ST3500320AS reports its size as 0GB

[Nervous]

I bought the ST3500320AS 500GB SATA-II drive about a month ago and everything was good. But yesterday my drive stopped working - now it is recognized as ST3500320AS 0GB (zero GB)! And of course I can read nothing of it, Windows DiskManager doesn't see it at all (Device manager does, though) SeaTools for Windows are unable to even get info about the drive, though Seagate Enterprise showed me info about it, but is unable to run any tests. Also tried the SeaTools for DOS. It recognized the drive, shows its serial number, but every test is FAILED. I also tried to change the capacity - failed. In info it shows strange big number as a capacity (something like 92323727372372.223GB).
I found the AD14 firmware on Seagate website and successfully have updated HDD by it. Now SeaTools reported the new version of firmware but the size is still reported as 0GB and I can't get access to data (btw, I tested the HDD on 2 different computers)....
I also tried MHDD. It sees it, but the size is reported also as 0. Moreover, it says the LBA is not supported and that is why it actually can do nothing! the LBA Maximum is reported as 0 too.... I really need info from this HDD, please advise!

[coffeebean]

I really need info from this HDD, please advise!

Is this your objective? - your goal? - then ...

Do not power this drive again - send it to an expert.

But then beware there are "experts" who won't do any better than you did,
and for sure they will fux your drive in no time, maybe you did that already.

[Nervous]

My goal is to try to get help here, on forum, to I make the HDD think it supports LBA again. The data is not SO critical but it would be VERY good to get it back if I can do it by myself. If not - well....
Does anybody knows where the drive stores LBA settings? Does this problem look like electronic or mechanical problem?

[pcimage]

Looks like a firmware problem. Not fixable with free tools.

If it was an electronic or mechanical problem, then it would more than likely not be recognised by it's model number in BIOS.

[dick]

Are you sure you havn't just got a corrupted partion? Or even a virus?
I would guess standard windows recovery software like Getdataback or OOrecovery would allow you to recover the files to another drive.

[Nervous]

Thanks guys for replies!
I am absolutely sure it is not the partition corruption. The SATA controller reports the size of the HDD as 0 GB (and SATA controller knows nothing about partitions at all). Seagate low-level info tool also reports its size as 0 (as well as MHDD). Also, no one low-level utility (like MHDD, Victoria) can read a single byte from it, just permanent FATAL ERROR message. MHDD even thinks that this hard drive is too old (!) and does not support LBA (this is because LBA maximum is reported as 0 by the drive). Seagate tools also could not do anything with it.
As to firmware - I was able to update it after drive died, and it seems went successfully (since now the HDD reports new firmware version). But this didn't help at all......

[Nervous]

OK, I am giving up. I could do nothing with it. Even SMART info is unaccessible. Will just return this piece of .... to Seagate, and sell the replacement they would send on ebay. I am done with Seagate. Period.

[HDD_MASTER]

Why not try the HDD capacity restore tool that is a free download from HDD Guru. Not only is it a great peice of software but it is free. Sounds like the drive is HPA cut. Have seen it before and can be quite common.

Let me know how you get on.

[Nervous]

HDD_Master, I tried. I tried every single utility I found, including MHDD, Victoria, Seagate Tools, HDDScan, etc. Actually, MHDD can do the same, I mean it can restore the factory size of HDD. Not in this case though - MHDD even don't want to work with my HDD because it complains "LBA is not supported, too old drive". The LBA Maximum is reported as 0 as well. Every command I sent into HDD fails. I can't even get SMART from it.
(will try older MHDD (2.8?) which supports CHS, but don't think this will help)
BTW, motor and positioning seem working, at least I can feel how mechanical part works then I power up the HDD and touch it. I think this is electronic part. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to find PCB for this drive (other than to buy another Seagate HDD), since drive is new and it has 5 years of warranty (so, everybody just replaces faulty drive and does not sell it for parts).

[coffeebean]

Hi Nervous,

Did you learn anything from your experience ?

Don't blame Seagate - worse can happen with other brands
and quite often, more often than Seagate.

[Nervous]

Whom should I blame then? Brand new HDD, installed with active cooling (3 small fans installed on front panel) lasts only about 6 weeks.... And it took away all my info for these 6 weeks. HDD manufacturers should give not only warranty on their junky hardware, they also should be responsible for data restoration (or do it with huge discount; but they do not!). More over, Seagate officially replaces faulty drives by refurbished devices! Not brand new ones! So, finally it looks like I paid $120 for refurbished drive (even not brand new one). Oh, wait, + shipping faulty drive to Seagate (at least $10-15) - they are not going to pay for this! So, whom should I blame?

[rchadwick]

Even if you buy the world's most reliable car, it might still break down, even a week after you buy it new. While it's likely it will break down much later, the law of the univers is that ANYTHING manmade can, and will break at any time. Ask around about other brands. Sometimes, the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence.

[Nervous]

True. I am just upset of the data loss. My HDDs didn't die since year 1999, so I was kind of shocked....

[rchadwick]

My view is, all hard drives will fail. I buy Seagate so that when they fail, I either get a new drive, or I got 5 years out of them.

[rameez]

If hdd manufacturers would give warranty for data aswell where would DR companies got then ?

[rchadwick]

We'd be doing a lot of warranty work

[wiak]

check the drive's Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, or S.M.A.R.T
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monit ... Technology

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/index.html or http://www.hdtune.com/

most drives will fail
i have 2x Seagate Baracuda 7200.10 320GB and one of them failed but other secound havnt failed yet
and the replacement drive i got havnt had any problems and is still working fine

i have had some WDC die, that was like ~4 old ones (120GB and 40GB)

and yes you might want to put a fan on the drives

[TerraNova]

This is another firmware defect from Seagate.

[BlackST]

Anyway it's fixable. Not by a forum, by a pro.

[beto]

This case its like translator corruption on Seagate SCSI Chettah and SAS Drive LBA 0, if i not wrong on the model this model works with commands like SCSI too

Best regards