# Seagate Bricked Firmware Drive Fix (With Pics)



## xguntherc

what the!


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## my77stang

Btw, if anyone needs to do this I will let you use my cable/driver disk for free as long as you cover shipping both ways and promise to give it back when your done


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## automata

hi my77stang. i have got the same issue ,as i have no comp port on asus p5q pro ,so would the nokia 7610 datacable which looks similar would work fine


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## twizted01

how do you connect the ca-42 cable to the hard drive? do you need to open up the cable or something?


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## my77stang

yes, you chop the end of the cable off and then connect the wires to some small jumper wires that can be plugged into the pins on the drive. i used front panel wires from an old computer case.


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## {core2duo}werd

has anyone done this? i'm trying it, but i'm having trouble figuring it out.


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## migflores

Thanks you very much...!!!!!
Its work with a HDD MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX 22 500Gb, Firmware MX15
has been dead for 2 month!!! and now is alive... Thanks
i use the CA-42 cable. and GTKTerm in Ubuntu....


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## GodofGrunts

Wow, a lot of first time posters. I hope they all gave you REP+


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## lepa71

Could you post pictures of the cable to know what wire is which?

Thanks


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## jroymd

I hope this this thread is not dead by now, but I have the same problem with my Seagate 1.5 terabyte drive (ST31500341AS- Barracuda 7200.11). Called the company. As soon as I told them the part number and serial number they said it was hopeless, but my drive's symptoms seem to be exactly like those described in this thread.

One day the drive was there, the next day it wasn't. The BIOS did not allow the system to boot, although it would identify the drive. The BIOS states that there are ZERO megabytes on the drive. The drive was set up to boot Win7 RC. The drive powers up, and I can hear the actuator arm do the normal seqence just like my other 1.5 TB drive. There is no evil grinding noise. The drive cannot be read on other computers. The computer that the drive came from works fine with the other Vista and Xp boot drives. Jumpering the two left sided pins to slow down the drive does no good.

I have attempted a PC board switch -- no luck, cause the boards were manufactured too far apart. I tried the My77stang CA-42 cable and reprogramming fix. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to communicate with the drive using Hyperterminal or any other program. I believe the problem may be due to the wire designation on my part. Not all CA-42 cables are made the same, and many do not have the Tx, Rx, GND, Vss designation on the USB to TTL converter board. In one cable, the six colored wires set was completely different. The other two cable I tore apart only had three wires (white, blue, black). One normally assumes that GND is either black or green, but I am still unable to get any sort of handshake. I tried buying the exact same blue cable as pictured in the beginning of the thread, but was sent a generic cable, again with the blue, white, black whites and no labels on the converter board.

I would hook the wires up to an oscilloscope if I had one. Is there any way to easily dertermine the proper wire designation on the generic cable and get Hyperterminal to talk to my drive?


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## tofunater

Quote:


Originally Posted by *jroymd* 
I hope this this thread is not dead by now, but I have the same problem with my Seagate 1.5 terabyte drive (ST31500341AS- Barracuda 7200.11). Called the company. As soon as I told them the part number and serial number they said it was hopeless, but my drive's symptoms seem to be exactly like those described in this thread.

One day the drive was there, the next day it wasn't. The BIOS did not allow the system to boot, although it would identify the drive. The BIOS states that there are ZERO megabytes on the drive. The drive was set up to boot Win7 RC. The drive powers up, and I can hear the actuator arm do the normal seqence just like my other 1.5 TB drive. There is no evil grinding noise. The drive cannot be read on other computers. The computer that the drive came from works fine with the other Vista and Xp boot drives. Jumpering the two left sided pins to slow down the drive does no good.

I have attempted a PC board switch -- no luck, cause the boards were manufactured too far apart. I tried the My77stang CA-42 cable and reprogramming fix. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to communicate with the drive using Hyperterminal or any other program. I believe the problem may be due to the wire designation on my part. Not all CA-42 cables are made the same, and many do not have the Tx, Rx, GND, Vss designation on the USB to TTL converter board. In one cable, the six colored wires set was completely different. The other two cable I tore apart only had three wires (white, blue, black). One normally assumes that GND is either black or green, but I am still unable to get any sort of handshake. I tried buying the exact same blue cable as pictured in the beginning of the thread, but was sent a generic cable, again with the blue, white, black whites and no labels on the converter board.

I would hook the wires up to an oscilloscope if I had one. Is there any way to easily dertermine the proper wire designation on the generic cable and get Hyperterminal to talk to my drive?

I pm'd the threads creator for you, hopefully you'll get a response sometime in the next 12hrs. Welcome to ocn


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## kurosu

jroymd, Dude just send it in to i365 and if it is a firmware problem they will fix it for free! All the information on the drive still exists, but is just unaccessible because of the firmware. My drive just went out about a week ago, and they fixed it in about 3 days. I work really close to where Seagate fixes their harddrives in Santa Clara, so it wasn't a problem for me.

What firmware do you have? If it is version sd15 firmware, then it is a simple fix and they will do it for free!


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## my77stang

I'm glad to see this thread is still of some service to everyone, loosing a hard drive is a real pain in the butt to say the least.

I don't think we're allowed to link to eBay on here, but an auction number from the guy I had originally bought my cable from is 370128943335 and the sellers name is edirect. I just purchased another cable from a different seller who was cheaper (loaned mine out to a fellow OC.net user and have yet to receive it back, and I have a couple drives here in need of fixing). I'll find out if this one has the RX, TX, and GND wires listed on the circuit board like they did on the cable from the seller I listed in this post.


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## Saolix

I'm also trying to get the communication with the CA-42 to work, using Hyperterminal in XP.
jroymd - One way of finding out what cable colors is which is to use a volt/resistance meter and step through the pins/cabels on at a time. I found the following picture of the CA-42 temrinal pin out:










The CA-42 cabel I have seems to be in passive mode until you attach it to a cellphone - then XP detects it and set up the COM-port. Does any one know that triggers this? Is it possible to find a work around? Or do I need to use a Linux-clone?


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## my77stang

Did you get a driver disk with your cable? It's important to have that or it will NOT work.


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## Saolix

Yes I did get the Nokia driver CD but it doesn't make any difference. I've tested it on a Win2k PC as well with the same result - the CA-42 USB is not active until a cellphone is plugged in (I've got to CA42 cables and one is "uncut"). Could the problem be that the OS recognize the C-42 cable as a Nokia USB Modem in stead of a serial COM-port? Any one got a clue?


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## Lord Xeb

O_O Holy crap this is epic! Nice job +rep


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## my77stang

Thanks for the +rep









If I remember correctly, when I plugged in the CA-42 cable to my PC and installed the drivers it showed another COM port in device manager. For reference, I was using 32-bit Windows XP. I could be wrong because it's been awhile since I fixed my drive but I'll be doing another couple drives in the next few days and I'll be able to confirm this.


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## my77stang

I was just booted into my Win XP 32 drive to do some other work this morning and checked device manager. It said FDTI (or was it FTDI?!? or was it.....?!?) USB to Serial drivers - or something like that... and that shows up without the cable plugged in.


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## jroymd

I am thankful for the continued interest in this topic. I guess it is still relevant.

I have tried to overwrite/update the firmware with SeaTools, but the program will not allow it, because the drive's firmware CC1H does not qualify.

I'm interested in how kurosu was able to get i365 to fix his drive for free. I called them last week, and they said it would probably cost a minimum of $700. No freebees were offered.

I have been able to have my secondary Vista boot drive identify the CA-42 equivalent data cable as another port, and I'm able to reassign the COM number, but as of yet I cannot communicate with the drive or other similar drives.

I will try to use the pinout that Saolix posted. It looks to me like Pin 6 is white (phone Rx), pin 7 is blue (phone Tx), and Pin 8 is black (GND). I'll see if I can communicate with the drive.


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## User1202

This solution works perfectly. I fixed my 500 gb drive last night. I did not lose any data. I had to do the optional parts as my drive did not respond to the last command the first time through the procedure.

If people are looking for an alternative to the phone cable, I used a "USB to TTL" device I have for another purpose. It is based on the CP2102 chip. I checked on ebay (search for "CP2102"), and there are a couple of sellers with these sort of devices. I used (forced windows to use them) the VCP drivers from silabs to create the required com port.

THANK YOU FOR THIS INFORMATION !!!

User1202


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## user928754

Yup,I can confirm this fix works. I used it on my Seagate 1TB that was affected by the BSY error with no data loss. I watched this youtube video though (







YouTube- Seagate 1TB BSY error fix 7200.11 Firmware SD15 ST31000340AS ) which links to the article posted by the OP as well as showing step by step visual instructions on how to prepare the cable and where to hook the pins,etc.


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## jroymd

I still am having no luck connecting the "semi-connected" harddrive board to my PC, probably because I cannot determine the correct wiring with the many CA-42 connectors I have purchased. Once again as you can see from the pictures, not all CA-42 connectors are created equal, and none of them have any designations. The first two connectors (front/back pictures) are recognized as a Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (Com2), but I cannot transfer data. When I jumper my supposed Rx and Tx lines, I do get echo commands on Hyperterminal. Unfortunately, I cannot communicate with the bricked drive. I purchased an identical Seagate 1.5 TB drive that is fully functional, but I cannot communicate with it either. Seems like the converters were at fault although they were recognized as comm ports. I finally bit the bullet and purchased an actual Nokia CA-42 data connector, but this was even worse. As you can see from the third picture, the unit is made in Thailand, not China like in the previous posts. The USB head does not pop open. You have to carefully cut it open, because it is completely molded as one unit. Again unfortunately if you open it, the unit is internally sealed with heavy copper and shrink wrap. (I'M STARTING TO GET REALLY ANNOYED HERE!!!) Even worse the computer does not recongize the USB converter before or after the Nokia Software is installed. Another $27 dollars down the drain.

What bothers me is that I viewed a YOUTUBE video were a guy stated that the OEM Seagate drives have nonfunctonal jumper pins compared to the retail harddrives. So I not sure if I've been wasting the last two weeks and $100-plus trying to fix the drive. I have yet to find any information as to the actual designation of these four pins, other than the pinouts listed in this thread. The Seagate site only talks about slowing the drive down for older SATA controllers by jumpering the left two pins. Shouldn't I be able find the pinouts on the Segate site or did I miss it?

At this point, I am at a loss. I guess I'll have to go the USB to Serial to TTL converter route. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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## user928754

Jroymd,

This is the CA-42 cable I bought ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370128943335 ) At the time of this posting there are 5 available. I would buy that one. Once you get it there will be a USB end and an end that normally would connect to the Nokia. Cut off the Nokia end and strip the insulation. There will be 3 wires. One blue. One Green. One White. Strip each of those wires of insulation. Attach female RS232 pins ( http://www.frys.com/product/2065227;...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG ) to each of those wire ends.

Now on the USB side, the only thing you have to do is take off the plastic cover. There are no wires to fiddle with or anything you have to do on that side besides take off the plastic cover.

The cable that I linked to above from ebay should come with a driver CD. I put the cd in the drive and plugged in the cable. It was automatically recognized but not as a modem, it just showed up like another COM port, COM6. I opened HyperTerminal and chose COM6 and adjusted the settings as shown in the Youtube video (







YouTube- Seagate 1TB BSY error fix 7200.11 Firmware SD15 ST31000340AS ). It said connected but it was at a blank screen. I pressed Ctrl+Z and input the commands as show in the video. You do have to wait a little while after that last command. But once it says "User Format Partition Successful", your good to go. It doesn't actually format your drive, all your data is still there. You can unplug and put it back in your box. I just did this whole procedure no more than 5 hours ago.Brought my once dead HDD back to life.


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## User1202

If you can get loop-back to work, then maybe the problem is the reference (gnd). It could be a bad connection to the drive, or a tx/rx reversal. You have probably tried the latter already. Get the part number off the IC in the middle picture and get the datasheet for it. That should give you all the information you need. It should tell you if the IC is actually putting out TTL, and where the TX, RX and GDN connections are.

I found that the pins that are on the hard drive are very small. Maybe the pins you are choosing to mate with the drive are too large and are not making a proper connection. I had to use very tiny pins to get a good connection. I found that the ones the youtube video recommends too large.


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## hollywood406

Quote:


Originally Posted by *user928754* 
Jroymd,

This is the CA-42 cable I bought ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370128943335 ) At the time of this posting there are 5 available. I would buy that one. Once you get it there will be a USB end and an end that normally would connect to the Nokia. Cut off the Nokia end and strip the insulation. There will be 3 wires. One blue. One Green. One White. Strip each of those wires of insulation. Attach female RS232 pins ( http://www.frys.com/product/2065227;...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG ) to each of those wire ends.

Now on the USB side, the only thing you have to do is take off the plastic cover. There are no wires to fiddle with or anything you have to do on that side besides take off the plastic cover.

The cable that I linked to above from ebay should come with a driver CD. I put the cd in the drive and plugged in the cable. It was automatically recognized but not as a modem, it just showed up like another COM port, COM6. I opened HyperTerminal and chose COM6 and adjusted the settings as shown in the Youtube video ( YouTube- Seagate 1TB BSY error fix 7200.11 Firmware SD15 ST31000340AS ). It said connected but it was at a blank screen. I pressed Ctrl+Z and input the commands as show in the video. You do have to wait a little while after that last command. But once it says "User Format Partition Successful", your good to go. It doesn't actually format your drive, all your data is still there. You can unplug and put it back in your box. I just did this whole procedure no more than 5 hours ago.Brought my once dead HDD back to life.

Thanks for the great info! I have 2 of the 7200.11 1tb seagate drives. Neither is posing a problem (yet!) Thank God, but I had a couple of questions in the event that they should ever "brick"

1. When you crimp pins on the ends of the cable, where do the green, white and blue wires attach on the drive?

2. Why do you have to remove the housing for the usb connector if you don't need to fiddle with the wires there?

Thanks again for a great tutorial and REP + for you!


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## hollywood406

Quote:


Originally Posted by *my77stang* 
Ok guys I did not come up with the original solution to this, but I _did_ take the provided information and turn it into a "no brainer" tutorial with step-by-step clear instructions, pictures, and proper English since the original fix was posted by people who used English as a 2nd language and was somewhat confusing.

+ REP for the great info!


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## user928754

Thanks for the rep Hollywood406

To answer your question, the 3 wires attach to the small jumper pins on the back of your drive.
If you hold your drive upside down with the PCB facing the ceiling and the connectors facing you,from right-to-left you will see: the SATA power connector,the SATA data connection, and 4 small jumper pins. Let's focus on those set of 4 jumper pins since when the drive is in a BSY state that is the only communication it recognizes (SATA port is locked out). If we look at the jumper pins, going from left to right, the first pin is not used for anything, the second pin is your ground, the third pin is your TX and the fourth pin (closest to the SATA data connection) is your RX. After you crimp your pins, the blue wire connects to the 2nd pin(GND), the green wire connects to the 3rd pin(TX), and the white wire connects to the 4th pin(RX). Once those pins are seated properly(not touching each other,fully connected with the jumper), then you can plug in your USB side and begin the setup process on your PC.

As to why you have to remove the housing. Thats a good question. Now that I think about it I guess you really dont have to since there is nothing to really do there.My only guess is possibly to make it a little easier to plug in if your tight for space with a bunch of other USB devices plugged in, also if you wanted to manually verify the wiring or something. Really though, theres no reason and at the time I didnt think about it I just followed the video.I certainly didnt modify mine and it worked fine. Hope that answers your questions.


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## hollywood406

Sure did, Thanks! I just hope that I never have to use this tutorial. In any event, I buy Western Digital and Samsung drives now. If Seagate ever gets their s~~t together again, I might try them again.


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## User1202

I just did another 500 gb drive for a friend with 100% success. I did have one minor problem. The first time I used the U (spin up) command, I got R/W errors. It turned out to be tarnish on the contacts of the hard drive circuit board (the ones that get isolated with the bristol board). I cleaned all the contacts on the circuit board with a pencil eraser and some alcohol and tried the second time. The errors were gone.


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## my77stang

the only reason someone would need to open up the USB side of the wire would be to find out which wire is which. From the pics I'm seeing (and the 2nd cable I just got in the mail cause a fellow Overclock.net user hasn't returned mine yet) there are no RX, TX, and GND markings - the original cable I got from the "edirect" seller DID have the markings.

To the user who bought his cable from "edirect" did yours have the RX, TX, and GND listed as well? I'd be interested to know if he's getting his cables from more than one source.

Time to boot into XP and start playing with a drive









*edit* btw, there should be no difference in the pins working or not on OEM vs. Retail drives. The only difference is weather or not they come in a box and the warranty offered on the drive. They come off the same assembly line and are made by the same 7 year old Asian kids.


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## user928754

my77stang,
I attached pictures showing the cable ends.


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## User1202

Just thought I'd show a picture of the pins I used, that fit very well. The pin on the bottom is the one I used. I covered them with some small heat shrink to isolate them from one another.

The pin on the top is the RS232 pin, and the one in the middle is a standard PC header pin.


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## jroymd

To User928754,

I purchased a couple of the cables from the eBay link that you cited. And just in case, I also purchased a USB to TTL converter from another eBay site. Something just has to work. I have spent more than the drive costs. Now it's just a quest. Also, aren't the RS232 pins still too loose? I thought the best connector pins would have been from the CD-ROM audio connector that no one uses anymore, but they are still too bulky unless you trim them, which is what I have done.

By the way, the instruction set to enter the command mode on the Seagate PCB as listed in several of the threads is:

cntrl + z

Does that mean "cntrl + z" or "cntrl z" (control and the lower case z). We used to just call that ^z in the CP/M days. I would have tried both, but I have not been able to communicate with either the 1.5 TB bricked drive or an identical functional drive.

Also I'm surprised that both the bricked drive and the one purchased 6-8 months later both have the same firmware revision CC1H. Yet, the Seagate diagnostic website says this firmware is not at risk and won't allow an update. What gives here? My bricked drive which functioned for 6 months, spins up, does the normal head seek routine, but refused to boot. It is read in the BIOS as the correct model number with ZERO megabytes. This seems to to be the exact senario that everyone described in the hundreds of posts since January. This problem is not unlike the situation that Intel experienced with their floating point error back a few years. At least they owned up to the problem and replaced all the CPU's.

So, what are the bad firmware revisions, and is my new 1.5 TB drive just as much at risk?


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## user928754

jroymd,

Cable
The cable that I bought from the ebay site will work. Yes, the pins are a little loose but they fit well enough to do the job. You can wrap the ends in electrical tape to keep them from touching like "User1202" suggested. Other than that it may take a little patience, to get them connected. I would recommend working on a clean,flat,well-lit surface. After you get it positioned just right, tape the wire to the table or something so it won't move. Just try to keep in mind that you'll probably(hopefully) only have to do this once in your life. Oh and after you get your drive working, I would xfer all information on to another(preferably non-seagate) drive.

Key Command
The "Ctrl+Z" command means holding down the Control key and pushing the Z key at the same time, then releasing both keys.

Non-Communication
As far as not being able to communicate with the drive I would just double-check to make sure all the important steps were taken. Did you first remove the PCB and put a piece of paper in between the connector, then replace the PCB? Also I would check the order that the pins are connected? From the tutorial - "remember to hook up the RX and TX "backwards" or you will not be able to talk to the drive." Also making sure the correct USB cable driver, COM port and Port Settings are selected in HyperTerminal is crucial too. If you could take a video or a series of pictures to show what you're doing as it's pretty difficult to troubleshoot without seeing.

Bad Firmware Revisions
A complete list of affected drives can be found at:
http://news.cnet.com/seagate-fixes-7...hen-it-doesnt/

Also check this Wikipedia article :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seagate...ith_SATA_disks which references all the appropriate seagate pages, by model number, where you can download a fix.

For reference the model of my drive is ST31000340AS and the firmware version is SD15.
Firmware Fix: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=207951

Sorry if I failed to answer some of the questions in your post but I'm going to bed as I have to work in the morning.Be back tomorrow.


