Would like to learn more about a Seagate problem

[gtd4242]

I'm not looking to be spoon fed anything, but if someone has a link to some resources where I can learn more about these drives, I would appreciate it. I've searched and searched, and maybe I've just missed it, but I can't find a solution to this problem.

It's a 500GB 7200.10 ST3500630AS. No unusual noises, the drive just stays in a BSY state, similar to the 7200.11 drives. This is what I get at terminal:

Reset
8192k x 16 DRAM
GALAXY - 1_Disk S-7A 12-08-06_17:07

Buzz HM SFI
!
(P)SATA Reset
Failed sys sect. write! Nwt Er 33 RdWr 16162.00.0003

Read Ver Retrys

Read Ver Retrys

Read Ver Retrys

Read Ver Retrys

Read Ver Failure!
Failed sys sect. write! Nwt Er 00 RdWr 16162.00.0003

Judging by the output, it appears to me that this is a problem with the heads. I know I've seen Seagate drives where the heads have failed, and they didn't make the usual clicking noise that is prominant in most drives. It seems like it has a "write" error. I just don't know if there is a way to bypass the write process and only read from the heads in order to know for sure if they are bad or not. Is there a better way to diagnose the heads in these drives before just making blind swaps? I don't have PC3K UDMA, just the PCI version, so I'm pretty much limited to working with these drives in Terminal.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to PM if you prefer.

[coffeebean]

Hi,

First - I am not sure if you know how to read smart sectors - If so do this - if reading is perfect then -->>

Second - I assume the drive detects correctly, fully. If so, and only if so, run MHDD and do a scan,
and report here what you find with the scan.

It is possible that the scan will be near perfect then you could narrow down the problem.

btw. the terminal report is reporting exactly according to the words - "failed write of system sector".
See, drive must check to see if it can write to some system sector before it will work properly.
hint : there could be some way to bypass necessity to pass this test

there are some aces who say they have some buttons to click to solve the problem and make
the drive readable - if you have some ace up your sleeve - ask them. Success!!

The underlying cause of this problem is most likely the start of media problems and SMART errors or SMART writing faults.

Often, in theses cases heads will be OK.

[gtd4242]

Thanks for the reply. I too believe the heads are ok, and that it is simply an issue of the drive being unable to properly write. So because of this, it is unable to become ready. The drive does not detect at all. When I connect it to PC3K (PCI version), the drive just stays BSY. Same with DDI.

I definitely don't have any aces up my sleeve, but I definitely try to learn what I can about these drives. I'll try and find the info I need in order to attempt reading the SMART sectors. Since it can't be detected that leaves out MHDD. Thanks again for the reply. I'll do some more searching and see if I can find anything about bypassing the write tests.

[coffeebean]

Drive does not ID - could now point to something physical.

7200.10 - your ACE-pci terminal will read system sectors. It's very simple.

[gtd4242]

I meant to update this a while ago. It ended up being a SMART problem that I was able to resolve in terminal. Everything worked out great. Thanks for the help.