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ddrecovery
 Post subject: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 20th, 2016, 20:30 
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Location: Phoenix, AZ USA
I have this very old drive for recovery (has a stepping motor). Drive came to us via a family member after her parents passed, so no information on how the drive was used. It uses CHS so cannot be seen in DDI etc. I did manage to get the drive to read in PC3K (using command 0x21) but there is no recognizable data. The MBR also appears on sector 1 and not sector 0 (presuming in has 512k sectors). I have attached the first two sectors to see if anyone has some advice.
Code:
Sector 0

           0:  01 75 13 80 3C 01 77 0E - B1 03 F3 AB 59 EB 18 B1  .u..<.w.±.ó«Yë.±
          10:  03 F3 AB 59 EB 14 59 80 - 7C 08 00 74 03 B8 00 40  .ó«Yë.Y.|..t.¸.@
          20:  AB 8B C6 AB 8C D8 AB C5 - 74 19 B8 FF FF AB AB AB  «‹Æ«ŒØ«Åt.¸ÿÿ«««
          30:  B8 02 00 AB B0 00 AA AB - AB AB E2 A3 2E C6 06 A5  ¸..«°.ª«««â£.Æ.¥
          40:  02 41 C3 1E B8 70 00 8E - D8 83 3E 2F 05 00 75 06  .AÃ.¸p.ŽØƒ>/..u.
          50:  81 0E 2F 05 80 00 1F 2E - A1 A1 02 2E A3 A3 02 0E  ../.....¡¡..££..
          60:  1F E8 A5 27 2E A0 9D 02 - 2C 05 76 52 50 B0 46 E8  .è¥'. ..,.vRP°Fè
          70:  3B 09 58 32 E4 2E 8B 1E - DE 03 2E 8B 16 E0 03 2E  ;.X2ä.‹.Þ..‹.à..
          80:  C5 3E 6B 02 C5 7D 04 89 - 1D 89 55 02 0E 1F 2E C4  Å>k.Å}.‰.‰U....Ä
          90:  3E DE 03 26 C7 05 FF FF - 26 89 45 04 B3 3B F6 E3  >Þ.&Ç.ÿÿ&‰E.³;öã
          A0:  8B C8 2E 01 06 DE 03 B8 - 06 00 2E 01 06 DE 03 2E  ‹È...Þ.¸.....Þ..
          B0:  80 0E 5B 16 02 E8 51 27 - 03 F8 33 C0 F3 AA 0E 1F  ..[..èQ'.ø3Àóª..
          C0:  E8 46 27 B0 58 E8 E5 08 - 2E A0 9E 02 32 E4 2E 8B  èF'°Xèå.. ž.2ä.‹
          D0:  1E DE 03 2E 8B 16 E0 03 - 2E C5 3E 6B 02 89 5D 1A  .Þ..‹.à..Å>k.‰].
          E0:  89 55 1C 2E 8A 1E 9F 02 - 32 FF 89 5D 1E 0E 1F C4  ‰U..Š.Ÿ.2ÿ‰]...Ä
          F0:  3E DE 03 26 C7 05 FF FF - 26 89 45 04 B3 3B 8B C8  >Þ.&Ç.ÿÿ&‰E.³;‹È
         100:  F6 E3 01 06 DE 03 B8 06 - 00 01 06 DE 03 80 0E 5B  öã..Þ.¸....Þ...[
         110:  16 02 E8 F4 26 03 F8 B0 - 41 51 B9 3B 00 FC F3 AA  ..èô&.ø°AQ¹;.üóª
         120:  26 C7 45 C5 00 00 26 C7 - 45 DA 00 00 26 C7 45 DC  &ÇEÅ..&ÇEÚ..&ÇEÜ
         130:  00 00 59 E2 E4 83 3E 97 - 02 FF 74 03 E9 97 00 C7  ..Yâäƒ>—.ÿt.é—.Ç
         140:  06 99 02 00 00 C7 06 97 - 02 02 00 50 1E 2E C4 2E  .....Ç.—...P..Ä.
         150:  6B 02 26 C4 6E 00 0E 1F - 26 8A 5E 00 FE C3 B8 08  k.&Än...&Š^.þø.
         160:  44 CD 21 0B C0 75 36 33 - DB 26 8A 5E 00 FE C3 BA  DÍ!.Àu63Û&Š^.þú
         170:  7E 39 B8 0D 44 B9 60 08 - CD 21 72 21 8B 1E 8D 39  ~9¸.D¹`.Í!r!‹..9
         180:  A1 85 39 33 D2 B9 00 02 - F7 F1 F7 E3 0B D2 75 05  ¡…93Ò¹..÷ñ÷ã.Òu.
         190:  3D D0 02 76 08 C7 06 97 - 02 03 00 EB 0D 26 83 7E  =Ð.v.Ç.—...ë.&ƒ~
         1A0:  19 FF 74 06 26 C4 6E 19 - EB AE 81 3E 92 02 00 20  .ÿt.&Än.ë®.>’..
         1B0:  76 22 C7 06 97 02 05 00 - 81 3E 92 02 00 40 76 14  v"Ç.—....>’..@v.
         1C0:  C7 06 97 02 0A 00 81 3E - 92 02 00 80 76 06 C7 06  Ç.—....>’...v.Ç.
         1D0:  97 02 0F 00 1F 58 2E C5 - 1E 6B 02 2E A1 97 02 89  —....X.Å.k..¡—.‰
         1E0:  47 3F 2E A1 99 02 89 47 - 41 C5 5F 12 E8 1A 26 B0  G?.¡..‰GAÅ_.è.&°
         1F0:  42 E8 B9 07 1E 53 E8 59 - 03 5B 1F 2E 83 3E 99 02  Bè¹..SèY.[..ƒ>..