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## jroymd

To USER928754,

I greatly appreciate your help and the quickness of your responses. Hopefully, the CA-42 cables from the eBay vendor will be the same as you received. If you notice from the 3rd picture on one of my prior posts, the OEM Nokia CA-42 cables manufactured in Thailand are vastly different than the ones from China. The circuit board on the Chinese model is open and accessible. The circuit board on the Thailand model is completely potted in a very hard epoxy-like substance, then wrapped in heavy copper and subsequently with shrink wrap tubing. This is basically NASA-grade construction, and the circuit board is virtually impossible to examine although real good for shooting into earth orbit.

I apologize for the simplicity of the "cntrl + z" question, but it was worth asking, since I have gone through four different CA-42 cables without success. Reading some of the other forums (MSFN forum) on the subject, several people have indicated that some of the CA-42 cables are active all the time while others require activation by the Nokia phone after connection. I hope this is the problem. I have tried the TX - RX pin reversal technique and the PCB isolation with a card technique as shown in the prior posts and video. No luck with communication yet.

Anyway, I'm checking the mailbox a couple times a day.


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## Saolix

To jroymd,

I've got the CA-42 cabel made in Thailand as well with the black insulation and copper as showed in your third picture. I've had problem to connect with the CA-42 cable and it turned out that you have to power the cabel with a 3V battery connected to + with the red cabel and -3V to the black (GND). The black cabel also has to be connected to GND on the drive. With this set up I get a COM-port as well as a Nokia CA-42 USB Modem.

But I still can't get any response from the drive in HyperTerm...


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## jroymd

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Saolix* 
To jroymd,

I've got the CA-42 cabel made in Thailand as well with the black insulation and copper as showed in your third picture. I've had problem to connect with the CA-42 cable and it turned out that you have to power the cabel with a 3V battery connected to + with the red cabel and -3V to the black (GND). The black cabel also has to be connected to GND on the drive. With this set up I get a COM-port as well as a Nokia CA-42 USB Modem.

But I still can't get any response from the drive in HyperTerm...

To Saolix:

Thank you for your response, but I am not sure I understand the connections. -3V to the ground would either short out the -3V supply or it would yield a relative total of +6V to the Seagate PCB if you had two separate 3V sources. I'm thinking since I got another couple of cables coming in the mail, I'll have to be lucky eventually and get a data cable converter that works for me.


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## my77stang

I just did a drive using another CA-42 cable that didn't have the rx and tx listed on the circuit board... The blue one pictured by user928754 is the original one i got and worked for me with my drive - the fact that the wires are labeled are awesome.


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## Saolix

To jroymd,

IÂ´ve fixed the drive with "our" CA-42 cable - the TX and RX cabels were switched for some reason - when I changed places it worked like a charm. I actually used ended up using 3,3V from a power supply connected to the red wire and GND connected to the black wire and to the drive. I also powered the drive from the SATA-power on the power supply. It should work for you as well with your CA-42 cable so you don't have to cut your newly order cables... All the best /S


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## jroymd

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Saolix* 
To jroymd,

IÂ´ve fixed the drive with "our" CA-42 cable - the TX and RX cabels were switched for some reason - when I changed places it worked like a charm. I actually used ended up using 3,3V from a power supply connected to the red wire and GND connected to the black wire and to the drive. I also powered the drive from the SATA-power on the power supply. It should work for you as well with your CA-42 cable so you don't have to cut your newly order cables... All the best /S

I repeated your tips above. The device manager recognized it as a Nokia USB Modem on Com3 but not a separate port. Checked all connections, reversed TX and RX a few times, but no communication between Hyperterminal and the semi-disconnected PCB on the 1.5TB drive.

Still waiting for more cables... Quite a collection piling up.

By the way, I have read how several people insulated the 16(?) pin connector while others insulated the central three pin connector prior to programming the PCB. Do you know which are the correct pins to temporarily insulate or does it really make a difference?


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## cyberguy

Hi,

I had a Seagate ST31000333AS model 7200.11 1TB HDD and it's stop working







. This is an external HDD with USB case. I was using for backup and couple days ago I tried to get some files from my HDD and I couldn't reach the drive. HDD motor start to spin up but after couple seconds heads are parking and spin down and start over again (forever). I thought optimist AC adapter is broken and not enough power for USB box, I plug it to Desktop but result was the same. I fixed many HDD before some of my friends (notebook, desktop, Raid 5 etc) but this time it was my data's

I searched many forums on internet and I read about there is a fuse part on pcb. I replace that fuse but nothings changed. And I decided to use serial cable solution. Here you can find steps and some clues about my progress.

I bought a CA-42 cable. There are 2 type of it. One is original and the other is 3rd party. But both are working well. The original has 5-6 thin cable but mine has only 3.

Cut the phone side and use pin sockets

















Mark GND (I checked with OHM meter) on my CA-42 there are 2 cables left. One is Rx and the other one is Tx. On original one when you open blue USB box you can see RX-TX-GND written on pcb.

Some people are using paper block on motor side and some of them using on data side. I used thick business card on data side. Loosen screws on PCB and put paper between pcb and data pins










After this point when I apply power on HDD, heads are did not parked. I realize that problem is on PCB. If you working on Vista there is no Hyperterminal anymore. You can search on internet "hypertrm.zip" and open on a folder and use hypertrm.exe. Here are the steps:

1. Plug CA-42 cable to USB without any connection. And install drivers about this cable. Under device manager you will see new device. Pls note that Com Port number. Mine is Com Port 11

2. Unplug USB side and plug small sockets on HDD serial port. I found GND already. If your system cannot talk with HDD switch Tx with Rx

















3. Apply power to HDD, motor will start to spin up and plug USB to your computer
4. Setup Hyperterminal. My port is on Com 11 :

Bits per second : 38400
Data bits : 8
Parity : N
Stop bits : 1
Row control : N

5. After this point when you press Ctrl + Z keys you have to see below screen on hyperterminal if you cannot see switch Rx and Tx

ASCII Diag mode
F3 T>

now here are the commands : (P.S. be careful to uppercase and lowercase while you write commands)

F3 T>/2
F3 2>Z

If it's ok you have to see.

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.140 msecs

If you see after Z command

LED:000000CC FAddr:0025DDD9 or similar message listen to your HDD. When motor is down (not spin) press Ctrl + Z next /2 and next Z . Now you have to see Spin Down Complete on screen.

Now do not move HDD and remove the paper between PCB and Data pins. (Meanwhile all the cables are must be attached on HDD "USB and power cables"). Be sure to tight screws especially on data pin side.

If you're ready press U key and spin up motor

F3 2>U

After a while you have to see below message

Spin Up Complete
Elapsed Time 8.363 secs

After pressing U if you will see below message there was a problem on communication between PCB and HDD. Means PCB is not touching pins correctly. You have to start over everything from 1st step.

DiagError 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 39.083 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180

After Spin Up process motor will keep up spinning

New command is : /1

F3 2>/1

Next : N1

F3 1>N1

and : /T

F3 1>/T

Now while USB is attached to the HDD remove power cable from HDD. Wait 10-15 second and plug the power cable back. HDD will start to spin up

If you cannot type any command on screen pls press Ctrl + Z. And type this command i4,1,22 (be careful to uppercase/lowercase)

F3 T>i4,1,22

Now is the heart of commands : m0,2,2,,,,,22 (yes there are 5 commas)

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22

After this command progress will take some time. Don't worry. Get a cup of coffee and relax. You have to see similar to below message. Important one is "User Partition Format Successful " now we can reach our HDD again.

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 00C8

User Partition Format 3% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004AA5, ErrCode 000
00080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 30 secs
User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 30 secs
Zone re-format was skipped.

Remove everythings from HDD and connect to the computer in normal way. Turn on computer you are able to see your HDD again.

Of course copy all important data's on another media in any case.

This connector I made for better usage










If you sure about cables triple socket










If not seperated sockets










Good Luck
CyberGuy


----------



## jroymd

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Saolix* 
To jroymd,

IÂ´ve fixed the drive with "our" CA-42 cable - the TX and RX cabels were switched for some reason - when I changed places it worked like a charm. I actually used ended up using 3,3V from a power supply connected to the red wire and GND connected to the black wire and to the drive. I also powered the drive from the SATA-power on the power supply. It should work for you as well with your CA-42 cable so you don't have to cut your newly order cables... All the best /S

To Saolix:

I gave up on the Thailand CA-42 cable. Vista recognized it, but that's about all. There was no communication. Today, I received two more CA-42 cable from the link suggested by USER928754, which repeated below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370128943335

These are the CHINESE cables with little circuit boards with serial designations that you can actually read!!!! Oddly enough one cable header was black, the other the usual blue. Luckily, I bought two, because the potting material covering the IC splashed over and partially covered up the GND and RX silkscreening on the circuit board. The other was legible. As stated before, for the three wire Chinese cable the serial code/wire combinations are as follows:

BLUE wire -- GND
GREEN Wire -- RX
WHITE wire --TX

I made up new connectors by taking the pins from a Radio Shack DB-9 kit, spreading apart the forked end of the pin slightly, flattening half of the pin with an ultra fine pair of needle nose pliers, rebending the fork so the two halves tough each other, and then covering each connector with 1/8" shrink tubing. I thought this worked quite well, but I'll have to admit that little mini-connector that CYBERGUY (or CYBERGUYTR) made up has to be the classiest connector of all time for this fix.

Anyway, the sixth cable in my long journey communicated right away with my extra "test" Seagate 1.5 TB drive. I used the drivers that came with the Chinese connector, specifically the Win Vista DKU-5 driver (version 3.0.1.0). This is a driver for the Prolific USB to TTL converter chip. I tried using the newest driver form the Prolific Technology website (3.3.2.105) but it kept giving me errors on the Vista Device Manager.

The only dilemma I face is that I am not sure which error I have. It seems likely it is one of the two previously cited in the MSFN Forum: 0 LBA or the BSY problem. I read the posts by Gradius2 where he states:

There are two common errors on Seagate 7200.11 HDDs (caused by bugs on firmware):

- 0 LBA error: it happens when your BIOS can recognize your HDD at POST moment, but as an 0MB drive.
- BSY error: it happens when your HDD enter on a halt state, or BuSY state. In this condition, your HDD will not be recognized by BIOS at POST moment.

My computer attempts to boot, goes through the post, but hangs up during the sequence. It allows me to continue to the BIOS by pressing F1. The BIOS identifies the drive but with ZERO megabytes. I do not know if that is from the LBA 0 error or if the drive is hanging in the BSY state (BSY error). After three weeks, I would hate to initate the wrong fix.

Can anyone clarify my drive's problem? (This question was also submitteed to the MSFN forum.)


----------



## cyberguy

Hi,

Most of the times a virus will cause such problem. And sometimes partition table corrupt. You can solve boot problem with fdisk /mbr command but you have to recreate HDD partition for reach your folders and files.

You can search on internet there is a cd image called "PE recovery tools" . This is a CD and you're booting your system with that CD, it's containing many disk/data recovery tools and diagnose tools as well.

Meanwhile you can try to use "DI Partition Recovery" tool for check your HDD

Good Luck


----------



## jroymd

Quote:


Originally Posted by *cyberguy* 
Hi,

Most of the times a virus will cause such problem. And sometimes partition table corrupt. You can solve boot problem with fdisk /mbr command but you have to recreate HDD partition for reach your folders and files.

You can search on internet there is a cd image called "PE recovery tools" . This is a CD and you're booting your system with that CD, it's containing many disk/data recovery tools and diagnose tools as well.

Meanwhile you can try to use "DI Partition Recovery" tool for check your HDD

Good Luck

I appreciate your prompt answer (and and the pictures of that great little mini-connector).

Why do you think my drive's problem might be a virus or corruption of the partition table as opposed to the LBA 0 problem? The LBA 0 problem described by others seems very similar to my problem.


----------



## cyberguy

Hi,

Normally we're using serial cable method if system cannot detect HDD. In your case you're able to see your drive.

I though you already tried this cable test/diagnostic.

Some of my friends had the same problem an they recovered their data's with recovery tools.

You can download DI Partition Recovery trial version and give a shot.

BR


----------



## jroymd

Quote:


Originally Posted by *cyberguy* 
Hi,

Normally we're using serial cable method if system cannot detect HDD. In your case you're able to see your drive.

I though you already tried this cable test/diagnostic.

Some of my friends had the same problem an they recovered their data's with recovery tools.

You can download DI Partition Recovery trial version and give a shot.

BR

To Cyberguy,

I tried the DI Partition Recovery, but it does not acknowledge the existence of the "bricked" Seagate 1.5 TB drive. Yet, I immediately ran the Seagate SeaTools for Windows which can find the drive, but the drive fails all the disks tests offered (and shows as ZERO megabytes in BIOS setup).

I guess I'm still leaning toward the LBA 0 fix. I just hope it's non-destructive.

Just let me get this straight; it's either one one the other ........

LBA 0 fix -- No pin separater card.
BSY fix ---- Yes to pin separater card with different programming instructions as per the Gradius2 posts in MSNF forums.

Is this the correct thought process or do I not understand the problem? I tried the LBA 0 fix on a "test" 1.5 TB drive with no loss of data. Once I firmly pin down the problem, the next step is to implement one of the two fixes.


----------



## jroymd

Finally, success. I tried the LBA 0 fix and I have restored the Seagate 1.5 TB to its former perilous self. It took six cables, alot of driver loading and unloading, and a little luck. Now I'm not sure what to do with the drive. The firmware checker on the Seagate website says there is nothing wrong with the drive, although the tech suppport person at Seagate stated weeks ago that there is no cost-effective way to save the data and the drive has to be replaced. I can't reflash the firmware, because the flashing utility states that I do not qualify for a firmware upgrade.

The one thing about which I caution others is the card insulator topic. To me, a novice in this firmware fix area, I think there is a over emphasis on the PCB removal and contact pin isolation which apparrently does not apply to the LBA 0 problem but rather the BSY problem. In retrospect it is clear, but for first-timers I'm not so sure it was obvious. I just hope the BSY error does not show up now.


----------



## vtech1

good job jroymd , i hope u can find a use for that drive and if not u can always give it to some one els who can take a chance with it , in any case +reps for u


----------



## user928754

Awesome jroymd . Glad you got it sorted out. +R


----------



## Saolix

jroymd - way to go! I'm sorry for my late feedback. It's been kind of busy here...
I flashed the firmware of my drive from SD25 to SD2A but did this a little bit to fast why I forgot to really turn of Vista. Instead it was left in "sleep mode" with the nice result that Vista now can't boot up. All the files are there but I guess something happened to tha SAM and Softwrae files in tha config folder in Windows... Great with some more hours in front of the screen fixing this problem. ,)


----------



## kganesh20

My drive got bricked 1week ago. I got struck up in installing driver for the cable. I tried the driver CD but the cable is never recognized. Windows xp automatically installs it and showing it as "unknown device" in device manager. I don't know how to make it recognize as com port. I made all the connections properly. Can someone help me?







?


----------



## cyberguy

Hi,

Try to update your cable driver from cable's original driver CD


----------



## kganesh20

Thanks 2 all. Fixed my drive. CA-42 rocks....


----------



## doox00

Hey all I have the same problem with my 1tb drive, I have read over a few howtos online and came across this one. The only part I am a little confused on is powering the drive.

I just power it up with your normal sata connector while the pc is running? When you have to spin it up and down during the process you just plug and unplug it or just leave it plugged into the sata connector the whole process and it does it all on its own?

btw, I bought a ca-42 cable off ebay.. came with no drivers.. found some prolific ones that finally worked for win 7 64. nokia ones from their site did not.


----------



## doox00

well I just followed all the steps.. last step though I get nothing.. type the command in and its just sitting there.

this command

Code:



Code:


Step 13: Type m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 and press enter. (Note the "m" is lower case and the 0's are zeros). It should say.....

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 00, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 0000
User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00008DED, ErrCode 00000080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs
User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs

And should bring you back to the F3 T> Prompt.

ideas? possibly my drive failing was not from this issue.. and it just died from another reason?


----------



## numberonekiwi

Hi first post here found this site by google but I found an different way to solve the problem

The initial problem was I turned on the computer one yesterday to find bios slow booting and not detecting the drive and before researching I just swapped boards between two HDs one SD-15 and one SD-81 this just caused each HD to make sounds like it was under heavy disk activity on boot ( but both drives were seen in bios but not userable ) I then swapped boards back

That is when I found this topic and post 36 I think linking to the seagate boot iso which I downloaded first attempt with faulty drive ( which was my boot drive ) did not work ( all other drives disconected ) so I thought swap boards again IT WORKED but only by upgrading the firmware

So I can confirm if you have 2 identical drives with different firmware you can use one to sort of fix the other

You still need to swap boards back to the original drive - someone here will know more than me and know why but I dont - maybe something to do with boot sector or track layout stored in the PCB itself

But thank you to the person that pointed out the seagate iso boot disk my drive is back


----------



## doox00

okay, I tried this all again tonight, one last shot to try to recover my drive.. and it worked!! but I followed another guide. The step where you have to type

m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22

this guide does not say to remove power from the drive and then plug power back in before you enter that in... I did that and it worked! I got my drive and all my data back. So anyone that is following this guide make sure you do this step!


----------



## Vargess

I just ordered me a cable off Ebay.. My 500g drive that has bricked has SD81 firmware, but has all the same symtoms any other drive with this issue has had. Seagate tried to tell me my drive was not an affected one.. we shall see. Thanks for this info. I have another identical drive, but it's working fine


----------



## superking

Does anyone just get an arrow in hyperterminal when they type ctrl+z?


----------



## doox00

Quote:


Originally Posted by *superking* 
Does anyone just get an arrow in hyperterminal when they type ctrl+z?

try reversing the rx/tx on the hard drive once.


----------



## superking

Quote:


Originally Posted by *doox00* 
try reversing the rx/tx on the hard drive once.

Yeah I tried that, reversing them gets me nothing. Confirmed my cable works with a loopback too.

I started off with a drive that worked fine till I rebooted once, then it was no longer seen in the bios, sd15 firmware and it was still spinning up, it's clearly an affected drive in my view.


----------



## doox00

Quote:


Originally Posted by *superking* 
Yeah I tried that, reversing them gets me nothing. Confirmed my cable works with a loopback too.

make sure to set port to 38400 8 none 1, flow controll off as well if you have not checked that. might have to make sure local echo is on or off, whatever one it should be set to.

also plug in the sata power cable.. wait about 10 seconds and then connect.. if I waited to long.. It would not connect. ohh and be sure none of the rx tx and ground wires are touching when plugged in, its a tight fit on those little pins.


----------



## doox00

Quote:


Originally Posted by *superking* 
Yeah I tried that, reversing them gets me nothing. Confirmed my cable works with a loopback too.

I started off with a drive that worked fine till I rebooted once, then it was no longer seen in the bios, sd15 firmware and it was still spinning up, it's clearly an affected drive in my view.

yeah, exactly the same thing happened to me, and thankfully this fix worked.. I had tons of data on that drive.

now I put a couple 1tb drives in my htpc and mirrored them.. so have a copy on my pc and on the mirror set.









i used putty for terminal program.


----------



## superking

Nope, I'm not even getting that arrow now, tried with rx and tx switched too. It might be time for plan B, whine to seagate and see if I can get them to stop jerking me around (the reason I tried to fix it myself in the first place). Seagate's response to my detailed description of the problem is en email written in Chinglish which completely ignores the fact my drive doesn't work, telling me I can go to this url and update my firmware. Guess I'm not buying seagate next time...


----------



## TheInspector

Hi all,

Just getting ready to try this out on a couple of HDDs. I have received my CA42 cable and it is one made in Thailand. It has 5 wires, black, red, blue, white and yellow. Going back a few pages it was stated that you needed to use a +3v to the red and 0v to the black (which also goes to the grd on the HDD).....I think

Could someone very very kindly just clarify the wire colour/pin outs for the 5 wire CA42. ie which is the Rx & Tx?

I've loaded the drivers that came with the cable but it isn't being recognised by the device driver when connected. I guess this something to do with the +3v not being there.

Any help appreciated


----------



## TheInspector

OK

I've found the answer and if anyone needs the info here it is:

BLACK -> GROUND
WHITE -> RX
BLUE -> TX
YELLOW -> (TO 3.3V BATTERY NEGITIVE)
RED -> (TO 3.3V BATTERY POSITIVE)

Ground needs to be connected to the PCB in order to get a response from terminal. No ground, no go.


