[unounotreS]

Hi to everybody!

First of all, I want to tell you that I'm from Spain and my English level is not too good!

So, a year ago, I bought a ST32000542AS hdd (2 TB, 5.900rpm, Sata2...) and, just 3 weeks ago it begun to fail. Windows doesn't recognizes it and BIOS gets a lot of time to show the ST_M13FQBL message (I suppose bios is trying to identificate it).

I tried the famous method to fix a HDD of 7200.11 series with Hyperterminal, USB RS232 conversor and all these stuff but with no success... What can I do? I tried to buy a ST32000542AS board with the same result. It's so important the info. inside it. I have to tell that the plates spins ok and doesn't make any bad noise or something like that. It doesn't clicks. The sound is very normal...


Thanks and sorry again! I hope you've understanded me!

[jaclaz]

unounotreS, on 22 November 2011 - 10:53 AM, said:

Thanks and sorry again! I hope you've understanded me!

Sure, the issue is quite clear .
Unfortunately NO pre-made and tested solution.
To swap a PCB (what you call "ST32000542AS board") you will need to transfer the ROM (which is not an easy DYI job if you have no experience and IF the chip gets damaged in the attempt a professional recovery will ask you even more money than usual )

jaclaz

[unounotreS]

I just tried to swap the pcb with the owned from ebay but it doesn't work. I tried to connect both PCBs to the motherboard without the HDD arrached on and the result is the same, in bios appears as a st_m13fqbl. Do you think that if I transfer the "old" rom to the new pcb it will work again???

Thxxx

[jaclaz]

unounotreS, on 22 November 2011 - 02:54 PM, said:

I just tried to swap the pcb with the owned from ebay but it doesn't work. I tried to connect both PCBs to the motherboard without the HDD arrached on and the result is the same, in bios appears as a st_m13fqbl. Do you think that if I transfer the "old" rom to the new pcb it will work again???

Maybe YES, maybe NO.

You see, we have NO idea whether the issue is "inside" the PCB or inside the actual disk (head, pre-amp, voice coil, whatever).

If the issue is *something* in the "old" PCB, a new, working one (with the transplanted ROM chip) will work allright.
If the issue is *somewhere else* it won't.

If you know how to carry the procedure and you are relatively confident that you won't fry the ROM, it is a possibility, nothing more.

jaclaz

[unounotreS]

Hi again! Some sites on internet says that if you change the firmware of the damaged PCB to a new PCB it can fix the problem. Now, I have two PCBs, the first one is the PCB that cames with the HDD (which is failing now with the ST_13FQBL error), the second one is the one I owned over Internet. I'm going to do the soldering solution that un-solder the firmware of the old pcb and solder it to the new. Do you think that this solution can help me? If I mount a new PCB to my HDD it can definively crash the HDD?

I have to say that the HDD mechanical parts are working properly and no bad sounds or clicks are showed.

I tried the 'hyperterminal solution' and did not work anyway.

This post has been edited by unounotreS: 12 December 2011 - 07:12 AM

[Tripredacus]

unounotreS, on 12 December 2011 - 07:10 AM, said:

Some sites on internet says that if you change the firmware of the damaged PCB to a new PCB it can fix the problem.

At lot of solutions, especially since people working on their own Seagate drives became popular, aren't really fully understood. So the 'can' above should be 'might'. Just like hitting the hard disk on a table or putting it in the freezer 'might' fix it. Many people seem to jump into either the "reprogram with hyperterminal" or "swap the pcb" before really learning exactly what the problem is.

[unounotreS]

The problem I have is that I don't know what's my problem. I just post this issue in many forums and I never had a valid answer. I called the technical service of Seagate and they only suggest me the Rma method. Tell me what can I do?

[unounotreS]

Hi! I took the HDD to a HDD recovery shop and they tell me that the problem is in the PCB. Well, but they want 850$ for fix it... Are they crazy??? The mechanical parts are good but they say that to fix the pcb they will have to swap the chips from another PCB to mine...

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Nope they are not crazy. JUST how important is your lost data?

Data recovery is a BIG buisness.

[jaclaz]

unounotreS, on 21 December 2011 - 12:47 PM, said:

Hi! I took the HDD to a HDD recovery shop and they tell me that the problem is in the PCB. Well, but they want 850$ for fix it... Are they crazy??? The mechanical parts are good but they say that to fix the pcb they will have to swap the chips from another PCB to mine...

I.E. EXACTLY you were told here a few posts above.

So you LIED when you said that you had NO valid answers, you simply had (at least one) valid answer, that you decided to ignore in favour of another completely wrong answer (because it was simpler).

You also said that you were going to do the Rom swap, now, evidently you changed idea and brought the HD to a recovery firm to do that work (which mind you, might be a wise choice).

Now you whine about the (very high) price they asked you.
You should rephrase this:

unounotreS, on 22 November 2011 - 10:53 AM, said:

It's so important the info. inside it.

"it's so important to the maximum extent of a commercial value of ........ (10/20/50/100) US Dollars"

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 21 December 2011 - 02:50 PM

[unounotreS]

It's not that. I'm only trying all possibilities I can... I tried the 'swap' of firmware with soldering and de-soldering on PCB, to buy a PCB on internet, to take it to an especialist... Now I know what's failing on the HDD and the PCB is the part that is failing. They say that they have to swap the rotor chip, bufer chip and controller chip for make it work. If I have the 'ST_M13FQBL' problem, it's possible to fix the HDD by reconfiguring the Firmware chip? Because it can't communicate with the bios...

[jaclaz]

unounotreS, on 21 December 2011 - 04:28 PM, said:

Now I know what's failing on the HDD and the PCB is the part that is failing. They say that they have to swap the rotor chip, bufer chip and controller chip for make it work.

No, you don't actually "know" ANYTHING (except from what you were told by those guys, which, for all you -or we - can say, can be an absolute truth or a big pile of b*ll§hit )

unounotreS, on 21 December 2011 - 04:28 PM, said:

If I have the 'ST_M13FQBL' problem, it's possible to fix the HDD by reconfiguring the Firmware chip? Because it can't communicate with the bios...

There is NOT *any* 'ST_M13FQBL' problem, that string simply means that the disk drive sends a "botched" string to the BIOS, this could be the symptom of several different issues.
From the little I know, and without further data/details, it sounds to me NOT anythng connected with "swap the rotor chip, bufer chip and controller chip ", though.

It is very possible that by reprogramming/fixing the contents of the ROM (provided that it was not fried in any of the previous attempts, the disk can be revived, but the problem is HOW would you do that?
You could buy a PC-3000 (which last time I checked shipped for around US$ 3,000 ) or a similar tool from Salvation Data, slighlty more economical, or you could try (IF your disk is "covered") the SEDIV software:
http://sediv2008.narod.ru/

If I were you, and if you actually are interested to retrieving the (important but not worth US$ 850) data, I would try checking other KNOWN, RELIABLE recovery companies/experts and see if you can find someone that is available to attempt the recovery for a smaller price, but do not expect anything below the US$ 350÷500 range.

Just so you know, data recovery companies/experts inspire different sentiments, there are of course, and I presume the large majority, very good and nice guys among them :thumbsup:, but there are also (a few, but not so few) some of them that are in plain English crooks .
I have had reports of people that were asked as much as US$ 500÷600 to "recover" data from Seagates with the "common" BSY/LBA, and had at least one report of a data recovery service that actually when asked to give back the disk "as is", actually sabotaged it.

jaclaz