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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Directly Read Preamp from Seagate ROM Code

May 21st, 2018, 15:05

So I've been working on finding ways to quickly read preamp out from many different Seagate ROM codes. It's been a little project of mine. For families such as Grenada and Bacall as well as many others, I can now identify the preamp in just a few seconds with no need to do all the steps of modifying heatmap in PC-3000, running comparison, etc.

So if anyone needs help figuring out a preamp, just post the ROM code on this thread of my forum: https://www.data-medics.com/forum/seaga ... t2159.html

Please don't post the ROMs here as I may not always monitor this thread, especially after it gets pushed way down in the HDDGuru archives. But on my forum it's a Sticky topic and I'll continue to monitor it.

For now, I'll identify it as a favor to anyone who asks. At least while I'm still refining my technique.

Re: Directly Read Preamp from Seagate ROM Code

May 23rd, 2018, 20:13

If anyone wishes to upload their ROM here, I'll have a go.

Re: Directly Read Preamp from Seagate ROM Code

May 24th, 2018, 2:23

Preamp in not the only component to match. Sliders' type should coincide as well

Re: Directly Read Preamp from Seagate ROM Code

May 24th, 2018, 16:20

I think I know how to visually identify the preamp type in all F3 ROMs, without the need to look up SAP offsets in a database. If I can confirm my method, I will post it here.

Re: Directly Read Preamp from Seagate ROM Code

May 26th, 2018, 9:12

It's not very difficult once you know what you're looking for. It's basically just a matter of knowing how to identify the location of the head map in ROM and then knowing what offset to look for based off of that location.

There are at least three (probably even more) different head map types I've seen but all are easy enough to recognize and find in a hex editor once you understand how it's written in the binary data.

I'd been meaning to figure this out years ago but never found the time until last week to really spend the time analyzing it. That's what happens when I finally get a slower week of work.

Re: Directly Read Preamp from Seagate ROM Code

June 18th, 2018, 18:01

See http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=2173&start=60#p18028
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