----------



## mewisemagic

my77stang do you have a link for the correct driver download for this cable? or anybody else? thanks


----------



## mewisemagic

i got mine fixed,thanks for the help


----------



## mundy5

Thank you my77stang for all your help. I used your post along with the msfn.org post to restore my HDD. I'm typing from that computer right now. If anyone is in the STL area and wants your HDD restored b/c of the BSY problem, shoot me an email:

[email protected]

As you can see from the email address, I did not have much success with i365 as they claimed that the flashing of the new firmware failed.


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mewisemagic* 
my77stang do you have a link for the correct driver download for this cable? or anybody else? thanks

This should work: http://www.nokiausa.com/get-support-...42-ca-53-ca-70

let me know if it doesn't.

btw, I had to install it first and then connect the cable to the HDD and then plug in the USB into the computer. Then it installed the cable and you look up the motorola usb modem com port # and off you go.


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *TheInspector* 
OK

I've found the answer and if anyone needs the info here it is:

BLACK -> GROUND
WHITE -> RX
BLUE -> TX
YELLOW -> (TO 3.3V BATTERY NEGITIVE)
RED -> (TO 3.3V BATTERY POSITIVE)

Ground needs to be connected to the PCB in order to get a response from terminal. No ground, no go.


My experience was the same except mine was made in china but the wires matched up. I didn't have to do anything with the yellow and red however since the power was already coming from the USB connection and the power for the HDD was from the sata power connection. So I only connected the 3 bl,wh,blue; they are also using a different board these days.


----------



## toxiq

great tutorial.

After I found my system not starting anymore I found out that one of my 1TB (st31000340AS model 7200.11 ) disk has the problem not getting reconised by the motherbord. The other I have immediatly upgraded the firmware with success.

Now the question, Is it possible to place the correct upgraded PCB with the correct firmware on the defect harddisk? I have not seen this option but I only want to get some stuff back from the HDD. Later I can do the procedure to get both drives running again.

I already ordered the nokia cable.

regards Walter


----------



## KabouterPaul

Hello,

I'm from the Netherlands and I have a "bricked" DiamondMax 22 drive STM3500320AS. I read your post on the firmware fix and I hope you don't mind me asking, but can I still recover my files or does this fix delete them?
And if I buy a CA-42 cable, how hard is it to find out what is the RX, TX and GND?

Thanks for the fix, I hope I can recover the disk.

Greetings,
Paul


----------



## Bogged

Gotta love Seagate. Just called their "helpdesk" and got someone who engrish is her 200th language.

"yes your drive is under warranty till 2013..
But your
ST3500320AS
Firmware:SD15
SN: XXXXXXXXX

is not one of the affected drives". YES IT IS YOU @()#*%@#(*$)#@(*$)@(#*$...

Call the company that it lists on the warranty page.
Call them....
"We are reseller, you will have to go to shop you bought from"
Me: they dont exist anymore
Them: Call Seagate.
Call Seagate - go in circles again...

Thats my last seagate drive.
I'll try the fix, but not confident.


----------



## JustBiteMe2k

I would just like to thank my77stang (+1 REP) as I have had two Maxtor DiamondMax 22 STM3500320AS drives both with the MX15 firmware which have both been dead for months.

After a few purchases of the Nokia phone cables I finally found one that worked and have fixed both my drives (although one has developed another fault now).

Following the fix, both drives still have all the data and can be accessed again like new!

Other than to say thanks, I have registered here to add some input on the cables I purchased as it's currently not within these pages so hopefully it shall help someone else...

The first cable I bought was from Thailand which contained 5 wires.
Unfortunately, it required a load in the form of a battery or phone before windows would recognise it. It came with no drivers and just seemed more hassle than it was worth... at only Â£2-Â£3 I got back onto eBay and bought another one.

The second CA-42 cable I bought I made sure was from China.
This one contained just 3 wires.
White = connected to TX on HDD
Yellow = connected to RX on HDD
Green = ground

I found out these designation through trial and error with Hyperterminal by performing a loopback test. For anyone else who didn't know what this entailed, basically you connect 2 of the wires together and type something into Hyperterminal. If when you pressed a key, nothing appeared in the Hyperterminal window, then you didn't have the Tx and Rx cables touching each other. Once these were identified, by process of elimination, the ground was found too.

Also, I followed the







YouTube- Seagate 1TB BSY error fix 7200.11 Firmware SD15 ST31000340AS video provided by user928754 (+1 REP) which was linked previously and I found it very useful to follow, so thank you for posting that up.

Anyway, thanks to all who've contributed within this thread, you've saved my bacon!
For anyone else reading this and wishing to give it a try, I have subscribed to this thread so shall get emails if people reply with questions that I might be able to help with.

Good luck!


----------



## elepher50

Two bricked Seagates within a week of each other. A 320GB and a 500GB. I365 fixed and sent back the 500GB drive with all data intact (BSY error). The 320GB drive has the 0 MB issue. Have just rec'd the Nokia cable and cd from ebay seller and will be trying the 0 MB fix using Hyperterminal.
Have been following this thread with great interest - kudos to all who have provided information and instructions on on how to fix these drives.


----------



## elepher50

The 320gb harddrive is now *unbricked* with all data intact. Rep+ to all - the instructions were perfect.


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *KabouterPaul* 
I read your post on the firmware fix and I hope you don't mind me asking, but can I still recover my files or does this fix delete them?

Yes! The whole idea is to be able to regain access to the data. This procedure does not erase our data. It simply tells the HDD to get out of bsy mode. Let us know once your cable arrives how things go.

@Bogged, I had the same experience with Seagate. You should mention that your Serial Number comes up as an affected unit, you can test it yourself at Seagate.com and tell them about this website and about 4 or 5 other websites that talk about the BSY problem. They will 'fess up when you address them with the evidence. That's how my conversation with them went. All of a sudden, they gave me a prepaid shipping label to i365. i365, of course, is a whole different story as you can tell from my post.


----------



## NWdev

Anyone else, like Superking get only a small arrow in hyperterminal when entering CTRL-Z?

Working with a ST3500320AS HDD w/ BSY problem (or at least I believe that was it since it wasn't recognized on boot up one day, no sounds, just no longer accessible).

Got all the way thru step 11 (entering N1) after successfully completing 1-8 of the guide as well as the optional F712 commands. Then things went to heck.

The terminal response when I entered N1 was a beta character on the same line, then the F3 T> prompt.

Figuring it might be okay, I continued and at step 12 received the F3 T> prompt also.

I powered the HDD down for 20 seconds while still connected, then powered back up.
The caret remained underneath the F in the last F3 T> prompt. But I went ahead and typed in the m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 command and enter. The HDD simply continued to spin, no hyperterminal response. Finally after 10-20 minutes I powered it down and disconnected the hyperterminal session.

I then re-placed the business card blocking data connection on the PCB and disconnected the USB (CA-42) cable readying for another attempt.

This time hyperterminal responded to the CTRL-Z with a small arrow and nothing more.

So, I'm wondering
(1) Did anyone else get the beta character after N1 was entered?
(2) Anyone else get the small arrow?
(3) Is the HDD now toast for some reason?
(4) Should there have been a CTL-Z *before* the m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 command to 'wake up' and get you back to the F3 T> prompt after power down of the HDD for 10-20secs?
(5) Any hope for my data??

Thanks to all those who've generously provided instructions and troubleshooting on this and other forums. Your assistance is invaluable!


----------



## success

I'm get the arrow because of miss switching pin between Rx and Ground ,after corrected it return to F3 T> when presss CTRL+Z

I have some question
Are commands for Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 same as 7200.12?
My disk is [Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS]
after I had completed the solution, it shown the message

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22
Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 00, Max Certify Rewr
ite Retries = 0000

Update Cap and Save
User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 00 secs
Zone re-format was skipped.
F3 T>

It's not show % of format like that they describe.
Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 00, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 0000

User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00008DED, ErrCode 00000080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs
User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 05 secs

F3 T>

and my com can't read it in windows explorer but can see in recovery program such as;hard disk regeneration, the easy recovery program show I/O error on disk test but pass on simple mode.

How can I get the data back? please!


----------



## nightside

So after stumbling along I can get all the way to the end and hyperterminal says everything it is supposed to.

The cable works, the codes work, spin down, spin up, everything shows up on hyperterminal exactly as laid out by Cyberguy on :http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives...ix-pics-5.html

Then when I plug the hard drive in, nothing. The hard drive is spinning now, but just no connection. Tried 2 different computers and 2 different cables. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Seagate Barracuda, 7200.11, 500GB Firmware SD25. I've spent over 10 hours screwing around with this thing. Getting pretty angry over here. Any help would be appreciated.


----------



## BigLeg

Hey all,

I am running WindowsXP, and I'm attempting this using the Nokia CA-42 cable. The cable installed correctly and shows up in the device manager. I have cut the end off the cable and crimped jumper wires to each of the three leads.

Unfortunately, Hyperterminal won't connect using the com port the cable is set to. The error message I get reads "Unable to Open ComX. Please check your port settings." Where X is the port number as shown in the device manager. I've tried this with all other "COM" items disabled in BIOS and all of them on (serial and parallel ports). My cable is the only com port listed in device manager.

I have tried:

Changing the port number for the cable in the device manager.
Disabling all non-essential startup and service items using msconfig.
Connecting with the cable leads attached to the drive and unattached (although I think this wouldn't affect my error).

I used a program called "portmon" to log the communication between hyperterminal and my port. Here's the report:

0.16314122hypertrm.exeIRP_MJ_CREATESerial2 SUCCESSOptions: Open
0.00000381hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_QUEUE_SIZESerial2SUCCESSInSize: 8192 OutSize: 8192
0.00000040hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_CONFIG_SIZESerial2 SUCCESSSize: 0
0.00000034hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_BAUD_RATESerial2SUCCESS
0.00000036hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_LINE_CONTROLSerial2SUCCESS
0.00000043hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_CHARSSerial2 SUCCESS
0.00000044hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_HANDFLOWSerial2SUCCESS
0.00000030hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_BAUD_RATESerial2SUCCESS
0.00000029hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_LINE_CONTROLSerial2SUCCESS
0.00000029hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_CHARSSerial2 SUCCESS
0.00000030hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_GET_HANDFLOWSerial2SUCCESS
0.05402632hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_BAUD_RATESerial2SUCCESSRate: 38400
0.00285265hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_RTSSerial2 SUCCESS
0.00299006hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_DTRSerial2 SUCCESS
0.00399649hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_LINE_CONTROLSerial2SUCCESSStopBits: 1 Parity: MARK WordLength: 8
0.00299053hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_CHARSerial2 SUCCESSEOF:0 ERR:0 BRK:0 EVT:0 XON:11 XOFF:13
0.00698539hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_HANDFLOWSerial2SUCCESSShake:80000001 Replace:80000040 XonLimit:80 XoffLimit:200
0.00000032hypertrm.exeIOCTL_SERIAL_SET_TIMEOUTSSerial2CANCELLEDRI:10 RM:0 RC:0 WM:0 WC:5000
0.02991895hypertrm.exeIRP_MJ_CLEANUPSerial2SUCCESS
0.02508913hypertrm.exeIRP_MJ_CLOSESerial2SUCCESS

Note the cancelled command three lines from the bottom. I have no idea what the information means. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## bearrcat

I have the cable - made as needed
Windows XP will not recognize it at all and I can not find a driver either
Who can help?
I have 2 500GB bricked drives here as I just leared the hard way of the glitch
1 was the backup of the other (not raid though) so one failed and thought I was good still then the other went a few days later go figure.

Can I download the usb driver for the CA-42 cable somewhere?
Thanks


----------



## claya

There is a Ctrl z comand missing just before the F3 T> m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 line.

After the s.m.a.r.t. erase...

the Ctrl z gets back the F3 T>

clay


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *bearrcat* 
I have the cable - made as needed
Can I download the usb driver for the CA-42 cable somewhere?
Thanks










You should be able to download it from nokia themselves as well. Just install the driver not the entire suite.


----------



## my77stang

If I can find the damn driver disk I'll upload it and post a link for you guys


----------



## Reefkpr

I had a Raid 0 array setup using two seagate 500gb hard drives. One of the drives started to not get recognized by the bios. I used the cable and hyperterminal and now the bios recognizes my drive and when booting the bios tells me I have a healthy array. My system won't boot. When I boot using alternate drive containing windows the raid array seems to hang up the pc. Anyone have any ideas? I need to recover some data really bad. Thanks in advance.


----------



## popescu

Well..I hope that this Thread is not still dead.Hi guys...good to know that there are people who really care and share their knowledge to solve over's burduins.I got a Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (engineering sample).Same diagnostics: after a restart the computer hangs a lot at POST and doesn't recognise it at all.The problem happend to me about 5 months ago,I went to warranty but there it was said to me that the warranty does not recover the data.I can't give my HDD for a new one because Ihave my Diploma Project on it.I read this thread and decided to take my chance.I buyed a Ca-42 cable.Unfourtanetly I can't get it work.My cable is Made in Thailand (CM09083821) with 5 wires (ble,red,white,black and yellow).Even if i strip it the internal structure is molded,there a better chances to destroy it than to see what it is inside.I read over the internet and the required setups doesn't work for me.But I managed to do something.
My setup:I put the plastic between the PCB and the rectangular connector so when the HDD is powerd on it must not spindle,only the PCB must work.Here it comes my confusion:the only way to make my CA-42 to be seen in the device manager is the following:the red and blue wire must be connected to the TX and RX of the PCB (it doesn't matter how: blue-TX and red-RX or red-TX and blue-rx ) AND the Sata power cable from the Power supply must be conected to the PCB of the HDD.If the power supply connector is not connected the recognise in the device manager does not work.Does this mean that I had discovered the RX and TX terminal of the CA-42?I tried to disconnect the power supply,the blue and red wire connected and to see if the CA-42 cable can be supplyed with power from a 3V battery (round battery from a motherboard).I tried different configurations with the remaining 3 wired (white,black and yellow) but i get so far no result.From this comes my confusion.How did it work with the Power supply cable?Do I require more thatn 3V?I tried also to make the following







ower supply connected to the PCB and to short the blue and red...but no sound...no CA-42 in device manager.I don't know if it make sense i just thought that the RX and TX terminal of the CA-42 when connected will trigger the CA-42 to appear in Device Manager.But my conffusion is:how it works on the PCB connected.Do the 2 wires do another phenomena in that moment?
Thank You.


----------



## AndyBz

hey guys! 1st time poster...long time lurker lol. i was hoping some people were still floating about this thread to lend some assistance...

massss rep for this thread!

i'm in a band and we were about 2 weeks away from finishing a full length CD, when the studio computer crashed....you guessed it, its a seagate barra 7200.11 SD15 1 TB drive :'( so weve potentially lost all our gear!

I have the hard drive at home now, and all appropriate tools. However the damn cable ive received has SIX wires, black, green, red, blue, yellow, white! and it looks a little like the one jroymd posted in post 24.

talk about confusing. my first guess obvsiously didn't work! i picked white as ground, yellow as rx and blue as tx, but just left the other wires aside. of course it didnt work haha. i got ZERO response in hyperterminal, but when i held my thumb down on the connections to make sure they were in properly and typed at the same time, when i did ctrl+z i got an arrow pointing right. but that was it!

so now im gonna try some other cables....

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-Sync-Data-Ca...item4aa0b97500

http://cgi.ebay.com/CA-42-NOKIA-3120...item19b613eb6d

can anybody confirm theyve had success with these? im starting to loose hope!


----------



## JustBiteMe2k

Hi AndyBz,
As stated in my post when i eventually found a cable that worked, the key point was that it was made in china. The others i got from other countries didn't work.
When i searched on eBay i ensured the picture showed a cable that i could read the made in china label, i then emailed and asked the seller if the picture was accurate as i needed a china cable.

I did go through a few cables before i found the right one though... at Â£1 or Â£2 each cost isn't the issue here is it. Just make sure you eventually end up with a cable with only 3 wires, it'll be worth it in the long run!


----------



## AndyBz

Quote:


Originally Posted by *JustBiteMe2k* 
Hi AndyBz,
As stated in my post when i eventually found a cable that worked, the key point was that it was made in china. The others i got from other countries didn't work.
When i searched on eBay i ensured the picture showed a cable that i could read the made in china label, i then emailed and asked the seller if the picture was accurate as i needed a china cable.

I did go through a few cables before i found the right one though... at Â£1 or Â£2 each cost isn't the issue here is it. Just make sure you eventually end up with a cable with only 3 wires, it'll be worth it in the long run!


Thanks for your reply! I've bought another one with a serial no/sticker that looks exactly like a 'successful' cable posted earlier in this thread endorsed by my77stang...however I didn't ask the seller if it was the exact one so here's hoping he's selling what hes advertising haha.

Good to know there is light at the end of the tunnel...a very long, frustrating tunnel!


----------



## candido

Hi guys,

First of all I'd like to say thanks to my77stang! Man you saved the day!! My st3500320as stopped working two days ago, I bought a generic CA-42 cable, followed your instructions and the drive is live again!!

I used a generic CA-42 nokia cable (not nokia at all) and it came with much more pins than the ones on the pictures, I had to open it and look at the board. I'm posting the pictures, hope it helps.









I had problems installing the cable in windows (tried xp and win7 without success) until I found this link in another forum. It solved the problem with the cable instalation:

http://www.usglobalsat.com/download/546/win_drivers.zip

Best,


----------



## Dia

Greetings.

I would like to say, first of all, a big much appreciated thanks to everyone who helped come up with this method; same to the people who shared there experiences, tips, suggestions, the works. You guys sure helped loads of people, including me.









I also had this same issue with a Seagate, the so famous "*BSY error*"...

Has many others, i has well got a "not so common" CA-45 usb data cable. It did not had many specific guiding labels on the pcb, so it was a bit of trial and error until i got it right, and since there seams to be more people with the same cable has me, i decided to share my findings.

The CA-45 that i have, has on its pcb the label *GT507727*.
On this one, you will only find a *blue*, *white* and *black* wires.
Orange and green are kinda also there, but for some reason they were not soldered, at least on mine.

The connection to the hdd pcb will then be the followed:
Blue -> connect to -> TX
White -> connect to -> RX
Black -> connect to -> GND

_There will be no need to invert TX and RX, since on the info that I'm displaying, all is done already, is just a strait forward connection, exactly like I'm showing/saying._

And theres a photo of the real thing:









This was the setup that worked for me.

The drivers i used was:
http://25336b14.thesefiles.com/

And one last thing, i got my CA-45 from:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CA-42...

Hope this info will be useful to you guys, and good luck!









Dia,
diacreations.net


----------



## KlanenForce

.


----------



## mundy5

well it depends. when I fixed mine, it also began having other errors. So I quickly copied all of my important files and saved them onto DVDs and then returned it to seagate for a refurbished unit. Others have had good success simply upgrading their firmware. I'd run the diagnostics from SeaTools to verify that everything on the drive is good before upgrading its firmware and using it again.


----------



## boogers

Gosh I hope this thread is still somewhat active.....I really need some help.

Everything is set up and drive is recognized in hyperterminal. I get through the first 2 steps but when it comes time for spin down i get a message like cyber guy mentioned here....

"If you see after Z command

LED:000000CC FAddr:0025DDD9 or similar message listen to your HDD. When motor is down (not spin) press Ctrl + Z next /2 and next Z . Now you have to see Spin Down Complete on screen."

Problem is though, I cannot make anything happen once that LED thing pops up. No CTRL+Z...nothing. The drive does not spin down. It's just stuck with that message and every few minutes it pops up again. I end up with:
F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569
LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569
LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569
LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569
LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569
LED:000000CE FAddr:00280569

forever....









Any ideas on what the problem could be and how to fix it?

Stupid seagate....already bought a WD to replace it and as soon as I get the files from iti'm gonna take it out and put some hot lead through it.

Thanks in advance!
boogs


----------



## Thelostone

A HUGE, thank you to all involved in this thread, you've saved my bacon (well, data actually, but in this case it amounts to the same thing).

As I'm here I may as well add my 2 pennies worth;
Following JustBiteMe2k's link the cable I received had pliable plastic on the USB end which wouldn't open and so I used the suggested method of identifying the wires.
I got:
Orange - Gnd
Red - Rx (so connected to Tx on HDD)
Blue - Tx (so connected to Rx on HDD)

And being an idiot and a simpleton I kept trying to use a lower case z instead of the upper case, and just kept getting LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67, but I eventually tried READING THE INSTRUCTIONS.

