Another Seagate 7200.11 Issue - Please Help Me Diagnose

[ggreco]

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
SATA2 500gb
Date Code 08365


The master drive (3 months old) with o/s in my 'puter suddenly died. No blue screens, freezes, noises, nothing - no symptoms at all. It just wouldn't boot post bios one day.

It wasn't recognized in bios.

Moving it to another computer as slave resulted in the same condition, not recognized in bios nor in device manager.

The drive always fires right up and runs smoothly and quietly.

I had bought two of these drives at the same time so luckily had another identical board to swap.

After switching the pcb it went through the "new equipement found" routine when slaved and was recognized in device manager but doesn't appear at all in "Manage" even after a refresh - no partion.

What's my next step? Is there anything more I can do as a DIY'er?

As, at least from a layman's point of view, it seems to be an electrical issue as opposed to a mechanical issue - is this still an intensive job for a data recovery expert to tackle?

The data isn't critical as a b/u was done a month ago but it would sure be convenient if I could recover the incremental files that I added since them.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

[harddrivespecialist]

To be clear, can you see a drive in bios now, but not in my computer?

[ggreco]

Thanks for your prompt reply.

To clarify I was at the tech's shop this a.m. (I had taken it there for ideas) where we had switched the pcb's.

He plugged it into the shop computer and it did the found hardware routine in the task bar, we also found it in device manager but nothing appeared in Disk Management - we didn't look in BIOS.

The odd part is after posting, I just plugged it into my home computer as slave (needed to let it warm up from being in the car today) and I didn't get the "found hardware routine" and checking in bios it gave a "disc error" and actually wouldn't allow the master to boot. I had to disconnect and reboot.

So at this point at least on my computer it is neither in bios nor recognized in Device Manager and Disk Mgmt.

[networkpc3000]

hello, i am sure your hard drive firmware have problem. you had to take HDD repair tool or send to pro for repair.

[BlackST]

It's the SA. You can't do nothing except 1) return for warranty rma 2) buy the expensive gear and learn all about Seagate firmware structure and repair the drive, many thousand euro/$ required plus FULL TIME APPLICATION, months 3) send it to a pro 4) destroy the drives and get new ones, another brand.
Dura lex sed lex...

[wiseleo]

Additionally, 7200.11 are quite new. Not many people are qualified to work on them. That means your price will be higher than average.

[ggreco]

Thanks for your replies = I appreciate you folks steering me in the right direction.

Out of curiousity what is an "SA"?

So it's been ruled out that there is anything I can do.

As I thought the process wasn't as labour, equipment and expertise intensive since it looked like the drive didn't need to be opened up, I was prepared to pay a couple of hundred dollars. But it seems that this is not a relatively straight forward fix as I thought.

The data is worth a couple of hundred to me but not $1000+.

I was referred to a local company who had a $500 flat fee but that is on the high end for the contents involved.

I guess I shouldn't spend anymore time hoping there is a fix on my ballpark and move on.

[shahij]

It's SA. and this series architecture is changed unlike traditional series, after 10 series. Little pro here to help you in this situation. FLAT RATE is not applicable for data recovery, the service is provided depending on various situation of various damage to the drive. FLAT Rate is not a professional deal.
Before swapping the PCB did u get your drive spinning?
After swapping the PCB is it taking usual time to detect/undetect by BIOS or extra time?
Where r u located?

[ggreco]

Before swapping the PCB did u get your drive spinning?

The drive always spun fine, no noise or issues - both before and after pcb swap.

After swapping the PCB is it taking usual time to detect/undetect by BIOS or extra time?

After the pcb swap on the tech computer (slave) we saw it successfully go through the hardware detected notices in the Task bar as well as in Device Manager - but it did not show in Disk Managment - we did not check in bios at the shop. However at home on my computer it's not recognized anywhere, including BIOS.

Where r u located?

I live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

I was alittle leery of the flat fee as well - too little for most jobs I know.

[BlackST]

It's the common problem : disk is seen in BIOS maybe, but shown as ZERO bytes capacity and eventually RAW. You can only compare different offers and find the best DR fee with reasonable reputation. Or, if the drive is still under warranty (likely), send it for RMA.

[draeke]

I have the very same problem, did u solve yours ggreco?

i bought 2 months ago the same drive and it suddently stopped working.
now is recognized as new hardware (is an external drive, inside a iomega case), but it doesnt appear at all into the system.

i've been told to put the drive into the freezer for 30 minutes and retry by a technician, he did itwith one of his drive and he could save some datas. why would extreme cold help is a mystery but anyway, i am not up to try some funny things here atm.

i have been offered from china a repair fee of 1000 dollars no matter what to recover the data, but seems a bit too much.
is personal data not working stuff nor am i a society and could define it a society expense, would be my personal money.

any reccomendation on somewhere in europe NOT that expensive?
i bought another identical drive to swap the electrical part but nothing changed. in any case the firmware reported on the info is the same:
SD25.

i will now plug in the new drive but what a disastrous hard drive is this one.

