Help Needed to Diagnose a Seagate 7200.12

[SAjunky]

please dont get offended by "MUST WORK".

No offense, but I have feeling that Vulcan is right (not on "must work" issue), but on merit.

@ddevejian :
When you say about SMART "nothing stood out", what message was coming out? I can't advice on how to cure it, but there is set of query-type commands you can issue safely and post log, maybe someone else respond. If something wrong, it happened already.
^T (for restart) ^Z
(Now assuming getting prompt) F3 T>
^U [Enter]
^L [Enter]
^A[Enter]
. (dot) ; (semicolon) % (percent) ? (question mark)
k [Enter]
y [Enter]
/2 (switch to level 2)
x [Enter]
/0 (switch back to level T)
V4
V1

When command is rejected because of CERT, press ^R to load CERT and repeat command (not sure on F3).

[ddevejian]

When you say about SMART "nothing stood out", what message was coming out?

N5 and N6 listed the SMART values and thresholds. I compared one to the other and none of the values was over the threshold.

N8 was supposed to return the critical logs, but apparently there was no critical log entries as it returned nothing at all.

I can't advice on how to cure it, but there is set of query-type commands you can issue safely and post log, maybe someone else respond.

The following didnt work.

Code:

; (semicolon) % (percent) ? (question mark)
k [Enter]
y [Enter]


Ive attached the session log with the output from the other commands.

When command is rejected because of CERT, press ^R to load CERT and repeat command (not sure on F3).

Not sure what it means to be "rejected because of CERT."

Thanks.

Attachments

putty20120918_205435.log

Log from diagnostic commands

(216.39 KiB) Downloaded 921 times

[freakzy]

The disk is a Barracuda 7200.12 750GB ST3750528AS
Firmware HP34.

The drive is not recognized by BIOS. I have tried several systems with the same result. Further, whatever the drive is doing, seems to kill the whole SATA bus as no other SATA device is recognized by BIOS in a system when this drive is attached.

I have attempted to diagnose the drive using SeaTools for DOS, but the software does not see the drive. I have downloaded a copy of MHDD and will try that shortly, but am not expecting results given the inability to even recognize the drive so far.

I have access to the Diagnostic command line, but I am not certain what do do there. I have read the list commands at http://www.itosaka.com/WordPress/wp-con ... ommand.pdf but (a) some of the commands do not work (ex. in level T, I attempted the command D to display logs, but get a response "Invalid Diag Cmd") and (b) Im still not sure what I should be doing.

In anycase, the drive spins up and spins down without problem, and displaying the SMART Critical Log entries (N8) returns nothing.

As far as sounds go, the drive is mostly quiet. I hear two slight ticks when the drive spins up, but I have certainly heard much more noise from drives that were functioning.

Any suggestions on how to diagnose what is wrong with the drive would be greatly appreciated. Once I know the problem, I can make a decision to attempt a DIY or contract with a professional.

1. Clearing SMART and G-List do not always work on this model (.12) and sometimes can lead to more problems (overlays corruption, translator corruption, etc) especially if you try 'internet fix' for 7200.11 older models without knowing what the real problem is.
2. Is your data critical ? If so, I suggest you to take it to DR professional near you. With the right hardware and software, this LED0000CC/LED0000CE problem (common on this .12 model various FW revision) can be diagnosed properly. Solutions are not always easy, and also, not always difficult. But they know how to recover your data.

Just my 0.02

[SAjunky]

N5 and N6 listed the SMART values and thresholds. I compared one to the other and none of the values was over the threshold.

N8 was supposed to return the critical logs, but apparently there was no critical log entries as it returned nothing at all.

I see error message from the dot command, but it is unclear what it means. It seems G-list has been cleared, Removed 0x81B entries. Does it means system remembers removed G-list entries?

F3 T>
Current R/W User LBA 00000000 LLL CHS 000000.0.0000 PLP CHS 000000.0.0000
R/W Status 1 R/W Error 00000080 Ready

[...]
F3 T>V4

Reassigned Sectors List
Entries: 0000, Retrieved: 0000, Alts: 0000, Removed: 061B, Pending: 0000, GList: 0000, RList: 0000

No critical logs, no warnings, but all data lockup. Classic firmware corruption. Information how to fix it is still kept secret. I wonder if Seagate had been threatened with class action for such practice?

Unless you follow another advice, you can try 1>N1 command, which seems is not harmful (as opposed to T>m2xxx variants), but helps in some cases.

[loki]

N5 and N6 listed the SMART values and thresholds. I compared one to the other and none of the values was over the threshold.

N8 was supposed to return the critical logs, but apparently there was no critical log entries as it returned nothing at all.

I see error message from the dot command, but it is unclear what it means. It seems G-list has been cleared, Removed 0x81B entries. Does it means system remembers removed G-list entries?