Sector 1

         200:  FA 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C - 8B F4 50 07 50 1F FB FC  ú3ÀŽÐ¼.|‹ôP.P.ûü
         210:  BF 00 06 B9 00 01 F2 A5 - EA 1D 06 00 00 BE BE 07  ¿..¹..ò¥ê....¾¾.
         220:  B3 04 80 3C 80 74 0E 80 - 3C 00 75 1C 83 C6 10 FE  ³..<.t..<.u.ƒÆ.þ
         230:  CB 75 EF CD 18 8B 14 8B - 4C 02 8B EE 83 C6 10 FE  ËuïÍ.‹.‹L.‹îƒÆ.þ
         240:  CB 74 1A 80 3C 00 74 F4 - BE 8B 06 AC 3C 00 74 0B  Ët..<.tô¾‹.¬<.t.
         250:  56 BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 - 5E EB F0 EB FE BF 05 00  V»..´.Í.^ëðëþ¿..
         260:  BB 00 7C B8 01 02 57 CD - 13 5F 73 0C 33 C0 CD 13  ».|¸..WÍ._s.3ÀÍ.
         270:  4F 75 ED BE A3 06 EB D3 - BE C2 06 BF FE 7D 81 3D  Ouí¾£.ëÓ¾Â.¿þ}.=
         280:  55 AA 75 C7 8B F5 EA 00 - 7C 00 00 49 6E 76 61 6C  UªuÇ‹õê.|..Inval
         290:  69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 - 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61 62  id partition tab
         2A0:  6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 - 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E 67  le.Error loading
         2B0:  20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 - 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65   operating syste
         2C0:  6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E - 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74  m.Missing operat
         2D0:  69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 - 65 6D 00 00 00 00 00 00  ing system......
         2E0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         2F0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         300:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         310:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         320:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         330:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         340:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         350:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         360:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         370:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         380:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         390:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         3A0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         3B0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 01  ................
         3C0:  01 00 06 05 D1 32 11 00 - 00 00 41 46 01 00 00 00  ....Ñ2....AF....
         3D0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         3E0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
         3F0:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA  ..............Uª
There also seems to be a repeating pattern of characters (like a stutter) throughout the drive, so again I presume because its not been read correctly.
Code:
Sector 361

