Spildit wrote:
Well ....
First of all it's a Toshiba drive so all of the CPs are on the ROM (PCB) with the exception of a few "modules" like the G-List, Password module, etc ...
I did catch this part of comments made elsewhere either by you or someone else, so I'm grateful that you're reinforcing this structural difference that you researchers have figured out, no thanks to Toshiba. At the risk of sounding like someone who has never programmed at a low level (ASM) or done much to familiarize myself with drives could you state what CPs are? I understand they contain/are modules that are used in rebuilding ROMs/firmware.
Spildit wrote:
In "normal" cases when you have completly "dead" heads or pre-amp the drive should just click.
This I've experienced before with a few desktop drives. The current drive is from a laptop and it doesn't seem like a clicking.The arm moves like it's seeking a position, it stops, repeats. It doesn't make the sound like it's smacking into the boundaries in which it moves.
Spildit wrote:
Can you ear the heads moving when you first power up the drive ?
Yes. For the first second and by the 2nd second it's starting the repetitive sound as if it's seeking.
Spildit wrote:
If the data inside the drive is important please do consider the use of a professional data recovery service !!!
The option is a consideration but I'd rather sit on this and try to manage it myself. Judges and BAR members are not happy with my pro per whistle blowing work. They aren't used to former research scientists studying law and then pointing out all the due process violations they commit as a matter of SOP. Not only do I have to worry about trying to save data, but I have to worry about being able to trust who I might send it to if I decide I can't go without it.
Spildit wrote:
If you want a do-it-yourself "fix" start by getting a TTL adaptor -
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=192 - connect it to the drive as already posted and press "enter" on your terminal application 8like HyperTerminal). You should see a prompt like ">". If not (and if your TTL works fine when connected to another similar drive then you can start to investigate the possibility of a bad PCB. If the PCB is bad you can replace it with a compatible one but you MUST move the ROM chip from the old PCB to the new one and if you damage that chip it will be IMPOSSIBLE to recover the data ever again !!! So be very carefull !!!
I am checking into whether some new TTL adaptors that I bought which use the
https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/DS_PL2303TA_d20120504.pdf PL2303TA chip will work without the 1.8V low voltage issue. I ordered them before I came across postings on the issue. I normally use Linux. I have winxp 64 bit on the desktop w/debian. I presume the hyperterminal is like Putty and I select a port for the drive in order to issues commands. It would be awesome if it's a bad PCB but from what I've read it really sounds like the firmware/ROM is damaged. I've done some soldering. Almost completed the wavebubble project ladyada put out. Fun bit of work but I don't like doing ICs with the super tiny traces. If it turns out all I need to do is replace the PCB I'll be grateful.
Spildit wrote:
If the PCB is not the "problem" then maybe the G-List is "damaged" and somehow making the drive "stuck" in BSY status or something simmilar. When you run MHDD what status registers does the drive show ? Can you see a gren/blue light on BSY ? Can you see DRDY / DSC lit up ? Or the PCB is not showing any register status ?
I'm not sure what the g-list is either other than some structure that sometimes gets corrupted. I'm sure I missed a guide to some of these things. MHDD doesn't appear to pick up the drive. Working drives show up in the list to select from, but when I only hook up the non-working toshiba it doesn't show any thing. I was thinking ROM/firmware corruption could damage the drive name/info so that MHDD doesn't even pick it up but I'm speculating.
Spildit wrote:
Can you detect the drive with MHDD (at least the correct port) and post a picture of it ?
I booted into MHDD, connected the Toshiba to the primary SATA port, hit shift+f3 to select drive/port, selected primary port 1. It throws errors and flags. I took pictures of this process. I need to DL from camera to lower the size then I'll post with text.
Spildit wrote:
What i can't figure out is the loss of capacity that you mentioned .... I would have to see the drive to attempt to figure out what is wrong with it.
To me the loss of capacity seems to be a part of the firmware/ROM corruption or reading errors; however, if it were reading errors why would it be consistently 7GB over a few reboots. I can't fathom any other explanation for it. Before the drive stopped getting picked up TestDrive clearly reported only 7GB initially before I told it to maximize boundaries, which still only put the 500GB drive at ~50GB total capacity. If the size of the partition is always a function of what's written on disk then corrupted data should account for the problem. I don't mind troubleshooting. I just needed to get to some locations (this site and some others are great but took a while to find) where I can hunker down and study the issue. I need to know what's going on and if it's within my control fix it, if not, I need to think hard about that other step. Legal activism at a true grassroots level requires very careful maneuvering. Stuff I'd rather not be involved in. I'd rather be replicating more of Tesla's patents and work and creating simple howto's for others to properly build and use his circuits the way they are supposed to be used, not as light shows. So, with all of that said, I think a number of you demonstrate a proficiency with low level work and reverse engineering (ie: TOSHIBA ROMs) that I would consider someone here rather than a large company to fix this if I get to a point where I decide to send it off.
Pictures to be UL'd soon.