before pcb swap...
As I wrote, both pcb boards ought to be compatible with each drive with a rom swap...

Even AceLab discuss this possibility...

Quote

Appendix 1. Replacement of the controller board
ATTENTION! ROM of the drives (ROM label is 25FW406A) contains adaptive information. Therefore, during
replacement of the controller board you have to move the ROM data from the damaged board to the donor one (resolder
the ROM chip from the damaged board to the borrowed one). Please see Figure 19.

Please keep in mind that if you need to restore a drive using a non-native controller board, the drive at the start
will be unable to access the firmware data on disk surface. That behaviour can be erroneously recognized as a problem
with the heads or reading channel, so please check carefully to ensure that the controller board matches the HDA. To do
that, you can even use a board disconnected from HDA, which returns HDD ID information via the ATA interface
anyway. Having read HDD ID, you can compare the model and its serial number to the information printed on HDA
label1.

[martinlink]

YAY!
You can add another happy bunny to the list - I was able to resurrect my brother's drive that had been dead for a year!
All of the family photos on it are safe and sound, 10 years worth of pics!

I did it with a CA-42 from China and it was necessary to connect a battery to the cable. I used my Nokia N95 8Gb's battery (3,7v) and used the "lift the PCB" trick in stead of the short circuit one.
Thanks to all!

[murfil]

I succesfuly brought back to life two Barracuda ES.2's ST3500320NS PN: 9CA154-303. Firmware was SN05, upgraded them to SN06 after revival.
The short-circuit worked for me, but with a slight modification:
After issuing the command F3 1>N1 i had to restart the drive. Otherwise the drive did not accept the F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 command, all I was getting is "Invalid Diagnostic Command".

EDIT:
I used this tool instead of the nokia cable, it's safer and easier to use:
FT232BM/BL Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Firmware Fix tool, complete, USB powered

This post has been edited by murfil: 18 February 2012 - 10:18 AM