       2D200:  6C 65 76 65 76 65 6C 20 - 70 72 6F 63 65 73 73 20  levevel process
       2D210:  61 62 6F 72 6F 72 74 65 - 74 65 64 2C 64 2C 20 63  abororteted,d, c
       2D220:  20 63 61 6E 61 6E 6E 6F - 6E 6F 74 20 74 20 63 6F   canannonot t co
       2D230:  63 6F 6E 74 6E 74 69 6E - 69 6E 69 6E 75 65 75 65  contntinininueue
       2D240:  0D 0A 0D 0A 02 0D 02 0D - 0A 8C 0A 8C 0C 01 0C 01  .........Œ.Œ....
       2D250:  00 38 00 38 0A 01 0A 01 - 00 8C 00 8C 0C 01 0C 01  .8.8.....Œ.Œ....
       2D260:  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 89 00 89 00 89 01 00  .........‰.‰.‰..
       2D270:  01 00 00 13 00 13 57 72 - 57 72 69 74 69 74 65 20  ......WrWritite
       2D280:  65 20 70 72 70 72 6F 74 - 6F 74 65 63 65 63 74 20  e prprototecect
       2D290:  74 20 65 72 65 72 72 6F - 72 6F 72 0C 72 0C 72 0C  t ererroror.r.r.
       2D2A0:  49 6E 49 6E 76 61 76 61 - 6C 69 6C 69 64 20 64 20  InInvavalilid d
       2D2B0:  75 6E 75 6E 69 74 69 74 - 09 4E 09 4E 6F 74 6F 74  ununitit.N.Notot
       2D2C0:  20 72 20 72 65 61 65 61 - 64 79 64 79 16 49 16 49   r reaeadydy.I.I
       2D2D0:  6E 76 6E 76 6E 76 61 6C - 61 6C 69 64 69 64 20 64  nvnvnvalalidid d
       2D2E0:  20 64 65 76 65 76 69 63 - 69 63 65 20 65 20 72 65   devevicice e re
       2D2F0:  72 65 71 75 71 75 65 73 - 65 73 74 0A 74 0A 44 61  reququesest.t.Da
       2D300:  44 61 74 61 74 61 20 65 - 20 65 20 65 72 72 72 72  Datata e e errrr
       2D310:  6F 72 6F 72 21 49 21 49 - 6E 76 6E 76 61 6C 61 6C  oror!I!Invnvalal
       2D320:  69 64 69 64 20 64 20 64 - 65 76 65 76 69 63 69 63  idid d devevicic
       2D330:  65 20 65 20 72 65 72 65 - 71 75 71 75 65 73 65 73  e e rereququeses
       2D340:  65 73 74 20 74 20 70 61 - 70 61 72 61 72 61 6D 65  est t papararame
       2D350:  6D 65 74 65 74 65 72 73 - 72 73 0A 53 0A 53 65 65  metetersrs.S.See
       2D360:  65 65 6B 20 6B 20 65 72 - 65 72 72 6F 72 6F 72 12  eek k ererroror.
       2D370:  72 12 49 6E 49 6E 76 61 - 76 61 76 61 6C 69 6C 69  r.InInvavavalili
       2D380:  64 20 64 20 6D 65 6D 65 - 64 69 64 69 61 20 61 20  d d memedidia a
       2D390:  74 79 74 79 70 65 70 65 - 10 53 10 53 65 63 65 63  tytypepe.S.Secec
       2D3A0:  74 6F 74 6F 72 20 72 20 - 6E 6F 6E 6F 74 20 58 20  totor r nonot X
       2D3B0:  58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20 - 58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20  X X X X X X X X
       2D3C0:  58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20 - 58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20  X X X X X X X X
       2D3D0:  58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20 - 58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20  X X X X X X X X
       2D3E0:  58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20 - 58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20  X X X X X X X X
       2D3F0:  58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20 - 58 20 58 20 58 20 58 20  X X X X X X X X