F3 T>
Current R/W User LBA 00000000 LLL CHS 000000.0.0000 PLP CHS 000000.0.0000
R/W Status 1 R/W Error 00000080 Ready

[...]
F3 T>V4

Reassigned Sectors List
Entries: 0000, Retrieved: 0000, Alts: 0000, Removed: 061B, Pending: 0000, GList: 0000, RList: 0000

No critical logs, no warnings, but all data lockup. Classic firmware corruption. Information how to fix it is still kept secret. I wonder if Seagate had been threatened with class action for such practice?

Unless you follow another advice, you can try 1>N1 command, which seems is not harmful (as opposed to T>m2xxx variants), but helps in some cases.

N1,,22


seagate-7200-st3500418as-longer-seen-bios-t23489.html?hilit=22#p158547

[SAjunky]

Forgotten: before issuing this command, I suggest to fix the possibly original problem leading to firmware corruption: Remove PCB and clean contacts to HDA and motor using soft pensil eraser. clean residual debris with alcohol.
Good luck.

[ddevejian]

SAjunky and loki, thank you very much.

I seem to have gotten somewhere.

I attempted the N1,,22 command, and it returned an error. (Appeared to go into a loop, constantly issuing the same message, every 10 seconds or so.) I let it run for a while, but even after about 15 minutes, it was still stuck.

Code:

F3 1>N1,,22

Init SMART Fail

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024E191

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024E191

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024E191

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024E191

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024E191


I tried a second time, (and this time remembered to turn on the logging but reboot as soon as it was clear it was looping again.

However, after rebooting, I got a new message.

Code:

Rst 0x20M
SIM Error 203F
No HOST FIS-ReadyStatusFlags 2002A1A5
ASCII Diag mode

F3 T>


I re-ran the diagnostic commands that SAjunky has recommended earlier, intending to post and ask for further advice. One thing I noticed was the V4 information had all been cleared.

Anyway, since the error was now different, I thought I would hook it up to a computer and see if it was still ignored by BIOS. The computer now sees the device. I have booted on a sysrecoverycd, mounted the partition read-only, and am currently copying everything off of it. (Fingers crossed that the copy completes without error.)

For anyone interested, I have attached the log.

Once again, thank you everyone who lent a hand.

Attachments

HD_Fix_Log_p.txt

(18.11 KiB) Downloaded 1224 times

[loki]

Congratulations

Loki

[SAjunky]

I re-ran the diagnostic commands that SAjunky has recommended earlier, intending to post and ask for further advice. One thing I noticed was the V4 information had all been cleared.

My role here was purely motivational and now you have clearly more experience than me.
Now V4 is fixed, SATA activated miraculously, well... My only concern is that your P-list, called User Slip Defect List is empty, so I am concern your clone is good. SMART operation shouldn't clean P-list, it could be in result of previous translator regeneration (if attempted). But loki don't complain, perhaps not important.

[ddevejian]

My only concern is that your P-list, called User Slip Defect List is empty, so I am concern your clone is good. SMART operation shouldn't clean P-list, it could be in result of previous translator regeneration (if attempted). But loki don't complain, perhaps not important.

Interesting. What would constitute a translator regeneration? In anycase, from what I understand (which isnt much) if the defect had been previously detected, the block would have already been moved, and since I mounted the drive RO, Im not risking rewriting anything back to a bad block, so I figure I dont care if the defect list is empty, Im grabbing my data and running That might be a concern if I planned to reuse the drive, but I may be crazy, but I aint stupid. Also it still has that SIM error, whatever it may mean.

Knock wood, so far the files Ive spot checked have been good, and the directory tree was fine. Obviously, I havent had time to exaustively check all 200+ Gigs of data, but so far, so good.

[SAjunky]

That might be a concern if I planned to reuse the drive, but I may be crazy, but I aint stupid.

Agreed, nobody would try to reuse such drive. It is nice it could just complete cloning. But my concern was not about reusing, but validity of cloned data. P-list hold entries created during factory certification tests. Your data had been written using existing remapping structure. If you loose this structure, it would point your readings to the original sector which never contained your data, as was excluded from accessing 'forever'. Replacement sector keeps your data and you just lost pointer to it. That was my concern. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[ddevejian]

Agreed, nobody would try to reuse such drive. It is nice it could just complete cloning. But my concern was not about reusing, but validity of cloned data. P-list hold entries created during factory certification tests. Your data had been written using existing remapping structure. If you loose this structure, it would point your readings to the original sector which never contained your data, as was excluded from accessing 'forever'. Replacement sector keeps your data and you just lost pointer to it. That was my concern. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I see your concern, but there isnt much I can do about it. I am hopeful that the number of bad sectors was low, and so the frequency of any errors is proportionally low. If I lose a few files, thats what I get for not having a good backup.

So far, the data seems good. The FS tree was intact. All of the documents seem good. There are about 13,000 photos that I have not had a chance to go through all of, but what I have spot-checked (one or two from each directory) is fine. If there is an error in the other 99% of that, Ill find it when I need those photos. Ill continue to keep my fingers crossed, but so far, it looks like the empty P-list is not a large problem.

[SAjunky]

Perhaps there is some secret in this firmware. As long as you get data back, you don't need to worry about.