[harddrivespecialist]

Do not! Do not put your drive in a freezer!
I wish "technicians" like that would be held responsible for their suggestions.

You have to connect your drive directly to your system in order to figure out a problem.

You can also find a Data Recovery company and ask them to perform diagnostics.

Correct diagnostics is the most important thing in DR, then you can proceed with a repair.

A lot of times those "technicians" guess on a problem and make a job very difficult to fix.

[rchadwick]

I don't know about sending the drive to China, but $1000 sounds reasonable. There are guys who advertise $99 flat fee recoveries, but you have better odds of winning the lottery than getting your data back from them. Data Recovery is a very difficult business, and someone with the required skill and tools just can't charge a price you'll like.

If you had a heart problem, and needed surgery, would you go to a Doctor? Or would you save some money by going to a guy that only charges $15, and works out of a dirty motel room (Of course, he had a great website. GUARANTEED results...)?

Again, you can find data recovery for just about any price. If you actually want your data, send it to a pro, and do it FIRST. Those $99 shops aren't good at recovering data, but some are pretty good at permanently screwing up drives.

Last edited by rchadwick on October 27th, 2008, 11:50, edited 1 time in total.

[draeke]

ok i won't freeze it
anyway afetr trying several times to connect my drive it does the following:
1 spins correctly
2 appears a message: windows suggest you to scan and fix the drive contine or cancel
a: if i try to scan and fix it freezes, cant complete the scandisk and i cant see anything in the drive and the drive get listed in resources but with no name
b: if i continue cancelling it, it SOMEHOW can read the data, but just list it, it lists folder and almost all subfolders, takes a long time to list but at least i can see what WAS there.. i can copy filenames and hope to be able to redownload many of the things
3 when i click on some folders the message i get is: error: You need to format the disk in drive F: before you can use it. Do you want to format it? obviously clicking cancel it somehow list the content on the folder.

the drive is SO SLOW but i am managing to copy the folder names ( i mean i can click them, press F2 to rename, copy the name and paste it.)
i tried to copy data but it can't it simply wont copy the data. I am sure my data is all still there (380 gb!! of stuff) but how to recover it???

help please!!

[rchadwick]

Well, it's a good sign you can read something. Assuming any DR is out of your budget, you will need better tools. A Knoppix CD is likely in your budget. You can also get a commercial imager like Media Tools Pro or HD Duplicator. The idea is to make an image (Copy everything, not file by file, from one drive to another). Also, be aware that the longer you fiddle with it, the more likely it will die.

[BlackST]

The data is inside the disk but won't come out until the firmware is repaired. Media tools or HDDup or anything won't work. You have to fix the drive. No alternate option. The 1000$ price is reasonable.

[draeke]

blackst, thanks for the diagnose, so don't u think that the firmware can be somehow reinstalled into the drive?
i heard / read that there is a way to replace the firmware installing a second copy on the drive itself.. maybe it will allow me to do this.
the spin and rumour seems completely normal no crick cracks or strange noises..
well i guess i'd have to deal with the 1000 if is the only way (will have to investigate why is so expensive)..
cheers

[shahij]

$1000 is a reasonalbe price.
where r u located?

[BlackST]

Where this bullshit came from (the second copy)? It's not a cell phone. Well, you can give a try if you dare... your data your choice.
Why is it so expensive ? Responsibility and skill and gear (and knowledge). Is a sufficient answer ?

[draeke]

Well, it's a good sign you can read something. Assuming any DR is out of your budget, you will need better tools. A Knoppix CD is likely in your budget. You can also get a commercial imager like Media Tools Pro or HD Duplicator. The idea is to make an image (Copy everything, not file by file, from one drive to another). Also, be aware that the longer you fiddle with it, the more likely it will die.

so this is not going to work?


to answer blackst:

i read it somewhere in this forum, will search it again and try to post it here i didn't invent it if that is what u assumed
well 1k dollars might be reasonable for very important working data, I am a student and these are private data, there are some documents, things i wrote, some photos and loads of things i downloaded over 3 years, not impossible to find but that would take some time. Overall maybe just a few gb of things i made myself and that i will not be able to recover which is the reason to ask a dr but still is a bit out of my bugdet due to the fact i don't work, nothing else, i would have to save for a bit to afford it.