Sector 362

       2D400:  75 66 66 69 63 69 65 6E - 74 20 64 69 73 6B 20 73  ufficient disk s
       2D410:  20 73 70 61 70 61 70 61 - 70 61 63 65 63 65 91 07   spapapapacece‘.
       2D420:  91 07 91 07 A5 07 A5 07 - B2 07 B2 07 B2 07 BC 07  ‘.‘.¥.¥.².².².¼.
       2D430:  BC 07 D3 07 D3 07 D3 07 - DE 07 DE 07 DE 07 00 08  ¼.Ó.Ó.Ó.Þ.Þ.Þ...
       2D440:  00 08 0B 08 0B 08 0B 08 - 1E 08 1E 08 1E 08 2F 08  ............../.
       2D450:  2F 08 2F 08 4A 08 4A 08 - 5C 08 5C 08 5C 08 6D 08  /./.J.J.\.\.\.m.
       2D460:  6D 08 6D 08 7D 08 7D 08 - 8F 08 8F 08 8F 08 9E 08  m.m.}.}.......ž.
       2D470:  9E 08 B2 08 B2 08 B2 08 - C2 08 C2 08 DC 08 DC 08  ž.².².².Â.Â.Ü.Ü.
       2D480:  DC 08 DC 08 EF 08 EF 08 - FC 08 FC 08 FC 08 13 54  Ü.Ü.ï.ï.ü.ü.ü..T
       2D490:  13 54 13 54 6F 6F 6F 6F - 20 6D 20 6D 20 6D 61 6E  .T.Toooo m m man
       2D4A0:  61 6E 79 20 79 20 79 20 - 70 61 70 61 72 61 72 61  any y y paparara
       2D4B0:  72 61 6D 65 6D 65 74 65 - 74 65 74 65 74 65 72 73  ramemeteteteters
       2D4C0:  72 73 72 73 1A 52 1A 52 - 65 71 65 71 65 71 75 69  rsrs.R.Reqeqequi
       2D4D0:  75 69 72 65 72 65 72 65 - 64 20 64 20 70 61 70 61  uirerered d papa
       2D4E0:  70 61 72 61 72 61 72 61 - 6D 65 6D 65 74 65 74 65  parararamemetete
       2D4F0:  74 65 74 65 72 20 72 20 - 6D 69 6D 69 6D 69 73 73  teter r mimimiss
       2D500:  73 73 69 6E 69 6E 69 6E - 67 0E 67 0E 49 6E 49 6E  ssinining.g.InIn
       2D510:  49 6E 76 61 76 61 76 61 - 6C 69 6C 69 64 20 64 20  Invavavalilid d
       2D520:  64 20 73 77 73 77 69 74 - 69 74 69 74 69 74 63 68  d swswititititch
       2D530:  63 68 0F 49 0F 49 0F 49 - 6E 76 6E 76 61 6C 61 6C  ch.I.I.Invnvalal
       2D540:  61 6C 69 64 69 64 69 64 - 20 6B 20 6B 65 79 65 79  alididid k keyey
       2D550:  65 79 77 6F 77 6F 72 64 - 72 64 72 64 72 64 01 20  eywowordrdrdrd.
       2D560:  01 20 24 50 24 50 24 50 - 61 72 61 72 61 72 61 6D  . $P$P$Parararam
       2D570:  61 6D 65 74 65 74 65 74 - 65 72 65 72 20 76 20 76  ameteteterer v v
       2D580:  20 76 61 6C 61 6C 75 65 - 75 65 75 65 20 6E 20 6E   valalueueue n n
       2D590:  20 6E 6F 74 6F 74 20 69 - 20 69 6E 20 6E 20 61 6C   notot i in n al
       2D5A0:  61 6C 6C 6F 6C 6F 77 65 - 77 65 64 20 64 20 72 61  allolowewed d ra
       2D5B0:  72 61 6E 67 6E 67 65 1B - 65 1B 50 61 50 61 72 61  rangnge.e.PaPara
       2D5C0:  72 61 6D 65 6D 65 6D 65 - 74 65 74 65 72 20 72 20  ramememeteter r
       2D5D0:  76 61 76 61 6C 75 6C 75 - 65 20 65 20 6E 6F 6E 6F  vavalulue e nono
       2D5E0:  74 20 74 20 61 6C 61 6C - 6C 6F 6C 6F 77 65 77 65  t t alallolowewe
       2D5F0:  64 1B 64 1B 50 61 50 61 - 50 61 72 61 72 61 6D 65  d.d.PaPaPararame

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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 20th, 2016, 21:55 
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0x21 is the ATA Read Sectors (without retries) command. It is irrelevant in your case. Your software is attempting to read the drive in LBA mode but the drive is interpreting the taskfile registers in CHS mode. In CHS mode, cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1 is the first sector on the disk.

Your drive's translation mode is ...

819 cylinders, 7 heads, 17 sectors/track

Code:
LBA:1                  block: 1

Boot  System ID   :   First    :    Last    : Relative : Number of:
Flag              :Cyl Head Sec:Cyl Head Sec:  Sector  :  Sectors :
80h 06h FAT16     :   0   1  1 : 818   6 17 :        17:     83521:  42.8 MB
00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:        0
00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:        0
00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:        0

I would use an older motherboard. Many support CHS mode.

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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 21st, 2016, 11:37 
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Sorry, I mistyped. That should have been 6 heads, not 7.