So once again, thank you, thank you, thank you.


----------



## boogers

"And being an idiot and a simpleton I kept trying to use a lower case z instead of the upper case, and just kept getting LED:000000CC FAddr:0025BF67, but I eventually tried READING THE INSTRUCTIONS."

Really? I tried both and it didn't make a difference. I've read over the instructions a 1000 times and watched the videos on youtube and read comments and questions....don't know what else to do...


----------



## impy123

Hi, i just tried doing this with my seagate 1tb 7200.11 st3100340as, the problem im getting is, when i power the hdd on and plug in the 3 wires, hyperterminal prompts "unable to open COM#. Please check your settings" ..could the pcb be broken?

any help please.
thanks.

also, when i removed the pcb off, the mesh underneath looks like burnt staines?..do you think the pcb is blown? the chips feels hot when i plugged the power in..

Full story:

The drive was originally an external USB drive(Maxtor Basics 1TB),what happened was, was watching a movie, and the dog accidentally pulled off the power cable. There after, I re-plugged in back in, and the drive wasn't recognized. It made a "humming" noise (I think that's the firmware issue thing).

After which, I took it apart and re-connected it to my desktop..Sata-powered adapters. Got into windows XP. The drive loaded (stupid me, should of took the chance to back up the data!), but I thought I should do a scandisk...asked to be restarted.

Restarted, the drive freezes the loading screen and don't allow me to
get into windows, then.. restarted again...the drive didn't even get
detected in the boot up at all...

Do you think the hyperterminal method applies to me, or should I just give it to a Data Recovery specialist?


----------



## Rusty!

Registered to simply say thanks to the OP, got me out of a hole with my 500Gb Barracuda!


----------



## balth

Followed this guide and got back my 500gb drive and all my files. Thanks!


----------



## WestPhotog

Does anybody know if this fix will work with a Western Digital WD5000KS hard drive? I'm willing to try if nobody else has, but the WD drive has 8 pins, not 4 like the Seagate. Any ideas on what the pin assignment is for the 8 pins on this drive? This is one of the drives that had both SATA power and Legacy power (Molex). Any input would be great, thanks!


----------



## mundy5

I wouldn't; this fix only works for those with a specific manufacturer - Seagate with a specific type 7200.11 and most often one type of firmware though others have successfully tried this fix with other firmwares. I would not recommend doing this since yours is probably a different problem. If you do, you did not get the encouragement from us.

@impy123 - it sounds like your problem is different than this one since my hdd's sound was normal before and after the problem occurred. My pcb had not burnt spots either.


----------



## mundy5

@boogers, are you waiting for the hdd to stop spinning when you first plug it in? I had similar errors when I did not wait long enough for it to stop spinning after first plugging it in. It usually took about 30 secs to 2 mins. Try that solution.


----------



## David of Copenhagen

I registered to show my appreciation to those who developed this fix and shared it with others. In particular cyberguy whose guide I followed. ( http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives...ml#post7803284 ) I went with a silicon labs 210x for serial connection. It came with cables for around USD 5 from China through ebay and works with windows 7 using drivers from their website.

My firmware was the SD15. Failed about 18 months after purchase.

I will never buy a Seagate product again. Such arrogance towards customers should not go unnoticed.


----------



## mundy5

Congrats, David on fixing yours. I'd recommend that you run some tests (short and long) from SeaTools to see if there is anything else wrong with the drive. Mine failed the tests and so I had it replaced after backing up all the data.


----------



## wrench

I take it this BSY repair doesn't apply to drives with 'clicking' and not recognised?


----------



## mundy5

That's correct, wrench. There should be no odd sounds at all with the BSY and the BIOS problems. It is actually a firmware issue. "clicking" indicates something is physically wrong with the head or its components which a firmware fix will not correct. sorry.


----------



## Kumchak

I have the same issue with my Seagate St3500320AS 500GB 7200.11 hard drive.
It just died one day and stopped being recognized by BIOS any more. The only way of booting the system from another drive with this one disconnected.

To make a story short. I read the whole thread here and there, did the cable, connected my drive but cannot go any further after the step where you remove plastic card and use U command in Putty (HyperTerminal).

My problem is:
Once i plug the power in, it spins loudly with 7-10 clicking noises and then slows down.
The error i am getting after removing plastic from the SPIDER and using U commnad is the following:
"Error 1009 DETSEC 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 13.923 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180".

Who knows what is that and if it can be fixed?
I cannot move on to another step with this error. ;(

My Firmware is SD15. Disk is being recognised by Seagate Seatools and by Windows Disk Management, But any test with Seatools FAILED, and in Windows Drive Management recognises it, but says that it has 0 MB on it and that it is not initialised.

Can you offer me a solution to my problem please?
The data on disk is vital and i am trying to recover it ASAP.

Look forward for your replies and suggestions.


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Kumchak* 
I have the same issue with my Seagate Once i plug the power in, it spins loudly with *7-10 clicking noises* and then slows down.

Look forward for your replies and suggestions.


Kumchak,

although you have some of the symptoms of the BSY/0 LBA problem, you actually have a bigger physically issue with the clicking sounds.

In all the posts in various forums, there is no clicking sound associated with this issue.

I'm afraid you actually have a physical problem that this solution cannot fix. Time to return it for a replacement IMHO.


----------



## Kumchak

too bad! ;( i will try to find someone who will be able to fix it and to restore my data....

Thank you for the reply though....


----------



## M.A.H

I have a Seagate St3500820AS 500GB 7200.11 SD25 firmware hard drive. I had it connected as a internal drive for extra storage. I used a pci to sata card to connect the drive. About a week ago I turned my pc on and it froze at the splash screen where it says windows xp with the blue bar going across. After a few test I disconnected the seagate drive and my pc booted up fine. I have another drive connected the same way through the sata to pci card, I switched the cables around to see if thats the problem but it froze again at the windows xp splash screen.

I read the forums and tried the solution. I had a max232 adaptor I connected the hard drive to it and used 2 AA batteries to power it. When I press ctrl Z i get nothing in hyperterminal I double checked all cables and reversed the tx/rx still nothing. I also tried it with the nokia CA-42 cable its got 3 cables blue, red and orange. I tried a loopback test and when I connect the blue and red wires together I get these wierd characters in hyperterminal without typing anything. Assuming that the blue and red wires are the tx/rx and orange being ground I tried again but I still didn't get an response when pressing ctrl Z. I switched the cables around but still no luck.

The pin layout for the CA-42 cable is:
blue - pin 12
orange - pin 6
red - pin 4

Is there anything I'm doing wrong?
Do I need to get a proper RS232 to TTL adaptor?
Is the CA-42 cable that I have one of the working ones?


----------



## disco monkey

Just wanted to say thanks. I was able to fix my seagate using these instructions.
Big thanks to Dia, I got the same "ca-42" cable. My wire colors were a little different but everything else was the same.


----------



## HallBert

Hello
I have a "Barracuda.ES.2" affected by the "BSY error".

Serial NÂ°: 9QM8DLBE
Model: ST3500320NS
Part NÂ°: 9CA154-052
Firmware: MA07
DateCode: 09173
(manufac. date): (2008 October 27th)
SiteCode: KRATSG
PurchaseDate: ????-??-??
FailedDate: 2010-07-08
OEM/RETAIL: OEM (Dell)
UserName: HallBert
Country of User: Canada
fail reason/fine: no detect in bios (BSY error)
OS: WinXP

I'm trying to un-brick the drive using a CA-42 cable (chinese clone).
A problem arise when i type "Ctrl+z" in the hyper terminal, i don't get the prompt "F3 T>". Nothing happens.

When the PCB is mounted on the HDD in a normal way (no isolation between the contact head and the PCB),i get this message about every minute:
"LED: 000000CC FAddr: 0024AFF9" (should indicate that the drive is in a busy state ?)

I'm stuck there...Bad cable??? problem specific to the HDD model ???
I have done some research without finding a solution.
So i need some HELP!!!
Thank you!!!

P/S A soldering between a point on the USB PCB and a small black cable was broken.After resoldering,the loopback test was OK.


----------



## wrench

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mundy5* 
That's correct, wrench. There should be no odd sounds at all with the BSY and the BIOS problems. It is actually a firmware issue. "clicking" indicates something is physically wrong with the head or its components which a firmware fix will not correct. sorry.

Thanks, but now I have an update.

I removed the drive from the factory external case. I plugged it into another USB external case and get normal sounds from the drive now and spin up is fine. Yet now, the bios does not recognize the drive.

Any chance I have the BSY issue?


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *wrench* 
Thanks, but now I have an update.

I removed the drive from the factory external case. I plugged it into another USB external case and get normal sounds from the drive now and spin up is fine. Yet now, the bios does not recognize the drive.

Any chance I have the BSY issue?

It looks like it might be the case if you say that there are no odd clicking sounds.


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *M.A.H* 
I have a Seagate St3500820AS 500GB 7200.11 SD25 firmware hard drive. I had it connected as a internal drive for extra storage. I used a pci to sata card to connect the drive. About a week ago I turned my pc on and it froze at the splash screen where it says windows xp with the blue bar going across. After a few test I disconnected the seagate drive and my pc booted up fine. I have another drive connected the same way through the sata to pci card, I switched the cables around to see if thats the problem but it froze again at the windows xp splash screen.

I read the forums and tried the solution. I had a max232 adaptor I connected the hard drive to it and used 2 AA batteries to power it. When I press ctrl Z i get nothing in hyperterminal I double checked all cables and reversed the tx/rx still nothing. I also tried it with the nokia CA-42 cable its got 3 cables blue, red and orange. I tried a loopback test and when I connect the blue and red wires together I get these wierd characters in hyperterminal without typing anything. Assuming that the blue and red wires are the tx/rx and orange being ground I tried again but I still didn't get an response when pressing ctrl Z. I switched the cables around but still no luck.

The pin layout for the CA-42 cable is:
blue - pin 12
orange - pin 6
red - pin 4

Is there anything I'm doing wrong?
Do I need to get a proper RS232 to TTL adaptor?
Is the CA-42 cable that I have one of the working ones?

Do note that you are trying a solution on a different firmware. The most common firmware for this problem was SD15. You also might not be following the instructions verbatim. Please look at it again. You need to be able to unscrew the pcb and screw it back on once it spins down.


----------



## mundy5

You too have a different firmware than the one for this problem. SD15 was the most common one. You very well might have a different problem than BSY or it might require a different solution than this one.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *HallBert* 
Hello
I have a "Barracuda.ES.2" affected by the "BSY error".

Serial NÂ°: 9QM8DLBE
Model: ST3500320NS
Part NÂ°: 9CA154-052
Firmware: MA07
DateCode: 09173
(manufac. date): (2008 October 27th)
SiteCode: KRATSG
PurchaseDate: ????-??-??
FailedDate: 2010-07-08
OEM/RETAIL: OEM (Dell)
UserName: HallBert
Country of User: Canada
fail reason/fine: no detect in bios (BSY error)
OS: WinXP

I'm trying to un-brick the drive using a CA-42 cable (chinese clone).
A problem arise when i type "Ctrl+z" in the hyper terminal, i don't get the prompt "F3 T>". Nothing happens.

When the PCB is mounted on the HDD in a normal way (no isolation between the contact head and the PCB),i get this message about every minute:
"LED: 000000CC FAddr: 0024AFF9" (should indicate that the drive is in a busy state ?)

I'm stuck there...Bad cable??? problem specific to the HDD model ???
I have done some research without finding a solution.
So i need some HELP!!!
Thank you!!!

P/S A soldering between a point on the USB PCB and a small black cable was broken.After resoldering,the loopback test was OK.


----------



## xguntherc

Does anyone that has completed this FIX for the 7200.11 have the CA-42 cable that WORKED!

or any of the RS232 adapters, or a complete setup that worked for them. That I could borrow. I'll pay shipping to and from, and return it asap. or buy it from you. I need one to fix my drive.


----------



## disco monkey

pm'd


----------



## SoleAngelus

Hi guys, hope somepeople are still monitoring this thread and could possible provide assistance.

Im in the same boat, one day my seagate drive just dropped off the radar, and just tryin this method to ressurect it.

I have go my hands on a CA-42 cable, and follwed a few guides on the procedure i have found floating around.

I have a CA-42 cable with four wires inside, Green, White, Red, And Black.
I have determind that the Tx And Rx are the Green and White wires (although not sure which is which) using a loopback test.
I get plain text out of hyper terminal when connecting both wires etc.

At the moment i have been using Hyperteminal with the settings provided, and tried swapping the Tx and RX cables around ad trying again, but all i ever seem to be able to get out of hyperterminal when the drive is connected is random characters, somtimes the drive does not respond at all.

Can anybody give me any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.


----------



## mundy5

SoleAngelus,

Let's go through this in a more step by step manner.

1. I can see that you have identified which wires are the Tx/Rx combination. Your next task is to find the ground cable. My guess would be on the black wire.

2. what exactly have you done to the hdd? Did you remove the pcb? then put in a thick piece of paper between it and the motor?

we'll go from there.

btw an image of your usb side of the CA-42 cable (both sides) would be helpful.


----------



## SoleAngelus

Thanks for the quick reply, i was using the red wire as ground, now using the black i get the proper response from the drive, just following the rocess through now. At the stage where you type m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 but its hanging.

I will try disconnecting it and doing it again, keep you upated.


----------



## SoleAngelus

All sorted







All data etc backing up as we speak, thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *SoleAngelus* 
Thanks for the quick reply, i was using the red wire as ground, now using the black i get the proper response from the drive, just following the rocess through now. At the stage where you type m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 but its hanging.

I will try disconnecting it and doing it again, keep you upated.

All sorted All data etc backing up as we speak, thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread


Hey, hey, congrats SoleAngelus! I guess that was the hiccup. Doesn't it feel great to know that we have fixed something that Seagate was going to charge upwards of $700 for? We did it probably for under $10.

Now make sure you download Seatools and run the short and long test. If there are any irregularities, I'd highly recommend that you return the hdd and get a different one.


----------



## SoleAngelus

Will do, I'll attempt a firmware upgrade as well if one is available, jus wait untill all my data is backed up.
Thanks again Mundy5


----------



## mundy5

you're welcome.


----------



## wrench

I hope to be there soon too.

I got mine built but the drivers aren't working. I installed the software from Nokia, but even now when I plug the USB side in, it's no longer recognized.

WinXP Pro, CA-42 built and ready to go.

Note

I redownloaded the drivers and will report back when my eyes aren't so tired.


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mundy5* 
This should work: http://www.nokiausa.com/get-support-...42-ca-53-ca-70

let me know if it doesn't.

btw, I had to install it first and then connect the cable to the HDD and then plug in the USB into the computer. Then it installed the cable and you look up the motorola usb modem com port # and off you go.


wrench, have you tried my link above? I would recommend that you install only the driver not the suite.


----------



## wrench

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mundy5* 
wrench, have you tried my link above? I would recommend that you install only the driver not the suite.

*
Got the drivers, installed the drivers - working fine now.

I just unbricked my drive.

Backing up now!

You guys ROCK!*


----------



## mundy5

can't be happier for you, wrench! good to hear


----------



## masterbrand

Very great job. I successful unbricked my seagate today. Backing up now!















you rock, cause iÂ´ve lost no data

I used youre tutorial with this parts:

Virtuallvillage RS232ToTTL-Adapter
2 cd-rom audiocables for connecting
and
Profilic USB-to serial-adapter PL2303
using Hyperterminal from WinXP under Win7x64 ultimate.

Works fine,


----------



## mundy5

@masterbrand,

congrats! it is always satisfying to hear stories like yours. make sure you run some seatools tests on it both the short and long tests to make sure that the drive still has integrity.


----------



## Safetyman

Man I'm desperate -____-

If anyone has a working cable I would sure love to get my hands on it so I can perform this fix. I can pay for shipping.

Unfortunately I was sent a Nokia ca-42 that was made in Thailand.

It has 5 wires. Red, Blue, White, Yellow, Black

I assumed Black is ground, White is RX and Blue it TX from what I've seen in posts from others.

I turn on the hard drive, connect the Ground, Rx, Tx, connect USB to computer.... aaaaaand nothing









I can't seem to get the thing to be seen by the computer. It recognizes that I plugged in a USB, but it fails to do anything after that. I'm probably wasting my time with this cable. Like I said, if one of you can help me out with this cable business... I'd be much obliged.

Thanks so much,
Ben


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Safetyman* 
Man I'm desperate -____-

If anyone has a working cable I would sure love to get my hands on it so I can perform this fix. I can pay for shipping.

Unfortunately I was sent a Nokia ca-42 that was made in Thailand.

It has 5 wires. Red, Blue, White, Yellow, Black

I assumed Black is ground, White is RX and Blue it TX from what I've seen in posts from others.

I turn on the hard drive, connect the Ground, Rx, Tx, connect USB to computer.... aaaaaand nothing









I can't seem to get the thing to be seen by the computer. It recognizes that I plugged in a USB, but it fails to do anything after that. I'm probably wasting my time with this cable. Like I said, if one of you can help me out with this cable business... I'd be much obliged.

Thanks so much,
Ben

Ben,

I'm sorry to hear that you are not able to connect to your hdd, but let's try to troubleshoot before you make any other choices.

First, can you open up the usb side of the cable and take and upload a photo of both the front and the back sides. Please do not assume anything by the color of the wire. The people who made them did not seem to follow standard conventions. You really need to see where each colored wire goes. You probably have a Prolific 2303 chip on it.

Second, when you plug in the cable, does your computer recognize the new hardware and install it? Can you post a screen shot of your com ports under device manager?

Also you never mentioned what OS you are working with. That would be helpful. I'm assuming windows.


----------



## wrench

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mundy5* 
can't be happier for you, wrench! good to hear

*Two weeks of backing up video files. Whew! Nothing was lost!

Firmware updated this AM. Drive is back in the ugly silver case. And it passed Seagate's test. I did change that white LED to blue though.

Time will tell! Nothing needed will be copied to it though for now.

Thanks for all the help here!*


----------



## Mapex

I signed up for this forum to ask some Q's about overclocking during the summer but my HDD died before I could and only now do I have the time to hopefully unbrick it. It's crazy how things work.

Anyway, I have decided to bite and try the CA-42 method for my LBA=0 issue. It seems there is a high amount of variation in the functionality and design of the cables. Does anyone who bought from a US eBay seller know for sure that their cable works and whether it was made in China?

I have inquired many eBay US sellers to find out the country of origin for their CA-42 cables and am waiting to hear back, but it seems a bit unclear whether some people may have had success using a Thai cable instead, so I'd rather just order the component sooner than later if we have come to a verdict that the only difference is the coloring of the wires in each cable, not that some cables work and some do not.

*EDIT*
The following sellers claim the cable is made in China:
ecmonster
edirect
gadgettown
yallstore

I hope this okay since I am leaving out hyperlinks and not favoring any one seller over another.


----------



## munscute

i messed up with my pc.. i did this but my pc says usb not recognize, so i just repeat and repeat until on the point my system freeze so i pressed the reset button and it restarted then i tried to connect the drive again as usual it says usb not recognize the i suddenly hit the fan of my cpu and it stops, then i shut down my pc when i turn it on it is beeping and don't boot, so what i did i pulled out one stick of my ram and luckily it boot, but here comes my problem, i reached seeing my backgroud then my pc just died and it wont turn on. i did everything isolate parts one by one.. tested my psu and it's ok..but when i tried loosening my 24 pin it somehow my mobo is turning on but not delivering total circuit. does my mobo messed up or is there something wrong other than this? and if my mobo was the problem replacing is my only choice or can i just fix it.any help please..a bunch of thank in advance

well here is my spec.

q6600 with it's own fan
4850 toxic
gigabyte ep45-ds3l
axe ram 1066 2gbx2
corsair 550w


----------



## Mapex

Success! Thank you to almost everyone on this thread, but wrench in particular for his PMs guiding me through the process, which I will post below for others who are having trouble:

Parts:
-Nokia CA-42 cable, Made in China, but dark blue ends
-9-pin Female D-Sub Connector from RadioShack (~$1.99, part #276-1428) for its pins (I used 6 of the 9 because I messed up a few times, but you only need 3)
-Heat Shrink from Radio Shack (~$3.49, 1" tubes)
-Wire Strippers (or small scissors and LOTS of prior experience stripping wires)
-Possibly a tiny knife (such as one found on a Swiss Army Knife)
-Lighter/Match
-Pliers
-Drivers (http://www.usglobalsat.com/download/546/win_drivers.zip)
-Patience

I obtained a CA-42 cable from eBay seller "gadgettown" because it was the cheapest and closest to me of the US sellers. Furthermore, I inquired if their cable was made in China and they stated that it was (for other US sellers whose CA-42 cables are of Chinese origin, see two posts above). Also, wrench confirmed this information in a PM as well since he purchased the item from the same seller.

