Hi,

I have this drive around that I want to try to access the files. It one day stopped showing on the computer.

I have no fancy software but I will like to know how things work manually before buying anything in the future for this.

What can I try? I know I could check the state it is in with ATA commands or something. Could be firmware issue as these tend to fail. What terminal could I use? commands?

Many thanks in advance

Hi. It is very likely the public firmware fix can be applied to this drive. You can google it or search for it here.

Before you do anything, what firmware version is the drive using?

Thanks for your help.

And sorry it is not ST3500320AS but ST3500820AS
Firmware says SD25

Regards

Thank you very much, as always!! Yes I bought 2 TTL adapters about a month ago for when I started doing these things

I tried like 20 times with both of the cables and nothing would appear in terminal. Triple checked connections and are all OK.
How can I see if the cables are useless? I have another old 2.5" HDD from seagate, what would be the procedure to check they work with that one? 9600 bauds? if yes, it doesn't work either

Regards

Post model, brand and if possible pictures of the ttl cables. It there is the link from you bought it, can post that too.

https://aliexpress.com/item/USB-To-RS232-TTL-USB-To-COM-Serial-Adapter-Cable-Module-PL2303HX-Converter/1859099599.html

That is what I bought.

With a terminal software open ( hyperterminal, putty, teraterm, etc ) , connect the TX to the RX wire, and type something. If the characters you type appear again, then the adapter is working.

Then ensure you are connecting the wires accordingly to the links posted. You need to connect the TX, Rx and the GND wire. THEN turn on the disk.

If nothing appears, turn the disk off, then swap positions of TX with RX pin.

Also, make sure of the serial speed selection in your terminal software.

Yeah the cable works, just did what you said.
With the hard drive I only got an "fc" once. Rest I got "nul"

You get the characters "fc" and later characters "null", or what

Which terminal software are you using ?
And configuration ( speed, parity, etc ? )

Also, voltage in the cable could be an issue.

I am using realterm: 38400 8 N 1 N

What do you mean voltage in the cable? it should be using 5v

I got "fc" one time, it stopped there. Then I turned off and on again a few times, some of them got "nul"

The voltage at the point that connects to the hard disk. It should be 3.3V, or better 2.5V.

If the adapter is just for 5V, it may not have enough sensibility to detect the signal at 2.5/3.3V coming from the hdd, or the levels of 5V in the lines could even damage the hdd uart circuit.

Read those links Spildit posted, there are some good explanations of all of this there.

Ok got it.

I think I have a crappy 2303, yes. I will buy the CP2104 and avoid all these issues.

Yes, I thing the CP2104 ( even a 2102 ) will work better.

Thank you guys for your time. I will come back and post results when I get the other adapter.

Regards

Guys, did what Spildit said. Data is accessible!!

Thank you very much