    819 cylinders (+1), 6 heads, 17 sectors/track

Code:
LBA:1                  block: 1

Boot  System ID   :   First    :    Last    : Relative : Number of:
Flag              :Cyl Head Sec:Cyl Head Sec:  Sector  :  Sectors :
80h 06h FAT16     :   0   1  1 : 818   5 17 :        17:     83521:  42.8 MB
00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:        0
00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:        0
00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:        0


ftp://ftp.seagate.com/techsuppt/at/st351ax.txt

Quote:
Possible translation:

820 cyl, 6 heads, 17 sectors = 42,823,680
980 cyl, 5 heads, 17 sectors = 42,649,600
977 cyl, 5 heads, 17 sectors = 42,519,040

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jermy
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 21st, 2016, 16:49 
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What ver. of PC3K do you use ?
from Ver. 6.0.14 it supports PIO mode

Quote:
it has become possible to choose SATA mode (SATA-I/SATA-II) and PIO Mode (0..4) for PC-3000 Express & UDMA-E boards. This feature is helpful for working with old HDDs that may work unstable in the SATA compatibility mode or may fail to support the PIO4 mode
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ddrecovery
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 21st, 2016, 19:30 
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Thanks for all the replies. I am back in the office Monday and will report back using all the info given above. Once again, thanks.

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ddrecovery
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 24th, 2016, 14:08 
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Hi. PC3K does not allow reading in CHS mode, and the drive also does not support PIO (academic anyway). FYI this is the translation for this drive:-
980 cyl, 5 heads, 17 sectors = 42,649,600.
Looks like we need to find an old Motherboard....
Thanks for the offer Spildit. I will talk to me client about it. Not sure if sending a drive this old across the pond would be good for it.
Looks like we need to find an old Motherboard....

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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 24th, 2016, 18:04 
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The drive's current translation mode does not match the partition table. It needs to be changed. An old motherboard should be able to handle it.

As for PIO mode, that's probably the only mode the drive would support, albeit PIO Mode 0 (3.3MB/s).

Quote:
INTERNAL TRANSFER RATE (mbits/sec) _______10/12/14

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ddrecovery
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 31st, 2016, 13:08 
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Spildit wrote:
So ...

Any update on this one ?

Did you manage to image/clone the drive or find a motherboard that works with it ??

I'm very interested in knowing if you still need some help !!! I'm pretty sure that i can image this drive without any problem so if you can't find any otherw ay my offer is still valid !!! :D :D :D

Regards.

Hey, I have not been successful in getting the data from this drive. I can image it, but just in LBA mode which is not much good. I will ask the client if they are okay with us sending it to you. Send me a PM with the cost for recovery and I will pass it by them.
Thanks :-)

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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 31st, 2016, 16:53 
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I'm just curious ...

The FAT boot sector would be located at CHS 0/1/1. In LBA mode the task file registers would correspond to LBA 0x1000001 (= sector 16777217). I wonder if you can see the boot sector with PC3K.

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ddrecovery
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 31st, 2016, 19:26 
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fzabkar wrote:
I'm just curious ...

The FAT boot sector would be located at CHS 0/1/1. In LBA mode the task file registers would correspond to LBA 0x1000001 (= sector 16777217). I wonder if you can see the boot sector with PC3K.

Not sure if I understand the question correctly. This is a 40mb drive so only has 83300 sectors.

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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 31st, 2016, 20:03 
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That is true, but the drive interprets LBA 0x1000001 as CHS 0/1/1.

Code:
CHS
mode  data   28-bit LBA mode
------------------------------
FR     0     FR
SC     1     SC
SN     1     LBA LO (A07-A00)
CL     0     LBA MID (A15-A08)
CH     0     LBA HI (A23-A16)
DH  0xA1/E1  LBA (A27-A24)
CR  0x21     CR

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ddrecovery
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: May 31st, 2016, 20:09 
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fzabkar wrote:
That is true, but the drive interprets LBA 0x1000001 as CHS 0/1/1.

Code:
CHS
mode  data   28-bit LBA mode
------------------------------
FR     0     FR
SC     1     SC
SN     1     LBA LO (A07-A00)
CL     0     LBA MID (A15-A08)
CH     0     LBA HI (A23-A16)
DH  0xA1/E1  LBA (A27-A24)
CR  0x21     CR

PC3K will not enumerate that sector I'm afraid.