I cut off the entire Nokia phone end, I stripped down the insulation about two inches with Swiss army knife scissors (no wire strippers at home), and then I VERY CAREFULLY did the same for the individual wires. The small wires are so small and fragile that you can literally just strip the insulation with your fingernails after a tiny incision with a Swiss army knife-sized scissors/blade.

There were five wires - I got the same cable as Dia's (find his post a few pages back) - and so I snapped open the USB end with the Swiss army knife to see exactly what wires were soldered where: green and orange ones aren't soldered, black is GND, blue is RX (connects to TX on HDD), and white is TX (connects to RX on HDD).

I VERY TIGHTLY placed the pins from the D-Sub connector to the ends of the blue, white, and black wires with pliers. I made sure the wires did not easily pull out of the pins, which caused me problems once during operation of the terminal (so I had to redo the entire thing).

I used a Bic SureStart lighter to carefully shrink the heat shrink on the appropriate wires - maybe 1 to 2 seconds per wire is all that is needed. Don't over-shrink the ends that go into the HDD because if they are thick and snug they won't move/fall out of the HDD, which works out in your favor very well.

I connect the wires to the appropriate pins on the device - thanks to the heat shrink they fit very snugly - and did the LBA=0 fix (CTRL-Z, wait for F3 T> prompt, then the "m2" command) because my drive was detected as a 0MB drive (if you are doing BSY you need to do the whole business card thing with all the other preliminary steps).

It took 45 to 60 seconds for the terminal to report "Partition format success" or whatever the message is (the same in the original post minus the second line) and then I restarted my PC and I was good to go.


----------



## wrench

*Now that's what I'm talking about!

Another successful recovery!*

*Great news, Mapex!*


----------



## munscute

can any1 help me with my problem


----------



## munscute

btw...i used ca-53..i got 4 wires...in my research the extra wire is 5v, i am not sure..when i connect the three wires it always say usb not recognize...does my wire not good?


----------



## mundy5

I would recommend that you start a new thread as this one is dealing with a very specific problem and solution. You are asking for diagnostic questions which is really not the point of this thread.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *munscute* 
i messed up with my pc.. i did this but my pc says usb not recognize, so i just repeat and repeat until on the point my system freeze so i pressed the reset button and it restarted then i tried to connect the drive again as usual it says usb not recognize the i suddenly hit the fan of my cpu and it stops, then i shut down my pc when i turn it on it is beeping and don't boot, so what i did i pulled out one stick of my ram and luckily it boot, but here comes my problem, i reached seeing my backgroud then my pc just died and it wont turn on. i did everything isolate parts one by one.. tested my psu and it's ok..but when i tried loosening my 24 pin it somehow my mobo is turning on but not delivering total circuit. does my mobo messed up or is there something wrong other than this? and if my mobo was the problem replacing is my only choice or can i just fix it.any help please..a bunch of thank in advance

well here is my spec.

q6600 with it's own fan
4850 toxic
gigabyte ep45-ds3l
axe ram 1066 2gbx2
corsair 550w


----------



## gordon-creAtive

I'd like to add a few useful notes. I found this when I tried to figure out the right wires to connect:









If you're using a german keyboard (QWERTZ-Layout) and Ctrl+Z doesn't work, try Ctrl+Y before switching RX/TX.

Also you can figure out RX and TX quite easily: Connect two wires and type something on the console. If it does echo, you hit the right ones! Now you have to check which one is RX and which TX.

Thanks to the previous posters for their useful intructions.


----------



## error9

WOW Guys, this is my first post, and this post is a great big thank you for all your help.
Without this post my life would of been a 1TB misery of disaster, and my seagate 7200.11 LC11 went down, and thanks to 'Ezygroove' who is my hero.

My data is now successfully recovered and i'm on the hunt for a bigger and better drive. RAID 2TB probably.

One thing i will say, is that if you are having problems like this but you manage to just get the drive recognised by the machine then try using Data Rescue 3, somehow a full scan didnt work but a quick scan found my original directories and file structure.

again, thanks for everyones help

Error9
"Even the best artists steal"


----------



## hock

Thanks Dude for you help work like a charm ... !!! I have a ST3500320as and same thing turn pc on and no drive so used a ft232 board or cable you can find at sparkfun.com (USA) or netram.co.za (South Africa) and use the RX TX with GND and Done ..

Thanks

Jared


----------



## op523

I have a 1.5tb seagate that spins up but isnt seen by windows. I have tried the nokia cable route using a few different cables to no success. I just got a RS232-to-TTL board and followed instructions I found on the net. I have the RS232-to-TTL board working with a loop back as a test. I have the cables hooked up right as the recieve light on the board lights up but I can get no response from hyper terminal unless I jump the tx and rx pins. I have everything hooked up it seems. I power on the drive and RS232-to-TTL board then launch a hyper terminal session with 38400 8 n 1 config but I get nothing on the screen. I tried swapping the wires on the drives pins...the rx and tx but nothing happens. This seems a pretty easy deal to do but I cant get the drive talking to hyper terminal. I have searched and read TONS of instructions on this.

Anyone have any hints on what I am doing wrong? I have lots of financial stuff on this drive so dont want to send it to seagate if I can get around it and fix it myself.

thank you in advance for any advice!


----------



## mundy5

What is the firmware on your hdd? My initial guess would be that you are dealing with a different problem especially yours is a 5900 rpm where most of the problems have been with 7200 rpm.


----------



## mad1us

Just wanted to thank everyone who posted, I fixed my drive using the cable that Dia used.

I sent my cable to a friend of mine with the same problem, but he seems to not be able to fix his drive. I dont know if its because he is using win7 64bit. He says he cant get the drivers that Dia used. He did eventually find some drivers that installed, but when he presses "ctrl + z", he only gets an arrow (I think its the "<" arrow).

When I fixed my drive, I think that I changed the port settings in the device manager to match the setting in the hyperterminal. I told my friend to do this. Could this be the problem?

I am looking for more drivers because I think thats the problem. He is going to install win7 32bit on another computer to see if thats the problem.

Thanks again everyone.


----------



## rayXray

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Vargess* 
I just ordered me a cable off Ebay.. My 500g drive that has bricked has SD81 firmware, but has all the same symtoms any other drive with this issue has had. Seagate tried to tell me my drive was not an affected one.. we shall see. Thanks for this info. I have another identical drive, but it's working fine









Hello Vargess, I have the same SD81 firmware with same symptom of the SD15 BUSY state. Did the fix work on your drive? The Seagate guys told me the same thing. They are useless on something really technical like this. All they did was offering me RMA







. I WANT MY DATA!! Anyways, please let me know. Thank you in advane!


----------



## mundy5

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mad1us* 
Just wanted to thank everyone who posted, I fixed my drive using the cable that Dia used.

I sent my cable to a friend of mine with the same problem, but he seems to not be able to fix his drive. I dont know if its because he is using win7 64bit. He says he cant get the drivers that Dia used. He did eventually find some drivers that installed, but when he presses "ctrl + z", he only gets an arrow (I think its the "<" arrow).

When I fixed my drive, I think that I changed the port settings in the device manager to match the setting in the hyperterminal. I told my friend to do this. Could this be the problem?

I am looking for more drivers because I think thats the problem. He is going to install win7 32bit on another computer to see if thats the problem.

Thanks again everyone.

Does he have anyone who has an earlier version of windows like xp? He can try the solution through that if his windows 7 is giving him some trouble.


----------



## rayXray

Another successful story to share!
Thank you everyone who contributed their effects on putting up the DIY steps!

I have:
MODEL: ST3500320AS
Firmware: SD81

CA-42 (bought from the same ebayer seller as Mapex's post) Thanks to Mapex!!
- 4 wires (WHITE = TX, BLUE = RX, GREEN = GND, ORANGE = no connecction)
the cable came with defective BLUE wire (took a long time to find out and fixed it)

I did went into some troubles while doing the last step (POWER OFF/ON the HDD). I wasn't able to Ctrl-Z (reconnect) the terminal with the HDD after the 10 seconds wait. It showed up lots of random characters and locked up after.

MY SOLUTION:
After disconnected the HDD power (not PCB), wait 15 seconds.
Reconnect the power, the HDD motor will do the initial spin. Ctrl-Z after the motor is done (should be around another 10 seconds to wait).

I AM BACKING UP ALL MY DATA AS I AM TYPING THIS POST. I AM A HAPPY MAN NOW!! NO MORE SEAGATE FOR LIFE!!


----------



## my77stang

Glad to see this thread is still helping people. I actually had a member mail me his drive to get repaired this last week


----------



## wrench

Quote:


Originally Posted by *my77stang* 
Glad to see this thread is still helping people. I actually had a member mail me his drive to get repaired this last week









It has been great hasn't it?

Sad thing is the MFR is circumventing the process with the latest drives. The 7200.12 is problematic I hear and they're also making terminal access more difficult.

Sigh. Progress.


----------



## DesertRat

I've got a dead ES.2 1TB that's stuck in a start-up loop. Would it be possible to borrow that cable?


----------



## roybatty

hallo all :

new guy here with an ES.2 500gb spins and reads for a few seconds but no longer boots . Where I am now - Borrowed a PC Machine to get a terminal report on the HD - but as a Mac guy - looking for a tutorial on how to get a terminal reports using Hyperlink or PuTty

cheers in advance :


----------



## Berger

Quote:


Originally Posted by *my77stang* 
Glad to see this thread is still helping people. I actually had a member mail me his drive to get repaired this last week









I pmd you...hopefully you can help me out


----------



## viitols

Hello!
After a year of usage, had the same BSY problem with my Seagate 7200.11 500Gb, Firmware SD81 - drive not showing up in BIOS.

I followed the instructions and made a cable from CA42, connected via terminal, but after attempting 'Z', the drive doesn't spin down and I get this message:

LED: 000000CC FAddr: 00280575

Tried blocking motor and/or head connectors, as well as no card at all. Also ctrl+z works only while the drive is starting up, after that I get the same error again.

And I'm pretty sure it's the BSY problem as drive doesn't show up in bios, even thou the firmware is SD81.

Any ideas what's the problem?

Thanks very much!

Chris


----------



## pedenspeed

Hello all,

First time poster here. I am having somewhat of a problem that seems similar to some of the problems others have had, however, I wonder if I have a bad PCB. I have my CA-42 cable modified and connected correctly. It talks to the drive, but it takes forever for the drive to spin down. The first several times I tried, I kept receiving the error "LED: 000000CC FAddr: 00280575" and would not get the "spin down complete" message. Finally after browsing some more, I found out this was due to not letting the drive spin down first. It takes atleast 2 mins to complete the spin down after applying power, I would say it takes actually longer, but not sure. So now that I have learned to wait for that spin down, and typing the ctrl+z, /2, and the Z I get the "spin down complete" message. All is good to that point, but next everytime I press "U" after pulling out the card and tightening the screws down, it takes for ever for it to do something, and then I get the error of
"DiagError 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 39.083 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180"
according to cyberguy's post, this means that the pcb and the hdd are not communicating. I have tried several times at this point, being VERY careful on pulling out the card, and not moving the drive, but I get the same thing every time.

any ideas out there, or is the drive just toast at this point?

thanks for the ideas.


----------



## BriDog

This is so epic. I was wondering if this kind of trick will work on a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 Model: 6L160M0 160GB SATA150? It just bricked on me. Thing is, when I attach it, it still reads it but only for like 30 seconds. I'm hoping it's not too late to do something easy and free. It's just about full of data. Any help would be much appreciated.


----------



## Skulldude

@my77stang, I joined up here just to say a huge thanks for the DIY.

My Seagate 7200.11 ST35000320AS 500Gb HDD (firmware SD15) decided it would be nice to suddenly stop working after more than 4 years of reliable operation.
I had luckily backed up almost all the data, but not +-140Gb of new pics I had taken over December 2010. Being a photographer, those pics would have been lost forever without resorting to hugely costly data recovery specialists.

Thank you Sir! I followed the instructions and everything worked 100% and I am currently backing up the "lost" 140Gb data.

Oh, and I used a generic Nokia CA-42 cable bought from a flea-market.


----------



## Kingbueno

Hi...
I followed all the instructions very carefully and got the same results as described. Unfortunately, it started to be different until "N1" on hyperterminal..
It showed endless this error:
"Exevute Spin Request
High Power Mode
INIT SMART FAIL"

I was able to go back to to "F3 1> and go further with "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22"
and got positive results. HOWEVER, my HDD is nowehre to be found after connecting it through USB!!! I think its even worst. BEFORE I started fixing, my computer can "see" my files but cannot open them....

PLEASE HELP ME!!!

DETAILS of my HDD:
SEAGATE BArracuda 7200..12
S/N 9VP53TK7
ST31000528AS

Firmware CC3D
Date Code: 10377


----------



## Kingbueno

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Kingbueno;12195659*
> Hi...
> I followed all the instructions very carefully and got the same results as described. Unfortunately, it started to be different until "N1" on hyperterminal..
> It showed endless this error:
> "Exevute Spin Request
> High Power Mode
> INIT SMART FAIL"
> 
> I was able to go back to to "F3 1> and go further with "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22"
> and got positive results. HOWEVER, my HDD is nowehre to be found after connecting it through USB!!! I think its even worst. BEFORE I started fixing, my computer can "see" my files but cannot open them....
> 
> PLEASE HELP ME!!!
> 
> DETAILS of my HDD:
> SEAGATE BArracuda 7200..12
> S/N 9VP53TK7
> ST31000528AS
> 
> Firmware CC3D
> Date Code: 10377


THE ERROR AFTER ENTERING "N1":

"Init SMART Fail
LED: 000000CC FAddr: 0024E3A7"


----------



## above1

U GUYS ROCK!!

Well, after my Segate ST3750330AS drive bricked up, I kept it and it's been about 3 years or so now. I did not want to send it to seagate for fear of losing my data to them.

I have been able to recover all my data that was on the drive!!!

I used this little USB-RS232-TTL converter to connect to the drive:

http://www.bzsale.com/product/USB2-to-RS232-TTL-Converter-Module-PL2303-4pcs-cable_p13622.html

for $6 well worth it.. I just took off the plastic covers off the pins and hooked it up to my drive.. Only thing is that it took 21 days to get here from china.. Apparently it was on the slow air boat. I'm sure if you spring for the extra $4 for shipping it'll come faster.

Here is the screen capture of my drive getting it's firmware fixed:

---BEGIN---

F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.150 msecs
F3 2>U

Spin Up Complete
Elapsed Time 7.447 secs
F3 2>/1

F3 1>N1

F3 1>/T

F3 T>i4,1,22

F3 T>

--UNPLUGGED HD POWER & WAITED 20 SECS. REESTABLISHED TERATERM CONNECTION --

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22
Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 00C8
User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004339, ErrCode 000User Partition Format 5% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00008DED, ErrCode 00000080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs
User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 10 secs

F3 T>F712
Byte:0712: RealTimeUpdatedFlags = 00 00
Byte:0712: Bit:0, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX = 0
Byte:0712: Bit:1, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX_EXT = 0
Byte:0712: Bit:2, DCO_SET_ACTIVE = 0
Byte:0712: Bit:3, CONGEN_READ_FROM_MEDIA = 0

F3 T>F,,22

Drive Configuration restored to defaults.

F3 T>F712
Byte:0712: RealTimeUpdatedFlags = 08 00
Byte:0712: Bit:0, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX = 0
Byte:0712: Bit:1, HPA_SET_BY_SETMAX_EXT = 0
Byte:0712: Bit:2, DCO_SET_ACTIVE = 0
Byte:0712: Bit:3, CONGEN_READ_FROM_MEDIA = 1

F3 T>

--END--

After that, I was able to copy my data off the HD and I am a happy camper!


----------



## Sonnema

My cable has no labels. Does anyone know how can I find out which cable to use?


----------



## p-jones

Hi
I am about to embark on ythis process. I note the copious references to the Nokia Data Cable.

Is it safe to simply use the standard DB9 RS232 Port on the PC ?

Thanks
Peter


----------



## corkyblue

Does anyone here provide a service using htis method to unbrick and fix my 7200.11?? Im nopt much of Techie and would feel happier with more of an expert on board. ... PS: I'm in the UK, so a UK guru would be great!

Corky


----------



## DonMatis

I have 3 Seagate disks with this problem.....i am glad i was able to find this thread and i've read it all.
I am using the original Nokia CA-42 Cable, but i can't get it work with any driver. I've tried all the drivers i was able to find in this thread in both windows xp 32 and windows 7 32 and the only thing i've managed was to detect the cable as prolific usb to serial device in windows 7 but doesn't seem to work properly...
Any ideas? I can use any operating system....just need a good working driver


----------



## wrench

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DonMatis;12779009*
> I have 3 Seagate disks with this problem.....i am glad i was able to find this thread and i've read it all.
> I am using the original Nokia CA-42 Cable, but i can't get it work with any driver. I've tried all the drivers i was able to find in this thread in both windows xp 32 and windows 7 32 and the only thing i've managed was to detect the cable as prolific usb to serial device in windows 7 but doesn't seem to work properly...
> Any ideas? I can use any operating system....just need a good working driver


In message 131 of this thread Mundy5 has a link to the proper drivers.


----------



## paulyb

Really could do with some help here please.

I have followed all instructions, got the cable with 3 wires from ebay, done all the connections but that's it. I have a Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm port in device manager but that's it. Windows wouldn't let me install the Nokia drivers but gave me a link for the latest Prolific ones. No modem has been installed either. When I start terminal I select the correct comm port (in my case 21) the screen comes up with the flashing underscore and that's it, it just stays blank even when pressing CRTL+Z. I have tried shorting out rx & tx and still nothing comes up on terminal. I am using W7 Ultimate 32bit. I'm really getting desperate and have ordered another cable just in case. The one I have at the moment has the green, white and yellow wires. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.


----------



## lilcapn

Yes! Finally got access to my hard drive after about a month. In the end I was able to use the Thailand CA-42 cable using a link to drivers within this thread and a 3V battery to get the computer to recognize the cable. Using Windows Vista 64-bit so had to also download the hyperterminal program.
Anyway, was a lot of work, but you all saved that day! Thanks so much! Most helpful message board ever!


----------



## fgrieu

VICTORY ! The data is back !!

A friend brought a ST3500820AS, FW SD25, SN 9QM5YN78 (reportedly purchased as an Iomega USB drive) that was spinning up all right, but was not recognized.
Turns out that it reported itself as always busy.
It had years worth of family pictures on it.

I followed the instructions at http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home and now all the data is back, and copied to a good drive.

A few notes:
- The drive's serial port data receiving pin is the one closest to the SATA port, and should be connected to the serial adapter's transmitter pin; this is at best ambiguous (read: wrong) on http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home, but in my case no damage was done; the pinout is right at http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-storage/457286-seagate-bricked-firmware-drive-fix-pics.html
- As instructed on http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home, after typing "N1" I turned off the drive; out of curiosity, I checked: at that stage the drive is no longer busy ans shows the right model, but has zero capacity.
- After that, one needs to do ctrl-z again to get the prompt before the "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22" command.
- That "partition regeneration" command did not alter the content of my drive.

My biggest complaint towards Seagate is that at http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951 it is clear that FW SD25 is not in the list of FW affected by the problem, but indeed it is; and the drive's SN entered at https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk/ returns "No download available for this serial number. No action required".

Francois Grieu


----------



## willpower101

Edit. So I guess this does work for the hp24 firmware or ANY firmware really. Thanks for the help guys! Perfect drive again.


----------



## javimarci

Hello,

Can I recover the disk with a Nokia CA-53 Cable?

