franklav

TO ElectroGeeza: All your questions are answered already in this thread. Brad read this thread and decided to use Aviko's/Yura's fix. Read my post above... 2) Between head assembly contacts 4) Well yes, but remember that as soon as you plug, the power gets on, and it's a bit clumsy to turn on/off the hd by connecting a plug on it especially if it's tight, but use your head. I used another psu for that (which I shorted on the ATX (to MB) connector to keep it powered). 5) Yes 8) Same as 5) obviously. 10) There's an important step that no ones mention in any guide that generates posts about this, but it IS mentionned here in this thread: after powering up the drive, WAIT FOR THE MOTOR TO SPIN DOWN before doing anything, or else you will be getting errors, even on the first command to spin down the drive. This is no big deal, but prevents you from executing the guide... 12) The contacts to the spindle motor are NEVER isolated ! Read a single guide! Dont make a salad of bits of (sometimes wrong) info here and there. 17) -> see 12) and the beginning of my post 18) Yes but that's because you should really read this thread instead! More specifically, post #529 here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...8807&st=520 (I just spent 10 minutes to locate it, but it is there!) By the way the command "/" is the same as "/T". 19) If it's still not responding after 30minutes or so, you can power off the drive, and power back on (without the isolation trick and everything), jump inside the terminal with CTRL-Z, and just redo the last command (/, then the m0 format command) >Q: At what point am I supposed to test the RS232-to-TTL adapter? God! At the END OF EVERYTHING ;-) Surely before anything no !? Just short the TX and RX lines (TTL side) of the adapter and in a terminal, you should see an echo of everything you type (make sure your terminal program doesn't have local echo too, or in that case you should see double echos when the TX-RX are shorted, and single echo when not... surely you can deduce why). Obviously do this without the adapter connected to anything except power and RS232 <-> computer (or usb to computer or whatever). >Q: The pictures that Gradius2 has posted are suggesting The picture of Brad is WRONG. But he labeled it to indicate where to connect the pin ! The label TX and RX depends on which point of view you take (duh) but it makes much more sense to label it from the side of the device on which the label is placed, which is standard for electronics. So the correct label from the HD POV is TX, then RX: The drive outputs at TX and receives inputs at RX, but obviously the TX line of the HD must go to the RX line of the adapter (duh). You would've gone crazy then trying to understand this datasheet http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/...ents/max232.pdf Here they use a confusing nomenclature, taking the POV of the RS232 side of the chip at all times, so driver can both receive and send, likewise for what they call the "receiver" side (which also transmits ) Q... (all the rest) Then, SCRAP THE REST OF YOUR QUESTIONS, all your other questions are answered by this current post, especially see my answer to point #12, and read my post just above (what to do if format (the m0 command) hangs), point 19), and remember my point 10) too!) Oh and btw, I use the term partition format, some people (in this whole thread) are confusing what this means: it has nothing to do with your data partitions on your drive, the m0 command (with the params indicated) format a service area partition and the service area is never visible on the SATA side of things... So, I'll ask again, what is he talking about? He obviously contradicts himself here. It's no wonder that people don't fully understand this guide. Should I do it or should I not do it? Should I power off the HDD at this point or should I not? And how am I supposed to power it off? Just unplug the SATA power connector whilst the HDD is working? That doesn't sound right. He said "By power off, remove the SATA power (not PCB!)" so what else could that possibly mean then unplugging the SATA power connector while the HDD is still on? Shouldn't I power it off the normal and regular way, i.e. by powering off the computer which is providing power to the disk drive? (I mean the normal Windows start button -> shut down command.) Q: In the same post # 101, Gradius has written F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22 <<< This command takes a little over a minute to complete!. This supposedly applies to BSY error. For the LBA 0 error he writes that one should use F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 (enter). In the above mentioned guide written by Brad Garcia at Google Sites, he is suggesting to use the F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 command for the BSY error (which Guardian suggested using for LBA 0 error). So my question here is, should I use m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 or m0,2,2,,,,,22 for BSY error? Q: In the same post # 101, Gradius has written "The wires was inverted to me and I didn't get nothing, so I just reverted and finally got a terminal answer". Doesn't that mean that Gradius was wrong and Brad Garcia was right on the question I asked above, as of which pin is TX and which is RX on the back of the HDD? The TX is the one that's closest to the SATA data and power connectors on the right hand side, right? Q: In post # 160, Gradius writes "Keep in mind, for BSY errors, you need to disconnect the Spin motor, or the drive will enter in that state (in around 2 secs) after it occurs you cannot enter anything, not even CTRL+Z". Do I have to isolate/disconnect the disk drive head contacts or the spin motor contacts from the PCB? Brad Garcia at Google Sites is writing that it's the head contacts I need to isolate from PCB. Anyone know for sure? If I, let's say, forget to isolate the motor contacts from the PCB and power it on like that. Would this mean that powering it on and entering the terminal software in this state will render the hard disk drive unaccessible permanently, or only temporarily until I isolate the motor contacts and retry again? I'm not a newbie at this, I'm a DIYer my self but this whole black cloud of confusion surrounding this topic is what scares me. So many people say so many different things and tell of different approaches to the problem. The guide written by Brad Garcia is probably the most well written one so far. I was actually planning on writing one comprehensive and understandable guide my self, I already had began writing it actually. But after reading the guide by Brad Garcia I may just skip it, since he has already written he's guide the way I like it and would have written mine. Thanks Brad, very well written, you read my mind! Thanks in advance!

TO cereal77: 4) It is not an id***'s guide! Not to sound harsh but you missed a part of your homework. You're probably coming from Brad's page. He clearly states that the guide on the first page of this long thread has been modified and after considering everything he posted Aviko's version instead of Gradius's, and I agree with him having read about the first 39 of 59 pages here... Clearing G defect list has the potential to expose relocated bad sectors. 5) They are not the same you read wrong, but the one with the 0's is ok to run. 6) You probably didn't read the one who had that problem. I searched this whole thread and didn't find anyone mentionning it. I mentionned it after that because I thought someone (like you) might befenit from it ! Look the 4th post just above yours here! You just had to cut power, and just redo the last step (no need for N1 again) 8) -> so why do you blame the guide for this accident ? I'm not calling you an id*** by the way, s*** happens and it sucks, but still the procedure was correct. 10) I don't think so. 12) I would ask seagate to recover and fix your HD saying you had the SD15 fw problem. Sorry for your problems!

Hello, I had a dead BSY drive and thanks to this thread, I've gone to the local electronics shop, bought a couple of caps, a MAX232, a DB9 female, and after a bit of work, I got a new working HD ! Thanks to everyone which has contributed, especially Aviko, which by the way, got me out of a situation no one mentionned here, so I thought I would post it, it could help someone else: When I got to the point of reformatting service area partition 0, with m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 upon entering the command, I waited an hour, without getting a reply. I was tempted to pull the plug and try it again, but was scared since everyone said that the drive would be dead if powering off at that point. Lucky me, Aviko was online and suggested it, and just starting the drive normally (no insulator trick) and trying again this last command. And it worked! So, if like me, the command never replies after an hour (probably less!), you can probably do as I did and safely power cycle, and repeat only that last command. Cheers, Frank