Hi everyone!
I've an external HDD (LaCie Grand Hard Disk 1 To) with a ST310005 28AS HDD inside.
Tests diagnosed a full corrupted HDD (after some years of usage) and I decided to "high level format" the HDD, which led me to an error (on Windows or Linux environment).

So, I decided to "low level format" the external HDD with HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool with quick wipe option and for every 65,536 offsets (and every 128 "current sector") the message "Format Error occurred at offset .,...,... (1117)" is returned.

What does it mean? It's a problem with the HDD or the controller of the external case?

Thank you

This kind of HD should still be under warranty. Why don't you activate it?

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The warranty is 2 years and the owner bought it a long time ago but I will ask her. Meanwhile I'm trying to repair it as well I can.

You are wasting you time trying to fix this one I'm afraid

It is failing rapidly.

As far as I know LaCie have their own OEM warranty with Seagate so you cannot return it to Seagate direct under RMA. And since you have opend the chassis, then I doubt very much LaCie will be interested.

Sorry

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There are some news:
-The warranty is over
-The firmware is detected as 0000

I will try to open the case and extract the HDD to connect it on the motherboard directly to perform an update of the firmware, but I don't know how to open it. If possible, I want to keep the case and the usb controller ok but I can buy one.

Thanks

But you want to repair the drive or get the data?

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@soulfate,

You are already getting good advice in this thread, but I'll mention 2 points about information you have supplied:


Those errords show there was an incorrect interpretation of your test results. Much more detail needed from you, if you were trying to recover the data - but since you are trying to format the disk, it seems you do not care about the data...


IMHO that is also the wrong approach, based on the information you have supplied so far.

Some news ! (hey hey)
Extraction of the HDD and connected on the motherboard: OK (and the external case is not damaged +1)
-> firmware: CC44 (and not 0000, it was just an error)
-> BIOS alerts me that this HDD is "BAD"

I don't care about data, I just want to repair at least the HDD.

For the story:
A friend gave me her LaCie external HDD because she was not able to copy her files. When a file is transfered/modified/deleted from this external HDD, it "give an error".
On another computer, I tested it and get a diagnostic from HDD Tune. Every bloc (excepted the 1st and the 2nd) were red (and not green which means it's ok) so I decided to "high level format" the external HDD and here we are.

Without the proper tools, you can't refurbish this drive.
Even if you can do something with it, it will not be a reliable drive anymore.

Bin it.

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The amount of effort and money you would have to use to refurbish this drive to working condition is more than just spending the money to buy two or three new ones. And with many Seagates, if the FW is bad once, it will go bad again. And that's assuming you have the know-how and tools to fix it. No offense meant, but judging by your poor judgement interpreting the errors you see, as well as your inability to listen to advice given by others here (which is true and good advice), I'm going to assume you do not have either of the two tools listed above.

Write the drive off as a loss and have your friend get a new one - it will be much easier on both of you.

Dizi

Something I've done wrong or something that I would not have to do?

Or it was just a lost case that I were unable to fix?

Thanks you all for your help
I can't drop this 1 To HDD into the bin... my brain is crying (don't imagine how )
Can you advice me about recycling or selling this dead HDD ?

It's just a waste of time for most anyone to do just to reuse the drive again, it would be much more cost effective to buy a new one. What you're doing is akin to rebuilding/replacing an entire car's engine to fix it instead of just buying a new one (and you have only ever changed a car's oil to make matters worse).

For recycling/reselling, I'd assume they have electronic recycling facilities there with free drop-off (they do in the US). They should (provided they're reputable) removing all the data through crushing of the drive or demagnetizing the platters. Another option (if data is not sensitive) is selling the drive on eBay or the like as parts only, and a DR company may pick it up and salvage what they can (heads, PCB, etc) for repairs of other drives.

Dizi

You can also try to sell it here for parts maybe...

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