Thanks


----------



## CylonWolf

Hello,
First time poster on this site. Im attempting to use this method after failing with the Mapleleaf Mountain method. I purchased a CA-42 cable from "edirect", as some mentioned that was a cable that worked with this method. I received the cable today, and it is an orange cable with black tips rather than black with blue tips (no idea if this is an indication that the cable is different). Serial number is WT048000317, big rubbery ends rather than the snap off one some are using. I just want to make sure this cable will work before I chop the end of it off, ruining any chance of returning it.


----------



## smy1es

I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post this little tutorial. It worked perfectly for me and my data has been recovered. I used a MAX232 level-shifter chip that I had left over from a previous project rather than the Nokia cable but that just does the same job.

THANK YOU!


----------



## Botono

Hello. First time posting here (made my account just to post actually). First of all, thank you so much for posting all this information.

I have a Seagate 1TB drive (SD15 firmware) that suddenly stopped showing up in my HP MediaSmart Server. I acquired a good CA-42 cable and was able to connect to the drive via HyperTerminal and run all the commands.

However, my drive is still not working. After running through all the steps to fix the BSY problem, the drive would not come up on my Windows laptop connected via a USB cable (I got one of those things that lets you hook up an internal drive as external, very nice). I tried putting it back into the server and low and behold it saw the drive! I added it and browsed to it via Explorer. I could see the drive and the directories, and could navigate around. Navigation was incredibly slow though, with long pauses at ever click.

Then, every time I tried to do anything with the files, I would get an I/O error. After rebooting the drive is longer visible.

Is there anything else I can do using HyperTerminal to get information about the state of the drive?

Also, after trying this I went back and did just the steps for the LBA 0 problem, but no go.


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Attempting this ...

but a note for others still looking for a "china / 3 wire" CA-42 cable, got mine here ... http://www.dealextreme.com/p/data-cable-compatible-with-nokia-ca-42-446 ... only $4.50 w/ FREE Shipping, it did take over 2 weeks to get in the mail, but I cracked open the BLUE USB side cover and it is the 3-wire verion, mine is WHITE = TX : GREEN = RX : BLUE = GRND, included mini CD w/ Drivers I installed 1st, and then plugged in cord to make sure my computer can see it.

Will continue to attach the mini clips and rest of un-bricking tomorrow, but it looks promissing so far and CHEAP !


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

*... take THAT ! $eagate you Mather [email protected]#K3R'$







*


----------



## phantom1978

hi guys. thanks for the informative site.
have a 1.5tb seagate 7200.11 that recently died on me. just doesnt show up in bios at all. from everything i have read exact symptons of the bsy fault.

tried to follow this guide but i am pulling my hair out.

bought a ca42 and couldnt get it to work so thinking maybe bad cable i bought another one. i have the exact same ca-42 cable as LA Kings Fan above (from deal extreme) and i know others have used this exact cable.
chinese cable with the blue, green and white wires.

i install the driver no problems, connect to hyperterminal and try the ctrl z and get no response. have fiddled with all the connections, swapped the tx rx but still the same.

i have successfully done a loopback test ( connect the gnd and join together the tx and rx, open hyperterminal and i can see what i type) so apparently my cable/drivers etc are fine.

apart from checking the wires and swapping tx and rx which ive done a million times does anyone have any ideas on what could be the problem when i can do a successful loopback test yet still cannot get anything to happen after pressing ctrl z in hyperterminal

thanks for your help


----------



## shadowthor

Hi Everyone, I have gotten the CA-42 cable and managed to get to the point of getting of the drive spinning down. I haven't been able to get the U (spinning up) command to complete successfully. I keep getting an error. The drive i'm trying to revive is the 7200.11 500GB


----------



## samfisher069

Seems this had worked for many. But i have doubt, none had said about symptoms of HDD before fixing. Mine is making unusual low crackling noise. Should i attempt this fix on my seagate momentus 500gb ?


----------



## cyberguy

Hi,

I had a Seagate ST31000333AS model 7200.11 1TB HDD and it's stop working







. This is an external HDD with USB case. I was using for backup and couple days ago I tried to get some files from my HDD and I couldn't reach the drive. HDD motor start to spin up but after couple seconds heads are parking and spin down and start over again (forever). I thought optimist AC adapter is broken and not enough power for USB box, I plug it to Desktop but result was the same. I fixed many HDD before some of my friends (notebook, desktop, Raid 5 etc) but this time it was my data's

I searched many forums on internet and I read about there is a fuse part on pcb. I replace that fuse but nothings changed. And I decided to use serial cable solution. Here you can find steps and some clues about my progress.

I bought a CA-42 cable. There are 2 type of it. One is original and the other is 3rd party. But both are working well. The original has 5-6 thin cable but mine has only 3.

Cut the phone side and use pin sockets

















Mark GND (I checked with OHM meter) on my CA-42 there are 2 cables left. One is Rx and the other one is Tx. On original one when you open blue USB box you can see RX-TX-GND written on pcb.

Some people are using paper block on motor side and some of them using on data side. I used thick business card on data side. Loosen screws on PCB and put paper between pcb and data pins










After this point when I apply power on HDD, heads are did not parked. I realize that problem is on PCB. If you working on Vista there is no Hyperterminal anymore. You can search on internet "hypertrm.zip" and open on a folder and use hypertrm.exe. Here are the steps:

1. Plug CA-42 cable to USB without any connection. And install drivers about this cable. Under device manager you will see new device. Pls note that Com Port number. Mine is Com Port 11

2. Unplug USB side and plug small sockets on HDD serial port. I found GND already. If your system cannot talk with HDD switch Tx with Rx

















3. Apply power to HDD, motor will start to spin up and plug USB to your computer
4. Setup Hyperterminal. My port is on Com 11 :

Bits per second : 38400
Data bits : 8
Parity : N
Stop bits : 1
Row control : N

5. After this point when you press Ctrl + Z keys you have to see below screen on hyperterminal if you cannot see switch Rx and Tx

ASCII Diag mode
F3 T>

now here are the commands : (P.S. be careful to uppercase and lowercase while you write commands)

F3 T>/2
F3 2>Z

If it's ok you have to see.

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.140 msecs

If you see after Z command

LED:000000CC FAddr:0025DDD9 or similar message listen to your HDD. When motor is down (not spin) press Ctrl + Z next /2 and next Z . Now you have to see Spin Down Complete on screen.

Now do not move HDD and remove the paper between PCB and Data pins. (Meanwhile all the cables are must be attached on HDD "USB and power cables"). Be sure to tight screws especially on data pin side.

If you're ready press U key and spin up motor

F3 2>U

After a while you have to see below message

Spin Up Complete
Elapsed Time 8.363 secs

After pressing U if you will see below message there was a problem on communication between PCB and HDD. Means PCB is not touching pins correctly. You have to start over everything from 1st step.

DiagError 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 39.083 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180

After Spin Up process motor will keep up spinning

New command is : /1

F3 2>/1

Next : N1

F3 1>N1

and : /T

F3 1>/T

Now while USB is attached to the HDD remove power cable from HDD. Wait 10-15 second and plug the power cable back. HDD will start to spin up

If you cannot type any command on screen pls press Ctrl + Z. And type this command i4,1,22 (be careful to uppercase/lowercase)

F3 T>i4,1,22

Now is the heart of commands : m0,2,2,,,,,22 (yes there are 5 commas)

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22

After this command progress will take some time. Don't worry. Get a cup of coffee and relax. You have to see similar to below message. Important one is "User Partition Format Successful " now we can reach our HDD again.

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 00C8

User Partition Format 3% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004AA5, ErrCode 000
00080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 30 secs
User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 30 secs
Zone re-format was skipped.

Remove everythings from HDD and connect to the computer in normal way. Turn on computer you are able to see your HDD again.

Of course copy all important data's on another media in any case.

This connector I made for better usage










If you sure about cables triple socket










If not seperated sockets










Good Luck
CyberGuy


----------



## Eastrider

My Seagate drive stopped working... is there anyone willing to lend their cable (I can't do any electronics...) for me to fix it, then I send it back? I will cover both ways shipping and will give some donation to such a kind person.

Please, I'm on despair now


----------



## swac3

Its been said before but you guys ROCK,

My Maxtor died last week with as usual a whole ton of irreplacable photo's.

So went looking for data recovery on the net wound up here tried a ca42 that i was amazed to find in the local market phone guys, but it didnt work.

If anyone else has trouble you might want to save all the hassle.. i just bought a USB TTL dongle Branded Tronix, its an

FTDI chipset usb to ttl 3.3v on a 1.6 cable and supports win 7 and vista 32 AND 64 bit

I'm not affiliated by the way just well impressed.

So the procedure failed the first time all looked good upto the 0,20,20,202, bit and it just sat there..... tried again with the added step of
powering down the drive before that and BOOM thanks a ton drives in photo's backed up and just away to patch the firmware

Its what i'd call a very good day







))

Thanks again

Gary


----------



## ThommyS

Hello guys.
I have no USB-serial-interface (until now)
So,
I did it the easy way:

Make a Case at Seagate: https://services.seagate.com/online_request_form.aspx?lng=de-de
yes, i'm a german 

Open Case at 6.Feb
Pickup by TNT at 7.Feb
Disc-returned by TNT at 14.Feb

All Data is Back
Disc has the actual Firmware

Costs: 0,00€ ))))))

Regards Thommy


----------



## bladde

Finally after month of waiting for CA-42 cable, it took me about 10 minutes with soldering to get the HDD work again.

For me the colors are:
GND: BLUE
TX: GREEN
RX WHITE

Thank You All


----------



## MaxxLore

Hello. I'm new to these forums, and I have a few questions. (Actually just made this account to post here)

First of all, I had a Seagate Free Agent 500 gb drive die on me right around Christmas, taking with it many things I would prefer not to lose. There aren't any noises other then the normal drive function sounds (drive spinning up). Problem is, Bios wont see the drive, and the computer hangs when loading windows. Also, after the drive spins up, it seems like the platters are still spinning. The drive is ST3500820AS with firmwear SD81.

Now, my question is, can I use this method to unbrick my drive? It would be nice to get the stuff off this drive. (Don't really care about keeping the drive at this point)

My other question is, I see many people have used the CA-42 noika date transfer cable for this method, and I was wondering, would this converter work the same? Any thoughts?


----------



## dayryad

Hi, first , thank you for all posts relating the seagate problem.
I have one qestion: Has anibody used a serial DAU-9P data cable to do the job?
http://yournokia.free.fr/nokia/cable.php3
If yes, pls some help with drivers needed , hiperterminal and port configuration if possible
I've used the dku-5 configuration parameters for the com port
The only answer from the HDD in hyperterminal, when i send the ctrl-z command is an arrow to the right , if i send some characters "A" in hiperterminal i see oval faces....








Any Help appreciated ....


----------



## my77stang

Forgot all about this post, but I'm glad to see after like 3 years its still helping people


----------



## cubanresourceful

Where can I get those square gold connectors from? I checked radioshack and they don't sell it. Where else would I be able to pick them up? I need them to connect the cable to the serial port on the drive.


----------



## Quantum Reality

I just want to say this is complete GENIUS. I never knew what those four pins were for on an HD, but now I know they're an undocumented firmware communication interface.









Has anyone worked out the available command set information?

Also, why do you need to lift the PCB off the HD when you unbrick it? I'm curious about that bit.


----------



## cubanresourceful

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Quantum Reality*
> 
> I just want to say this is complete GENIUS. I never knew what those four pins were for on an HD, but now I know they're an undocumented firmware communication interface.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Has anyone worked out the available command set information?
> Also, why do you need to lift the PCB off the HD when you unbrick it? I'm curious about that bit.


Maybe to override some kind of protection?


----------



## allikat

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *cubanresourceful*
> 
> Maybe to override some kind of protection?


Or it's to prevent access to the actual drive heads. That would prevent damage to the data on the drive.


----------



## ultimatescar

I am using TTL to RS232 converter i've problem coming to the command. any suggestions?. i've attached the pic with description .


----------



## Airkey

Please I need some help! Just one little step and I'll succeed.

I've got everything working....cable, wires, driver, hyperterminal.
But when I put down the power for a few seconds before going further to step 13 hyperterminal STOPS or breaks the connection!!!
And I have to start over from step 4. How can you put the power down without breaking the connection with hyperterminal?

I don't read anything about this problem.

_before you type the command m22,0,0,0,0,22 you need to disconnect power and reconnect.. wait about 10-20 seconds then enter that command or else it will not work.
***edit***

Step 13: Type m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 and press enter. (Note the "m" is lower case and the 0's are zeros). It should say....._


----------



## ShadowWizard

Well, I decided to use an actual serial cable, hooked up to an actual serial port instead of a USB to serial interface, and NADA. 2X checked the cable wiring, even tried reversing the TX and RX. Nothing. 2X checked the com port configuration. Nothing. I get nothing back from the drive. With or without a card separating the head contact from the PCB. What is going on?


----------



## Vogelbecker

Hi,

I got a Maxtor DiamondMax 22, STM3500320AS with firmeware MX15.

I try to connect by a serial cable to a serial port of the computer. I dont habe a nokia usb cable.
When i try to connect like its told in the how to, nothing happens. Crtl+z and Crtl+y (i use a german keyboard layout) are not working.
When i remove the paper witch covers the data ports of the pcb and connects the power cord again, the console returns some hieroglyphics








I double checked the correct baud rate. But i think this could be a problem.

When i switch the Tx and de Rx pins i get not return from the console.

Can someone help me?
(sorry about the bad english, iam from germany







)

Greetings


----------



## SM0k3

excellent thread, I have two 1 TB drives(stm31000340as) that went out around the same time with tons of important data on them. I didn't even discover that there was a firmware defect until a week ago, until then i just thought that it was a internal hardware failure. Glad I held on to them all this time, i ordered a Nokia ca-42 coming next week I'll report back if this ends up working for me. thanks for the info.
















EDIT: Got em working, man years of work recovered thanks to this post!


----------



## arebokert

Hey there!

I have tried using your guide by i run in to problems all the time. At first, everything goes smoothly. But when i get to the last step, where i am supposed to type in the long string and press enter, i no longer get any response from the drive. If i type in the string and press enter without restarting the drive, it just hangs and i get nothing. I have left it at this state for about 30 minutes and still, nothing. If i in the other hand try to restart the drive, i can't get back to the prompt when it starts up again. It doesn't matter what i do, i have to restart the whole procedure by turning it off and putting the card back to get any kind of response. The prompt doesn't take any commands after the restart.

Could somebody shed some light over my situation?


----------



## edemizu

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fgrieu*
> 
> VICTORY ! The data is back !!
> 
> A friend brought a ST3500820AS, FW SD25, SN 9QM5YN78 (reportedly purchased as an Iomega USB drive) that was spinning up all right, but was not recognized.
> Turns out that it reported itself as always busy.
> It had years worth of family pictures on it.
> 
> I followed the instructions at http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home and now all the data is back, and copied to a good drive.
> 
> A few notes:
> - The drive's serial port data receiving pin is the one closest to the SATA port, and should be connected to the serial adapter's transmitter pin; this is at best ambiguous (read: wrong) on http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home, but in my case no damage was done; the pinout is right at http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-storage/457286-seagate-bricked-firmware-drive-fix-pics.html
> - As instructed on http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/Home, after typing "N1" I turned off the drive; out of curiosity, I checked: at that stage the drive is no longer busy ans shows the right model, but has zero capacity.
> - After that, one needs to do ctrl-z again to get the prompt before the "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22" command.
> - That "partition regeneration" command did not alter the content of my drive.
> 
> My biggest complaint towards Seagate is that at http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951 it is clear that FW SD25 is not in the list of FW affected by the problem, but indeed it is; and the drive's SN entered at https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk/ returns "No download available for this serial number. No action required".
> 
> Francois Grieu


What about when the drive isn´t spinning up??
I have an Iomega with this drive ST3500820AS SD25 and it doesn´t spin up. I tested the Iomega device with other drives and it works perfectly, only the original one that came with it didnt spin...
Anyone has any sugestion, please?
Do you think this is caused by the same firmware problem that other ones?
Thanks!


----------



## sarge80

Hi I saw this thread and read through a lot of it but have been unable to come up with an answer so i thought i might ask your experiences. When i connect via terminal and power up the drive i get the following :

Rst 0x10M
Servo Processor Is Reset.
RW: Disc Ctlr Initialization Completed.
ExecuteSpinRequest
No HOST FIS-ReadyStatusFlags 2002B001

This is where it stops I dont get the "ASCII Diag mode." mode part and if i hit ctrl + z there is no response. I have tried it with the card in place to block the one set of connections and again with it out and even with the controller board entirely disconnected. Still no further. Any ideas ?
I do believe i have the connection settings right Baud 38400 Data Bits 8 Stop Bits 1Parity none Flow Control none and am using realterm as my terminal software my keyboard is a plain jane ol english one (no special charachters i think)

however I cant seem to find the usb drivers that others have spoken about so im wondering if the odd nokia ones might be the issue the cord im using is a Noka CA-42 with 5 wires 2 of which require a 3v power supply for the device to be detected so it has 5 wires black red white yellow and green. Sadly im stuck with win vista as opposed to xp :


----------



## Tranmillitary

i'm using windows 7.. there is no hyper terminal... what program should i use??


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tranmillitary*
> 
> i'm using windows 7.. there is no hyper terminal... what program should i use??


http://www.hilgraeve.com/hyperterminal-trial/

I used this ... good luck









====================================

For those still trying to resolve their bricked *SeaCrap* HDD issue, I found these links helpful ....

"*THE CABLE*" = {USB Data Cable Compatible with Nokia *CA-42*}

- http://www.dealextreme.com/p/data-cable-compatible-with-nokia-ca-42-446

- http://www.amazon.com/Data-Cable-Nokia-3585-CA-42/dp/B000BI4HQY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

- http://www.wirelessground.com/nodacacacoad.html

- *INFO ON THE CABLE* = http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Use_a_Nokia_Serial_Cable_on_an_ARM9_Linkstation

"*Hyper-Terminal*" = {*Free Trial *of HyperTerminal Private Edition 7.0 for Windows 7 and Vista}

- http://www.hilgraeve.com/hyperterminal-trial/

"*HP - Firmware Upgrade*" = {Seagate Hard Drive Firmware Upgrade for 500-GB Barracuda 7200.11 from HP ... for use once you UNBRICK it







}

- http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=vc-68182-1&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=3733137

- http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/TouchSmart-PC/READ-THIS-If-your-model-7200-11-Seagate-Barracuda-drive/td-p/32984

"*YOUTUBE VIDEO's*" = {google of YouTube video's w/ FIX}

- https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+Seagate+7200.11+HDDs&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GPEA_en

- http://youtu.be/ZBsf-5iiDEE {THIS is the ONE I used that HELPED me the MOST







}

- http://youtu.be/IzvtgNhP82U

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXWjL5aPxSo

"*REPAIR GUIDES*" = {Various Tutorial's w/ FIXes}

- http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html

- http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds/

- http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/169-hard-drive-and-removable-media-issues/

- https://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/

GOOD LUCK


----------



## [T]yphoon

okay, i have a problem with one of my Seagate drives
its a 1TB drive 7200.11 (ST1000333AS)
here is the problem, it spins up, makes a click then spinsdown (in a infinite loop)

BIOS and Windows cant find the drive
what should i do?


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Quote:



> Originally Posted by *[T]yphoon*
> what should i do?


Your Drive is in the *BSY* state loop ... common with these pieces of crap ... in other words *IT'S BRICKED !*

*



*
Bottom line, and I did this with mine ... *I WOULD NEVER TRUST THAT DRIVE AGAIN WITH IMPORTANT DATA* ... even after you unbrick it and upgrade the firmware, if you bother to do so.

This means buy yourself a NEW HDD, and do a FRESH CLEAN Install of Windows and all your other programs yet again, maybe you can use this faulty HDD as a back up drive ? But never have trust in it again ... it's going to be prone to failure ... just an issue with these SeaGate 7200.11 's.

I assume though that this drive currently HAS data / info on it that you WANT / NEED to get off of it ... correct ?

Do you have a 2nd computer w/ USB ports you can run ?

Purchase one of these if you don't already have one

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

With it and a second computer you can power up the HDD once you remove it and unbrick it, and transfer your files off of it onto another drive.

