Help with ST340014A terminal messages.

[marklamond]

Hi there,

I have a Seagate ST340014A on firmware 8.16

Turned on the PC one day and i got the XP kernel loading screen, followed by the noise of the head repeatedly seeking from the HDD. PC resets and goes round in circles. Removed it from the machine and the drive spins up fine every time but as soon as you try to access it you can hear the head seeking.

I have hooked up a terminal to the drive and here is the output:

Code:

Interface task reset
1024k x 16 buffer detected
ALPINE - 1_Disk    M-21  11-25-03 18:53

Buzz  - Head Mask FFFF - Switch to full int.
              Spin Ready
8.16  03-09-04 14:03
(P)PATA Reset
Master
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 9815.00.0000
ATA St 58 Er 00 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0300 0303
Niwot:  025456f7  4a  000056f7.254.000 0000 8000  0710 022c
AutoRd Err 43 at 009815.00.014a

CE Log EC=37  Rtype=5 OV=0 STStatus0
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 104d.01.0000
ATA St d0 Er 40 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0000 0303
Niwot:  002c0000  44  00000000.2c.000 0000 0118  0020 0005
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 9815.00.0000
ATA St 58 Er 00 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0300 0303
Niwot:  0254571f  4a  0000571f.254.000 0000 8000  0710 033e
AutoRd Err 43 at 009815.00.014a

CE Log EC=37  Rtype=5 OV=0 STStatus0
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 1133.01.0000
ATA St d0 Er 40 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0000 0303
Niwot:  002c0000  44  00000000.2c.000 0000 0118  0040 0005
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 9815.00.0000
ATA St 58 Er 00 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0300 0303
Niwot:  0254571f  4a  0000571f.254.000 0000 8000  0710 033e
AutoRd Err 43 at 009815.00.014a

CE Log EC=37  Rtype=5 OV=0 STStatus0
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 394c.01.0000
ATA St d0 Er 40 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0000 0303
Niwot:  002c0000  44  00000000.2c.000 0000 0118  0060 0005
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 9815.00.0000
ATA St 58 Er 00 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0300 0303
Niwot:  0254571f  4a  0000571f.254.000 0000 8000  0710 033e
AutoRd Err 43 at 009815.00.014a

CE Log EC=37  Rtype=5 OV=0 STStatus0
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr bba7.00.0000
ATA St d0 Er 40 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0000 0303
Niwot:  002c0000  44  00000000.2c.000 0000 0118  0080 0005
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 9815.00.0000
ATA St 58 Er 00 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0300 0303
Niwot:  0254571f  4a  0000571f.254.000 0000 8000  0710 033e
AutoRd Err 43 at 009815.00.014a

CE Log EC=37  Rtype=5 OV=0 STStatus0
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr bbed.00.0000
ATA St d0 Er 40 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0000 0303
Niwot:  002c0000  44  00000000.2c.000 0000 0118  00a0 0005
AT Er 00 Nwt Er 37 RdWr 9815.00.0000
ATA St 58 Er 00 Op 25 e,  254571f,0800 0300 0303
Niwot:  0254571f  4a  0000571f.254.000 0000 8000  0710 033e

If anyone could advise on the best course of action i would greatly appreciate it. I have a few identical (working) drives on the same firmware/hardware revision level as a spares source.

Many thanks,

Mark.

[zebong]

You will need PRO help for that problem.

Contact a DR company in your area.

[porthas]

it's a pending bug. That means that there is a known issue within drive's firmware, and drive attempts to repair it, but cannot, and while trying to repair it - it keeps itself busy. Most likely it is the Head Disk Assembly acting up. Data recovery company can get your data no problems, but if you don't have money to spend, try T>T4E in terminal. It may fix the issue, at least temporary, but may also kill the drive, because this command clears CE logs and refreshes health status, then it refreshes System Sectors, and if there is a problem with heads writing (and we can see that there is), it will destroy system sectors, which has adaptive (unique) data for access to user area (your data). So it is your call, try T>T4E or send to data recovery company

[BlackST]

It's a really bad idea if he needs data .... :S

[porthas]

It's not a bad idea, it is a choice. I warned about what an outcome may be. It is his call.

[marklamond]

Thanks for the reply guys, I’ve contacted a few companies for indicative quotes on recovering the data before I do anything potentially destructive. I need to put a price on getting it back so I can weigh up the options.

I had a backup of this drive from March stored on another drive, however that was also corrupt! Luckily it was a file system issue and have only lost March 2010-present. I can probably live with that.

Only a month back I was caught by the Firmware bug on a Maxtor/Seagate STM3500320AS, which is thankfully now up and running with no data loss.

So basically I have zero faith in hard drives, more frequent backups and some RAID are the order of the day.

[drc]

basically I have zero faith in hard drives, more frequent backups and some RAID are the order of the day.

Well, now you're ahead of most people

[fzabkar]

So basically I have zero faith in hard drives, more frequent backups and some RAID are the order of the day.

I have zero faith in human nature. Unfortunately there is no satisfactory contingency plan.

[drc]

So basically I have zero faith in hard drives, more frequent backups and some RAID are the order of the day.

I have zero faith in human nature. Unfortunately there is no satisfactory contingency plan.

Frank, you should go on a "make backups" crusade. Then people wouldn't have to deal with any nasty horrible ruthless swindling data recovery companies at all.

[fzabkar]

Frank, you should go on a "make backups" crusade. Then people wouldn't have to deal with any nasty horrible ruthless swindling data recovery companies at all.

That would be like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. I would prefer to be the Don Chipp of HDD Guru. Anyone who is familiar with Australian politics will understand what I mean.