[Strawhat12]

I have a ST350032AS Seagate HDD. The drive had the dreaded BSY problem which I've corrected but after fixing one problem I've been presented with another. So here goes;

After getting rid of the BSY error state I put the HDD back into its PC, I start it up all well and good and see the Windows loading screen, so I'm thinking so far so good. However straight after I see a BSOD screen which appears for a fraction of a second which then restarts itself again and does this continuously.

I then connect the HDD to another PC which has its own HDD, OS etc. I boot up to Windows Vista albeit slowly as the problem HDD is making the PC run slow for some reason. I can see the HDD on my other machine and manage to backup my important files.

Next step I completely reformat the problem HDD and tried to install a fresh copy of Vista on it again but I get errors and it won't let me install! So then I connect it up to my other machine and I can see the HDD there (465GB out of 465GB) I run HDTune and I see this particular error

'Reallocated Sector Count, Current - 13, Worst - 13, Threshold - 36, Data - 1788, Status - Failed'

I don't know whats wrong with it, I can access the HDD when connected to another machine albeit it opens slowly and sometimes I hear the disc spin up and down if idle for some time but I can't seem to install Vista or do anything else with it.

[jaclaz]

Strawhat12, on Oct 15 2009, 01:55 PM, said:

'Reallocated Sector Count, Current - 13, Worst - 13, Threshold - 36, Data - 1788, Status - Failed'

I don't know whats wrong with it, I can access the HDD when connected to another machine albeit it opens slowly and sometimes I hear the disc spin up and down if idle for some time but I can't seem to install Vista or do anything else with it.

Seems like you have a lot of bad sectors.
http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/smart-a...tors-count.html

Try running Seatools and see what it says.

Next options are:
1) throw away the stoopid thingy
2) re-do the "unbricking thing" this time clearing the G-list and SMART

Then, run seatools again.

jaclaz

[Strawhat12]

jaclaz, on Oct 15 2009, 01:13 PM, said:

Strawhat12, on Oct 15 2009, 01:55 PM, said:

'Reallocated Sector Count, Current - 13, Worst - 13, Threshold - 36, Data - 1788, Status - Failed'

I don't know whats wrong with it, I can access the HDD when connected to another machine albeit it opens slowly and sometimes I hear the disc spin up and down if idle for some time but I can't seem to install Vista or do anything else with it.

Seems like you have a lot of bad sectors.
http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/smart-a...tors-count.html

Try running Seatools and see what it says.

Next options are:
1) throw away the stoopid thingy
2) re-do the "unbricking thing" this time clearing the G-list and SMART

Then, run seatools again.

jaclaz

Thanks for the response.

I'll save the throwing away option as a last resort

I'll run Seatools now and post back what it says and then I'll try the BSY unbricking thing again.

[Strawhat12]

Right, I've run Seatools on both Windows and in DOS and this is what I got.

S.M.A.R.T check - failed

Short test which also failed

And then I did the long test in DOS and it failed with this message;

'LBA 2627 99 errors detected, read scan failed, error on identify command 71:04'

I'll now try the the second option you mentioned and see how that goes.

[Strawhat12]

Ok, I also did the second step cleared the G-List and still the same thing.

Any other ideas? Would zeroing the drive completely fix the problem?

This post has been edited by Strawhat12: 15 October 2009 - 03:49 PM

[jaclaz]

Strawhat12, on Oct 15 2009, 11:48 PM, said:

Ok, I also did the second step cleared the G-List and still the same thing.
Any other ideas? Would zeroing the drive completely fix the problem?

Did you also clear the SMART?

F3 1>N1 (enter)

Zeroing would be irrelevant.

I guess that the drive is simply dead for good.

This may or may not be connected to the debricking (drives simply die because they die).

jaclaz

[Strawhat12]

Yes I also cleared the S.M.A.R.T

I don't want to give up on the drive yet as its still recognised and I can see it in my other machine.

I'm still going to see if I can fix it somehow before I give up on it completely.

Still any other suggestions would be welcome in the slightest chance that it may fix the problem.

[jaclaz]

I guess the only thing that remains is a SecureErase (wipe drive with 0's) through ATA commands, but I doubt it would change anything.

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu...cureErase.shtml

Which firmware do you have?

Updating it (if possible at all) may change something (for the better or for the worse).

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 16 October 2009 - 04:37 AM

[Strawhat12]

Once I unbricked the drive and backed up everything I upgraded the firmware from SD15 to SD1A if that helps.

[Strawhat12]

I've tried my best and I've decided to RMA the drive and get a replacement. Before I do that though how do I erase my drive securely without it giving me errors. I tried that Secure Erase program but it just seems baffling in running it from DOS.

[jaclaz]

Strawhat12, on Oct 16 2009, 11:57 PM, said:

I've tried my best and I've decided to RMA the drive and get a replacement. Before I do that though how do I erase my drive securely without it giving me errors. I tried that Secure Erase program but it just seems baffling in running it from DOS.

I am not sure I understand you.

If you don't have a suitable DOS environment get the UBCD which includes SecureErase:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

jaclaz