*Follow the steps outlined in this thread, or in the Links I listed above to get your SeaCrap 7200.11 functional again, get your important data off of it, and then use it as a paper weight or doorstop ... good luck*


----------



## [T]yphoon

cant buy anything from newegg, siche i live in Europe
but i did buy a Seagate toolfix http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280748167812&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:NL:3160


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *[T]yphoon*
> 
> cant buy anything from newegg, siche i live in Europe
> but i did buy a Seagate toolfix http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280748167812&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:NL:3160


OK ... wow $20 ? and you still need a USB cable ... yeesh. Oh well at least you have part of what you will need ...

Review the *YOUTUBE* link I posted, it's about the easiest tuturial IF you already have some basic understanding of what you need to do to repair the *BSY Error* and *un-Brick* your SeaGate.

Once you get it unbricked, either buy a USB / SATA adapter like I linked above or use your computer to do it, but *GET YOUR IMPORTANT FILES OFF THAT DRIVE and SAVE THEM to ANOTHER DIRVE* ... and then *REPLACE* that SeaGate HDD ... frankly I wouldn't even bother with the Firmware Update, unless you're really tight on money and need to re-use this Drive as a back-up drive ... *DO NOT TRUST IT* for a Daily use drive,

Personally I'd buy a *WD Caviar Black drive* ... to replace it, IMO they make the besst HDD's on the market, but the newer Barracuda's aren't as bad as these 7200.11's ... I just can't justify giving SeaCrap any more of my money ever again.

*GOOD LUCK* Getting this resolved, it's not easy, but it's not really that difficult either, just take your time, and do it step by step.


----------



## [T]yphoon

alright, thx








well funny i looked over my shoulder and saw the usb cable i need in black from my external drive








lucky me


----------



## Tranmillitary

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *LA_Kings_Fan*
> 
> http://www.hilgraeve.com/hyperterminal-trial/
> 
> I used this ... good luck
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ====================================
> 
> For those still trying to resolve their bricked *SeaCrap* HDD issue, I found these links helpful ....
> 
> "*THE CABLE*" = {_USB Data Cable Compatible with_ Nokia *CA-42*}
> - http://www.dealextreme.com/p/data-cable-compatible-with-nokia-ca-42-446
> - http://www.amazon.com/Data-Cable-Nokia-3585-CA-42/dp/B000BI4HQY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
> - http://www.wirelessground.com/nodacacacoad.html
> - *INFO ON THE CABLE* = http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Use_a_Nokia_Serial_Cable_on_an_ARM9_Linkstation
> 
> "*Hyper-Terminal*" = {*Free Trial *of_HyperTerminal Private Edition 7.0 for Windows 7 and Vista_}
> - http://www.hilgraeve.com/hyperterminal-trial/
> 
> "*HP - Firmware Upgrade*" = {Seagate Hard Drive Firmware Upgrade for 500-GB Barracuda 7200.11 from HP ... for use once you UNBRICK it
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> }
> - http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=vc-68182-1&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=3733137
> - http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/TouchSmart-PC/READ-THIS-If-your-model-7200-11-Seagate-Barracuda-drive/td-p/32984
> 
> "*YOUTUBE VIDEO's*" = {google of YouTube video's w/ FIX}
> - https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+Seagate+7200.11+HDDs&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GPEA_en
> - http://youtu.be/ZBsf-5iiDEE {THIS is the ONE I used that HELPED me the MOST
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> }
> - http://youtu.be/IzvtgNhP82U
> - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXWjL5aPxSo
> 
> "*REPAIR GUIDES*" = {Various Tutorial's w/ FIXes}
> - http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html
> - http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds/
> - http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/169-hard-drive-and-removable-media-issues/
> - https://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> GOOD LUCK


THX LA fan.... you helped me save my files... and photo's that would of haunted me forever if i lost. THX man..

p.s... Canucks are going to win the cup this year


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

* You're Welcome







...*

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tranmillitary*
> 
> THX LA fan.... you helped me save my files... and photo's that would of haunted me forever if i lost. THX man..
> p.s... *Canucks are going to win the cup this year*










*Oh are they now ? * *







*


----------



## my77stang

Wow.. Glad to see this thread is still helping people years later. I officially feel like I've actually contributed to the internet


----------



## [T]yphoon

i got 2 7200.12 seagates drives, both 1tb in RAID0
but friday morning i rebooted my pc and it didnt boot at all
so i checked yhe HighPoint RocketRaID bios and the drives are missing, both of them
so i hooked them directly on the mobo and checked if i saw a post at all
well luckly icsaw a post and after i used my laptop's ssd to boot into windows, i checked if i could see.them
and it did, both of them
so i check both drives with and older RocketRAID, but no drives
i hooked them back to my current RocketRAID and checked the webgui of the controller
it can see them but it says Status: Disabled, Legacy
so its not the external drives its the hdd

i dont know what to do with this. and i really need the data back


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

*[T]yphoon* , I don't understand ... what's different with Post #215 from #207 and #209 of yours ?

Or didn't you get the DATA off of your HDD using the info I gave you in Post #206, #208 and #210 ?

It's not DIFFICULT to UnBrick these HDD's, you just need to be patient and very detailed and thorough while completing the instructions.

Unbrick the drives, recover the Data off the HDD using the *SATA*/*IDE* to *USB* Adapter you purchased and put onto a *NEW* HDD or SSD or DVD's whatever ... just get it *OFF* of those crappy SeaGates and consider them at best heavy door stops or paper weights, even after unbricked, and even after you'd update the firmware to make them usable again *IF* you want to, I would *NEVER EVER* Trust a SeaGate 7200.11 barracuda with My Important data *EVER AGAIN*.

What is it you are having difficulty getting done ?









- Unbricking ?

- Transferring the DATA ?

- Using the *SATA*/*IDE* to *USB* Adapter ?


----------



## [T]yphoon

i fixed my 7200.11 1TB one but after 2 weeks both my 7200.12 drives were missing from my RocketRAID controller (used those 2 drives for the OS)
they now can be viewed by the motherboard's BIOS and in Windows but they still are missing from my RocketRAID controller
i am going to try a PCB swap with a 3rd 7200.12 that i bought at the same time with the 2 faulty drives


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *[T]yphoon*
> 
> i fixed my 7200.11 1TB one but after 2 weeks both my 7200.12 drives were missing from my RocketRAID controller (used those 2 drives for the OS)
> they now can be viewed by the motherboard's BIOS and in Windows but they still are missing from my RocketRAID controller
> i am going to try a PCB swap with a 3rd 7200.12 that i bought at the same time with the 2 faulty drives


* OH ok ... 7200.11* *vs.* *7200.12 ... might be the same (Bsy State Firmware) issue with both batches of drives ?*


----------



## [T]yphoon

i have 3 drives of the same batch, 2 of them are screwed
i tried the bsy fix, but it didnt fix it
also i cant clear the SMART status and i cant disable it so i hope the pcb is f*cked


----------



## [T]yphoon

okay, here is the error i get when i start up the harddrive

Code:



Code:


Rst 0x20M
No HOST FIS-ReadyStatusFlags 2002B001

EDIT: welli tried to do it for the last time the bsy fix again
and got some different errors

Code:



Code:


F3 2>/T

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22

DiagError 0000500E Process Defect List Error
R/W Sense 00000002, R/W Error 841C0087, List Offset 00000000, List Index 0025617
7, File Error 000000D0

F3 T>i4,1,22

Failed to load overlay 00000004
LED:000000CC FAddr:0028931
Rst 0x20M
No HOST FIS-ReadyStatusFlags 2002A185


----------



## SM0k3

has anyone been able to upgrade to the newest fixed firmware since unbricking? I unbricked mine a few months ago but still haven't been able to get the firmware to update on the drives, it goes through the DOS-based process then when I try to scan for ata drives it there are none detected that are compatible with the firmware update?

The drives I am trying to update are the 1 TB's(stm31000340as). They are still working as I type this.


----------



## chrishuff1

I get this after I do "U"

DiagError 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 32.172 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180
F3 2>

Any thoughts?


----------



## [T]yphoon

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SM0k3*
> 
> has anyone been able to upgrade to the newest fixed firmware since unbricking? I unbricked mine a few months ago but still haven't been able to get the firmware to update on the drives, it goes through the DOS-based process then when I try to scan for ata drives it there are none detected that are compatible with the firmware update?
> The drives I am trying to update are the 1 TB's(stm31000340as). They are still working as I type this.


i couldnt update my drives with this system as well
so i used an older system (Asus Maximus III Formula board) and i could update it
seems like you cant use chipset drivers to make it work, it just doesnt work with the new motherboards
i recommend to use an older system


----------



## SM0k3

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *[T]yphoon*
> 
> i couldnt update my drives with this system as well
> so i used an older system (Asus Maximus III Formula board) and i could update it
> seems like you cant use chipset drivers to make it work, it just doesnt work with the new motherboards
> i recommend to use an older system


I figured it out.

I had to change the SATA Configuration to IDE Mode instead of AHCI mode worked perfect that way, but one of the drives has developed the "click of death" so it's about time for replacements.


----------



## NasSweden

Okay people be nice now. I've been reading all over the internet about this BYS fix. I've bought DKU5 cable and I have drivers for it and everything. It even appears in device manager as COM3. I have bought female crimps and all that... I located GND, TX and RX on the cable .. nothing hard.. I connected TX to RX on HDD and RX to TX on HDD and GND to GND. I started Hyperterminal and did all that setting thing.. I tried to type CTRL+Z .. NO RESPONSE.. All I got was one black ARROW pointing to the right -->

I tried to switch their place but it was the same... What's the issue? I bought the cable a guy at YouTube linked and so on... I really need help with this... And now it is beeping when I connect the power cable to the drive..


----------



## NasSweden

I've done looping now again and I get communication BUT the hard drive starts to beep when I press CTRL+Z....HELP!


----------



## redpyl

Thanks for starting this thread!

Just a couple of notes from my recovery experience:
1. As per other posters, my CA-42 cable had blue, white and green wires, blue - connect to hdd gnd, green - to hdd tx , white - to hdd rx. I hacked off some pins from an old PC, but buying some might save someone a little bit of hassle.
2. My CA-42 connection to the hard drive wasn't very good, I had to kinda hold on to it, to ensure the pins where contacting...
3. In step 8, I wasn't sure whether or not I should power down the disk before removing the business card, and putting the screws back in, however, when I did that, I found that it wouldn't stop spinning... so I redid the steps and while the drive was still powered up, I pulled the card and put the screws in... I was afraid of frying the drive, but luckily nothing happened.
4. I did have to power down the drive in step 12 and wait 20 seconds... if I didn't do this, it wouldn't work!

Also, I would recommend doing this in a windows xp environment... I searched for quite some time for Prolific drivers that would work in win 7, but did not have any luck...

Thanks!


----------



## NasSweden

I've lost faith in recovering the drive. Answer my question above please


----------



## chrishuff1

This is what I used: http://www.virtualvillage.com/usb-2-0-to-ttl-uart-module-serial-device-converter-6pin-bu2001-020.html (Note: This company SUCKS, it took more than 30 days to get to me and they constantly lied about its progress, YMMV)

I hooked it up per the instructions here RX -> TX and TX -> RX but it didn't work. I had to do RX -> RX and TX -> TX and then it got me in.

It took forever for me to get my data off. I did the above steps several times and was never able to get the drive to transfer. What I then did was upgraded to the latest firmware. Then I downloaded the seatools and ran a in depth scan (I forget what it's called). It only went so far and would crash, but after the crash, I was able to start transferring my files. I had to do that probably 20 times before I got everything off the drive, but in the end, it DID work.


----------



## NasSweden

I cannot even do that CTRL+Z thing otherwise it would go good.


----------



## chrishuff1

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *NasSweden*
> 
> I cannot even do that CTRL+Z thing otherwise it would go good.


The only thing I'd suggest is, instead of using that cable, just buy this and instead, that way you know it'll work. I tried the cable route and it didn't work, since not all cables are created equal.

http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cables-Module-Converter/dp/B006JKNWLE


----------



## NasSweden

I've located the TX, RX and GND on the cable and connected them correctly. I've done looping test and I only get the arrow when I push CTRL+Z. And it starts to beep when I do that. Wasn't like that before.


----------



## carl00071

Ok, I've tried this method but as soon as I removed the card separating the contacts from the PCB, all I got was loads of random characters by the thousand. I powered off the drive and powered it on again but it still gives me all these random characters before I even press CTRL+Z and the drive does not spin. Please help because I have my entire music collection on this drive!


----------



## boywondered

Hello everyone,
I first want to say thanks to everyone who helped provide input into this fix. Without it I think a lot of us would be sunk.

I am having a problem that I haven't seen anyone else have. I followed the steps, and got all the way to the end message. I plugged the drive into a USB cable and it was recognized (Yay!) and I started pulling files off of it. About half way through my computer stopped recognizing the drive, and I could no longer access it. I have tried repeatedly (unsuccessfully) to try to get into it again, but nothing seems to work. Is this a different issue that popped up, or could it be something to do with the firmware issue.

Thanks in advance for your help.

P.S. I should also mention that there are two partitions on the drive, one of them I can get into (with nothing of importance) and the main one I cannot. I get a mix between:

E:\ is not accessible. The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable

and

E:\ Parameter could not be found.


----------



## rickyman0319

i want to know what tools do i need to take out the PCB on the HD?


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *rickyman0319*
> 
> i want to know what tools do i need to take out the PCB on the HD?


A torx-6 screwdriver


----------



## jamichelli

Would anyone on this thread have a CA-42 cable that I would be able to borrow?

TIA,

Jason


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jamichelli*
> Would anyone on this thread have a CA-42 cable that I would be able to borrow?
> TIA,
> Jason


Order one here - http://dx.com/p/data-cable-compatible-with-nokia-ca-42-446 = all of *$ 4.44* and with *FREE* Shipping to the USA.

You can't afford that ?


----------



## jamichelli

Thanks for the link...I'll be sure to jump on it ASAP!


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jamichelli*
> 
> Thanks for the link...I'll be sure to jump on it ASAP!


It's where I bought mine ... takes awhile to get shipped from Asia but in the end it *WORKED and that's what counts* !


----------



## Confused Chimp

I'm hoping someone here can help me as my 1500GB Seagate HD stopped working a while ago.
I originally thought there was nothing that could be done, but after searching the internet I found threads like this.

Originally the drive worked fine, then for no apparent reason it stopped working.
When booting the drive shows a bad SMART test and I get an error to back up the drive. In the Bios the drive shows a capacity as "1500.3GBST31500341AS" which I think is just the model number rather than the capacity. The LBA mode shows "Supported".
Windows will not recognise the drive at all, not even under the Disk Management section of the Computer Management program of the Administration Tools. It won't even register there is a device attached.

When it first happened my XP machine would freeze if the hard disk was attached. But I could hot swap it in, where it would be recognised for about a minute and I could read some data. But would stop and freeze again after wards. I was backing my data up through this method when after trying to browse a different folder the drive stopped altogether and it can no longer be hot swapped back in.

I've read a fair bit about the BSY error and the LBA 0, but I'm unsure. Can anyone tell me if it is the BSY Error or LBA 0 that my drive is experiencing or something different?

Regards

CC

p.s. now I use both Win XP on one machine and Win 7 on another.


----------



## bcon88

I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB HD. One weekend it just stopped being recognized by my computer and I know it is not broken. I purchased a Nokia CA-42 cord, the prongs to attach the cord to the HD, and a torx screwdriver set. I followed the instructions to the best of my ability and my computer recognizes the new com port; however, I receive a Code 10, or startup, error. If I can't get past this I will not be able to use HyperTerminal to proceed with the recover. Any suggestions?


----------



## johnbeck

Hi

I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB HD.

On powering up I hear the motor spin, It emits about 6 loud clicks at intervals and then goes quiet. No evidence of the drive at all on my laptop

Originally it would click one or twice when starting.

Is it repairable at reasonable cost as I am disabled?

If it's the firmware, can someone in UK do it for me????

Only thing I want of the drive is my Karaoke collection.


----------



## jamichelli

I just tried to unbrick my HD and got the following error for spin-up in hyperterminal...



Any ideas or suggestions?


----------



## Rogerio0106

Hello everyone!

I dont want to revive dead thread, but i would tell for everyone who *CANT GET* in ASCII mode *check the voltages of ur RX TX*, i recovered a barracuda 7200.12 today, and i loose a entire day to figure out this voltage problem.

And a tip for barracuda 7200.12:

After *F3 1>N1* command u will get in loop, turn of the disk, *place the contact bloker (business card) again and start over*.

When u get in time to type *F3 1>N1* command dont do that, instead u must type F3 1>N1,,22.

After that u will see again the *SMART* error, but this time the disk dont come to a loop, it make a weird sound and reboot, this occurs during about 5 seconds u typed the command, after it comes to another error message something like:

_No HOST FIS-ReadyStatusFlags 0002A185_

then u pres *ctrl+z* to get ASCII mode and type: *m22,0,0,0,0,22*

after that u should see something like:

_User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 00 secs_ <-- It's weirdly 0 seconds.

Now try your disk at normal way in computer, it should work, this gone ok for me, *Seagate 1TB 7200.12*

Sorry for bad english and i hope to help.









___________
Lun4t1k0X


----------



## essi67

Hi Guys
I tried to fix my HDD but there are some problem

I did it step by step
But after spin up ( I mean "U" command ) for " N1" and other commands I get "Unable to load diag overlay"
also I can hear a tik,tik,tik,tikkkkkk.............. noise from HDD after N1 command and after a few second I got above error

I also do "m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 " commads and i get this message:
"Error 1008 DETSEC 0000500E Process Defect List Error
R/W Sense 00000002, R/W Error 841C0087, List Offset 00000000, File Error 00000001"

I also Thought about a Hardware problem but I dont have enough knowledge about HDD

anyone has the same problem or any idea why I got that error
plz Help me guys

*****************************************************
F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 10.973 secs
F3 2>U

Spin Up Complete
Elapsed Time 31.886 secs
F3 2>/1

F3 1>N1

Unable to load Diag Overlay

F3 1>/T

F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22

Error 1008 DETSEC 0000500E Process Defect List Error
R/W Sense 00000002, R/W Error 841C0087, List Offset 00000000, File Error 00000001

*************************************************************************************


----------



## headscratcher

Here's my story. I have a non-working, four-year-old HP-M9300t Pavilion desktop computer that only gives me an initial blue splash screen, and then "hangs"- no keyboard response . To me, this looks like a bricked Seagate hard drive may be the problem. The drive is a Barracuda 7200.11, 750GB with HP 24 firmware. Seagate said that they don't have the HP firmware, so they can't do anything about it. HP says... well actually, since it is out of warranty, HP won't even talk to me. SO, I'm pretty much on my own.

I tried to "unbrick the drive" using a variation of the procedures outlined in this thread.
First I removed the drive from the machine. I'm using the computer's power supply to connect up the SATA drive. I'm using an old XP machine as my terminal, with a Prolific Technologies Inc. 7ST-DH-005 USB-to-RS-232 adapter which has a 9-pin D connector as its output. This adapter uses COM Port 4. Hyperterm is my client. Connection from the adapter to the bad hard drive consists of:
D Connector Pin 5 as GND, Pin 2 as RXD, and Pin 3 as TXD. These go to the Seagate drive's RS-232 connector with Pin 3(GND), Pin 1(TX), and Pin 2(RX) respectively. I isolated the circuit board with a card as directed.

However, when I power everything up, and hit Control-z, the only thing I see on my terminal screen is a solid right arrow- not F3. I'm in local loopback. I can type all the characters from my keyboard and see them on the monitor. When I go out of local loopback, I don't see any response on the monitor. Apparently, I'm not communicating with the hard drive. Could this be due to having HP firmware rather than Seagate firmware installed? Any other ideas? I've tried reversing the TX, and RX pins. Any clues as far as the Hyperterm options settings?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## aravindhp1987

Guys all the symptoms with my hard disk is same as told in first post its not detecting and showing 0MB in disk manager .

I brought CA - 42 cable which is having green (RXD) white (GND) & Blue (TXD) wires made a loop back test works fine it shows com port 12 too but *when i press ctrl z nothing is happening only a small line blinks* please tell me what to do please help me too fix this I have very imp data in it please


----------



## LA_Kings_Fan

Realize this thread is over *FOUR YEARS OLD* !!!