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drHDD
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 2nd, 2016, 20:41 
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I could help too.
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maximus
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2016, 18:52 
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Quote:
There also seems to be a repeating pattern of characters (like a stutter) throughout the drive, so again I presume because its not been read correctly.

Not sure if this will be helpful, but the "stuttering" is likely due to a communication speed issue, and/or the software driver is not looking for the proper thing to give the ok to read the next word. In PIO mode data is read in words which is why the repeating seen is 2 bytes. From my limited experience this seems to be at its worst when reading more than one sector at a time. Meaning if you read a single sector it will likely be fine like your MBR sector, but when reading multiple sectors at once it will quickly get out of sync. The pause between reading the sectors can help in this case, so imaging with a block/cluster size of one sector may help with this part of the issue. But it will not help with the CHS issue.

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ddrecovery
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2016, 20:23 
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Thanks Maximus, much appreciated.

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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 4th, 2016, 3:06 
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My understanding is that the drive asserts INTRQ to tell the host that a sector is waiting to be transferred. The host then asserts /DIOR for each successive data word. After the entire sector has been transferred, the drive then asserts INTRQ for the next sector and so on. The I/O cycle time for PIO Mode 0 is 600nsec, meaning that the host expects that the next word should be present on the cable 600ns after the last word has been clocked out. ICBW, but I presume that if the next word is not available, then the current word would be retransmitted. In any case there is an optional IORDY signal which can be negated by the drive to stretch the I/O cycle until the drive is ready for the transfer. It may be that this signal is not present in this early model. ???

That said, I haven't examined the IDE signalling in detail, so I'm not completely certain that my interpretation is correct. Note that 600ns equates to a data transfer rate of 3.3MB/s. I would expect that the drive's buffer and IDE interface would be able to support this rate, but the specs don't actually say so. I believe that the Identify Device data should tell us the PIO cycle time and whether the drive supports IORDY.

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maximus
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 4th, 2016, 9:02 
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From a software standpoint (normally a kernel driver in a computer), this can be understood with the ATA registers. When the PIO read command is sent the drive will set BSY until after all data has been transferred. When a word is ready to be transferred the drive will set DRQ. If the drive is keeping up then DRQ will likely stay set, or at least be set by the time the software looks at it. But when the drive needs more time to have a word of data ready, it will drop DRQ until it is ready to transfer the data. If the drive is that old it could be possible that the software is checking DRQ so quickly that the drive has not had the time to drop it yet, in which case the software would attempt to read another word even though the drive was not ready.

I don't have any drives that old, and the oldest ATA documentation I have is ATA-3. But I can tell you that when you don't look for DRQ before attempting to read every word, you will end up with a very similar result in data output. BSY and DRQ will also likely stay set after the transfer because the drive never actually finished the data transfer. It may work 100% of the time for reading only one sector at a time, but when you try to read multiple sectors it will screw up very quickly. I had to find this out the hard way :roll:

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maximus
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 4th, 2016, 9:40 
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In theory, if you had a computer that was old enough to be able to see the drive in BIOS and new enough to be able to run a version of Linux that would support HDDSuperTool, you could possibly image it with HDDSuperTool in direct mode. It would be best to plug the drive in after the OS booted so the OS would leave it alone. At first I was thinking that the PIO imaging script could be modified for C/H/S operation, but it may actually be easier to write a shell script that would call HDDSuperTool using the PIO read script with the proper LBA adjusted for C/H/S mode. And after every sector read, append the new sector file to a main image file. Something to think about...

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maximus
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 4th, 2016, 11:15 
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Quote:
Sure ! Ifthe OP had a computer that would see the drive in BIOS and would address the C/H/S correctly

Yes, but that would require a much older computer. I am thinking that as long as the BIOS recognizes it as a drive, it could be imaged with software even if the BIOS does not handle the C/H/S correctly. It just has to be able to communicate with it. But like I said, it is only a theory...

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maximus
 Post subject: Re: Old Seagate ST351A/X Recovery
PostPosted: June 4th, 2016, 12:58 
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I would just like to add that if the OP did have a computer on hand that would work for this, I may be willing to write a modified script to be able to image with C/H/S. If that did happen and it was successful, then the working script would be included in the next version of HDDSuperTool. But I am only willing to do so if asked, as this is not something that is in high demand. I am also not sure of my ability to fully test something like this myself without having an old drive like that on hand.

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