Most people with the issue have *LONG* since moved on and won't be around to answer you anymore ...










*HOWEVER*, Everything ... and *I DO MEAN EVERYTHING* you need to KNOW, Buy, and/or DO to FIX your POS Barracuda 7200.11 HDD's *IS* within this thread !!!

take your time ... *READ CAREFULLY* ... and *RE-READ* it again ... didn't work ... *TRY IT AGAIN* !!! didn't work for me the first time either, stick to it, you *WILL* get it to work.

I myself have posted several helpful links to additional resources and video's that should help you ... search back in this thread a few pages.









Sorry if that's not enough help for you ... but after so much time has passed on this, don't expect anyone to hold your hand and walk you through this repair anymore.

*GOOD LUCK !*


----------



## headscratcher

Dear LA_Kings_Fan,
Thanks for getting back to me. Although these posts may be dated, they are still of great value to me.
I posted some of my problems to my friends at the Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists Group
See for the full versions of their responses: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/
Some of what they said follows:

I was trying a USB-to-RS232 adapter. I figured that unless the adapter employed some sort of voltage doubler to get the voltages up to the normal RS-232 levels, I would be safe with the 5 volt USB power.

"It DOES contain the necessary charge pumps to create the proper RS232 voltage levels. There now exists a chip, the MAX232, that, when coupled with a few capacitors, can generate proper RS232 levels with only a 5v input, and serves as a complete receiver/transmitter package, replacing the 1488/1489 pair and it's required voltage sources."

"The problem is that RS232 employs inverted levels, and an RS232 level
converter performs that inversion. Further, the USB<->serial adapter
likely DOES include a DC-DC converter to generate higher (but likely not
very high) voltages than the 5V supplied by USB."

"There are cables that are USB to TTL Serial. They are mostly used with
programming microcontrollers. Some are 3.3v, some are 5v, some are
switchable."

"The fact that the MAX232 level converters are inverted is a non-issue. This
is part of the RS232 standard. A Mark signal, negative level, is a logic
"1' and vice versa - this conversion is done transparently in hardware.
This is why it's important to use the correct adapter. And why you want a
RS232 to TTL adapter - convert RS232 levels to TTL levels and not the
other way around. With the USB to RS232 adapter, you are converting TTL
levels ( albeit differential on USB) to RS232 levels - which is the
opposite."

So, I was using the wrong type of adapter. The correct one is on order. I'll let the group know how I do. Hopefully, I didn't blow the hard drive port. 

Regards,
Headscratcher


----------



## aravindhp1987

I have gone through all the 25 pages but no use k let me try it again and again i ll try untill i get it


----------



## Rogerio0106

Hello aravindhp1987,

Well, each case is differente of other, but what i can tell u about communication is, your RX - TX can be wrong, try switching them, this will not harm your disk(at least mine dont get killed). Other situation, is that your cabe is with wrong voltage, in my case i made communication by using an ARDUINO board, and it is made by USB, seeing this i had 5 volts, thats was enought in my case, some people say u need 3.3 volts. In my case a barracuda 7200.12 3.3 volts cant make my disk talk to computer.

I hope to help.


----------



## headscratcher

IT WORKED! The Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, 750GB is unbricked, and the HP M9300t Pavilion desktop computer is back up and running.

I purchased a PL2303HX USB to TTL Converter Module DN0216 from Fasgoo on eBay for $3.59 with free shipping from their US distributor. It arrived in just a few days. There was no documentation, but since I had been investigating the use of these devices from this forum and elsewhere on the net, it wasn't too difficult to figure out. The driver URL was provided by the seller. It was an RAR file. I needed 7-Zip to unzip it. There was no need to connect an external battery, or use 3.3-5 volts from the desktop machine to power the converter. The adapter was already configured to use the USB voltage and deliver 3.3 volts. Initially there was a jumper between the TX & RX pins which made it easy to do a loopback check. I used the following free programs on my old XP machine to help troubleshoot: Hyperterm, Portmon, and LoopbackTest.

I used the site "Fixing a Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive" https://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/ to actually load the needed commands to un-brick the drive.

A few notes:
I needed to insulate both the contacts from the drive head AND the motor contacts with card stock. I couldn't get the motor to spin down without doing this.
Also, when performing the procedure , and going down to the levels you need to be in, it is necessary to hit another CTRL+z to go from level 1, back to the top level "T" after doing the S.M.A.R.T erase step.

It has been quite a challenge to get this computer working again. There is always a tradeoff and a balance as to how much time and effort to devote to this type of endeavor. Does one spend all the necessary time, learning everything there is to know about the subject, or does one blindly accept the presented solution, hope for the best, and give it a shot? I would have liked to delve more fully into all the options that Hyperterm had to offer. I may still go back and do some further experimentation.

Thanks again to all those contributors in this forum.


----------



## stefanocps

Hello just joined for a seagate barracuda problem
I have ST 1000DM003 iTb, and all of a sudden it is not more recognized from bios, also the pc hang for a while at post when drive is attached
I have tried the method witha cable and hyperterminal but i recevive this

Spin Up
FAIL Servo Op=0100 Resp=0003
ResponseFrame 0480 0000 0000 3240 0008 0000 0000 0000 0EB4 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 BFFA 8ECB 8800 880D 47CE 012A 11CE EBEE B3F5 53BF 0000 007F 0000
0000 001D 0004 0000

repeated more times

The drive does not make any strange noise and the motor spins regularly when i attach supply
What could i do?
thanks


----------



## rexuefeite

i used front panel wires from an old computer case.


----------



## panaos99

Hi all,

I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 - 1TB that was sitting in my desk for about 2 years. It was full of data... I never thought I may work again and I was very reluctant sending it to a recovery company as they usually charge more than £200 for the simplest problem.

Recently I came across this forum and also this webpage https://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/ and I thought I give it a try.

I bought a "USB to TTL" from eBay like this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360740368839?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 (drivers for this one are here http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx) and I got started.

The only DIY part I had to do was to strip out the black plastic pins from EBay's cable in order to fit them to the hard drive's pins.

Procedure started on Sunday 20th of October 2013 at 19:30 and I finished same night 2 hours later at 21:30.
*
Yes, the hard drive worked! I now have back my whole 931GB of game ISOs !!!*

*VERY IMPORTANT: BE PATIENT*

I repeated the process of the 1st post (*member my77stang - many many thanks !!!*) as well as the process of the first link maybe 5-8 times. Sometimes separately and sometimes I combined the info from the 2 guides. I also saw this YouTube video about 10 times http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqC4VNHkjvc

The last bit of the guides took on average 3 minutes for me each time "Type m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 and press enter."
The last time it took about 10 minutes and finally I managed to "unlock" my drive.

As soon as your drive is up and running ASAP go to Seagate's website and update your firmware to the latest stable version! http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207957en or maybe here http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207951en

Good luck guys!
All the best!


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## wrench

Great that this fix is still helping guys repair their Seagates. Mine only contained old movies but the wife likes them.

As an aside, the connectors for the GND - RX - TX came from an old SCSI multi drive tower I was cannibalizing. They were the wires coming from the SCSI address wheel switch. And they fit the pins perfectly so no little wiggle would cause data loss or corruption while the process was in play. I used the USB phone cord device mentioned in the early articles.

Keep up the good fight. Keep those drives spinning!


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## Sh0mE

Hello, long time did not post anything to this site, so let me explain mu problem>

I have Seagate st31000340as sd15 7200.11 which is blocked. I got through all the guides and i know how i supposed to fix it, but i can not gain access to 'f3 t>' prompt, i tried swapping RX TX wires, with no luck, i tried 3.3v and 5v to controler max3232 via serial-serial port and via USB-serial and no luck, prompt dose not display(loop tests work), do not know what else to try, i have very important data on that HDD but i'm unable to get to the point of accessing HDDs firmware...... VERY MUCH NEED HELP


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## DCRussian

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Sh0mE*
> 
> Hello, long time did not post anything to this site, so let me explain mu problem>
> 
> I have Seagate st31000340as sd15 7200.11 which is blocked. I got through all the guides and i know how i supposed to fix it, but i can not gain access to 'f3 t>' prompt, i tried swapping RX TX wires, with no luck, i tried 3.3v and 5v to controler max3232 via serial-serial port and via USB-serial and no luck, prompt dose not display(loop tests work), do not know what else to try, i have very important data on that HDD but i'm unable to get to the point of accessing HDDs firmware...... VERY MUCH NEED HELP


I'm having the same problem.
I used this cable on a Seagate ST3000DM001 and the loopback test works, however, I cannot get the F3 prompt to popup when connecting with the drive.

I tried swapping the TX and RX wires and didn't get any further. I did try to connect while the disk was spinning up and there were some messages output to the console regarding the spin-up, so I would think that the cable is working fine although I'll try another cable soon.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks for this great thread though, definitely worth the read and I'm remaining hopeful. I have backups of personal files on my server, however, I took a backup of a friend's files to this drive and the drive bricked a few days after, so I'm trying to get the files back for him.


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## BARBYBOY

*I have the same issue with my Seagate 500GB 7200.12 hard drive

It just died one day and stopped being recognized by BIOS any more.The only way of booting the system from another drive with this one disconnected.
To make a story short. I read the whole thread here and there, did the cable, connected my drive but cannot go any further after the step where you remove plastic card and use U command in Putty (HyperTerminal)
My problem is:

The error i am getting after removing plastic from the SPIDER and using U commnad is the following:
F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

HighPowerMode
Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.087 msecs
F3 2>U

HighPowerMode
ExecuteSpinRequest

DiagError 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 765.494 msecs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180
F3 2>

AND NO ((((ANY SOUND))) IN HARD DEVICE
Who knows what is that and if it can be fixed?
*








:confuseds


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## BARBYBOY

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *BARBYBOY*
> 
> *I have the same issue with my Seagate 500GB 7200.12 hard drive
> 
> It just died one day and stopped being recognized by BIOS any more.The only way of booting the system from another drive with this one disconnected.
> To make a story short. I read the whole thread here and there, did the cable, connected my drive but cannot go any further after the step where you remove plastic card and use U command in Putty (HyperTerminal)
> My problem is:
> 
> The error i am getting after removing plastic from the SPIDER and using U commnad is the following:
> F3 T>/2
> 
> F3 2>Z
> 
> HighPowerMode
> Spin Down Complete
> Elapsed Time 0.087 msecs
> F3 2>U
> 
> HighPowerMode
> ExecuteSpinRequest
> 
> DiagError 00006008
> Spin Error
> Elapsed Time 765.494 msecs
> R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180
> F3 2>
> 
> AND NO ((((ANY SOUND))) IN HARD DEVICE
> Who knows what is that and if it can be fixed?
> *
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> :confuseds


??????


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## ocn0417

hello, i just picked up a ST31000340AS one TB sata drive with troubles.
it was recognized and somewhat usable in windows but the format process would not finish and kept knocking the drive offline completely.
there was some clicking at boot time and occasionaly other times but not really obsessive.
i would have to power off and back on to get it back.
i ran the current firmware update from seagates website.
the version was SD1a i think.
now the the bios reports the correct drive model and autodetect works but i cant find any software that sees the drive at all.
the firmware appears to have killed it.

apologies not having read this thread but it seems we're talking about the same drive at least.

the last few posts seems to discuss a direct hardware flash?
i dont think i need that.. i was able to run the firm update a second time so it works to that point.

anyone with some knowledge on this problem please give me a PM? or reply here if the topic permits.

thx.


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## panaos99

hi ocn0417,

can you see the hard drive in your bios ?


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## ocn0417

yes


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## panaos99

right click "my computer", select "manage" and then from there "disk management".
see if you can see your drive, if yes then right click on it and select the option to assign a letter to it.

restart your pc and see how that goes


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## ocn0417

does not appear in drive manager.
i have hirems bootcd with drive and mbr utils etc.
i cannot write a new mbr with any of the mbr utils partition programs report no drive etc.

partition magic fdisk etc do not see it or cannot read /write to it.


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## ocn0417

"the label on the HD says ST31000528AS, but the older ones are actually ST31000523AS ."

that statement was something i just noticed in a google result thread but does sum up the question
i have about my drive.

the firmware update almost seems to be wrong.

the drive is worse after having installed it. my drive was working intermitantly before and not at all now.

so i am wondering if i have some earlier model that should probably use firmware from the previous model.

my part number is 9BX158-303.

does anyone know where i can get the previous firmware for THIS model and what is the next nearest
previos model of this model most likley to have the same architecture/ geometry?

dangerous idea i know but at this point the the drive is worthless anyway.


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## nitchrow91

why is it, i get all the way up to the take power off part, wait 10 seconds then power back in.

when i plug it back in, i cant type anything in the hyper terminal?


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## longyny

Is this tutorial applicable for Seagate ST3000DM001 HDDs???

I readed somewhere that the parameter for 7200.14 drives is *m0,5,1,10,3,,,22* instead the one shown at step 13, is that true?

Are all the other steps the same for that model?

I have some Seagate ST3000DM001 drives in BSY state and I want to fix them.


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## punxcat

I only created an account to come here and say that this fix worked for me. Cost me about £10 or less for the cables , v easy to do albeit a bit fiddly and difficult to get right if cables won't play ball but it really worked and I did not think it would.

So to everyone who wrote here to post this solution and any amendments - THANK YOU


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## teosmat

Hi everyone,
i just managed to revive a bricked seagate disk thanks to the effort and time of everyone here.
It was dead for more than three years.

First of all, I'd like to say to everyone that will try this: "READ EVERYTHING CAREFULLY"!!!

My notes on this:
1. I started at a 64bit win7 system on a macbook pro, could not get it to work, so i thought i 'd try it to a 32bit WinXP system... I dont know if this played any part to the procedure or not, but i got it working on WinXP.
2. I used this adaptor bought from ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/371175265028?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
3. If you are using a pc (desktop, with regular towercase), you do not have to plug the grnd from the adaptor to the disk. Just the two TX-RX, if you are powering the disk from the SAME pc. It just needs to share same ground as noted in: https://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/
4. When you open the hyper terminal, maybe you have to set it up (from properties icon>settings tab: function arrows and ctrl keys act as) to windows keys option
5. If ctrl+z does not show F3 T> then switch RX TX cables on the adaptor.

Everything else is more or less the same. Check everything thoroughly over and over but the point is that if you get to command line on hyper terminal you have many chance to fix this.

Regards


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## lmcc87

I have a momentus 5400.6 320gb external hard disk ST9230320AS which is not recognised by windows and can be seen in disk management as disk unknown not initialised. It spins up fine and spins down again after a few seconds when it appears to not load. In diskpart it has a size of 0 bytes. This 0 bytes has led me to this thread. Does it sound possible that the firmware has got damaged and this fix will solve the problem? I am by no means a programmer so this will require quite a bit of effort by myself but I wanted to check with you guys that it would be worth a go if it sounds similar to all your hard drive problems? I don't have any of the cables that is mentioned in the walk through so will have to purchase them also. Thanks


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## chihaha

I have got a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1 TB ST3100528AS with CP38 firmware. Is is broken a while and after saw your posts I decided to fix it.

I bought a "USB 2.0 to UART TTL Serial Converter Module CP2102 STC Programmer With 6PIN wire" for fixing. I wired the hard drive to my pc (Windows 7 ultimate x64) and opened HyperTerminal.

I followed your every recipe and after connecting with HyperTerminal I saw symbols on screen continuously. They didn't stop so I can't write anything. I changed RX DX combination but this time I have got only a white screen. I think I connected with my hard drive but something is wrong. Have you got any idea?


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## Aquaferret

Just found out that this may be the problem with my 750 GB Barracuda 7200.11 with firmware SD15. I am waiting for an adapter from amazon.com and I'll post the results. The PCB on the drive does have a discoloured heat sink pad near the motor connection.


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## Fafhrd

So I just got this issue for the second time in as many years, and rather than drop another $640 at the same data recovery place that _apparently didn't update the firmware the last time this happened_, I've decided to try and fix it myself, but I have a couple of questions:

1. Will any USB-to-TTL adapter work, like this one for Raspberry Pi, or this one from Amazon, or does it have to be a CP2102 chipset?

2. Does Step 13 wipe the drive? post 256 makes it sound like it doesn't, but I want to be sure.


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## iaffiu

Hello,
does anyone know how to connect the adapter to a USB TTL MAXTOR IDE hard disk pata. The connector for the jumpers are so SLAVE MASTER:

: : : . :

Do you know which is the channelS that the RX - TX GND channel?

I found nothing on the net !!


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## unexpectedly

Check out http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=193&p=3938

On that page is this pic:


BTW, I'm having my own ST3000DM001 "not recognized" issues. Two drives failed in my raid. One of them (disk 0) was making the clicking sounds, so I figured he was toast anyway. D#0 would start up, spin up, then click 10 or 11 times, give up, spin down. I took its cover off and the heads deteriorated and there's black dust everywhere. I swapped out a set of heads from another drive, blew out the dust and tried it. I figured it was probably dead anyhow, so nothing left to lose. Yeah, it's borked.



Serial port output when powering up disk:

Code:



Code:


Boot 0x40M
 Spin Up
 FAIL  Servo Op=0100 Resp=0003
 ResponseFrame 0780 004C 03B4 3400 0008 0000 0000 0000 0E53 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 5274 4053 A858 DEF3 15B0 1B76 31CC 5880 6CDA 2B5A 0000 007F 0000 
0000 001C 0004 0010
 FAIL  Servo Op=0100 Resp=0003 
 ResponseFrame 0000 004F 03B4 3480 0008 0000 0000 0000 0E37 0000 0000 0000 0000 
0000 0000 0000 5274 4053 A858 DEF3 15B0 1B76 31CC 5880 6CDA 2B5A 0000 007F 0000 
0000 001C 0004 0000

It doesn't look good...

Here's what linux's syslog says when trying to power up:

Code:



Code:


# grep "ata1[:\.]" /var/log/syslog 
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [    3.852972] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar [email protected] port 0xfbf25100 irq 88
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [    4.172319] ata1: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [    9.169463] ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [    9.169469] ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [    9.489255] ata1: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [   19.483537] ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [   19.483544] ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [   19.483546] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [   19.803351] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 320)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [   49.786187] ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [   49.786199] ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Sep 20 18:45:01 kernel: [   50.106011] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 320)
Sep 20 18:46:12 kernel: [   74.570337] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4090000 action 0xe frozen
Sep 20 18:46:12 kernel: [   74.570339] ata1: irq_stat 0x00400040, connection status changed
Sep 20 18:46:12 kernel: [   74.570341] ata1: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B DevExch }
Sep 20 18:46:12 kernel: [   74.570344] ata1: hard resetting link
Sep 20 18:46:12 kernel: [   75.291601] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Sep 20 18:46:12 kernel: [   75.307581] ata1: EH complete

Next up I'll try and sort out the other drive, which was giving COMRESET errors and actually appears in BIOS... I'll see what that one's terminal says when it turns on.


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## Cobald

This method *did not* work on my hard drive 1TB Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000524AS. Just a blinking cursor in the terminal.
Probably not the solution for my problem. Hard drive when you switch on knocking ~10 times and fades out. In the system is seen as 4 GB. I don't know what else to do (except throw).


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## kmesse

Hoping someone's still around to help me with this. Had a Seagate usb GoFlex 1TB drive suddenly become unrecognizable. Disappeared from drive management.
Sent it for free diags, they said unrepairable - firmware is corrupt, so I'm trying to use this tutorial to rebuild the firmware. I have a USB/TTL converter wired up with gnd/TX/RX to the drive, and cable plugged in for power (paper insulating the data connector).
I plugged the drive in til it stopped powering up (I dont have any weird drive sounds). Plugged in the USB (installed drivers ok), then ran hyperterminal.

At hyperterminal it doesn't bring up F3 T>, just a blinking cursor. I swapped TX and RX thinking I got them crossed, still no effect.

The pictures in the thread are nonexistent now, can someone confirm the proper pinouts for Freeplay ST1000LM010 at least? I don't know why I'm not getting a response from Hyperterm.

Beyond that I'm lost, never used Hyperterm or tried to restore a drive. HELP!


----------

