Seagate Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS

[madmotz]

Hi,

I got an external HDD (LaCie rugged) from my sister which died. The drive was in use for about 2 month, then suddenly the drive wasn't detected anymore.
I asked her whether the drive fell down but she said no.

Drive details:
Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB - ST9500325AS
SN: 5VE...
FW: 0002BSM1
Disks/Heads 2/4

I removed the the drive from the USB box and connect it directly to a PC with SATA.

Problem description:
* The Drive is detected by BIOS and MHDD
* MHDD: Can show ID and EID
* MHDD: Can read SMART attributes (F8) - see below
* MHDD: Can read LBA from 0 to 204157, then 3 blocks UNC and afterwards ABRT -> drive is not accessible anymore
** F2 -> Device not ready; F8 -> device error
** To get access again, the drive has to be power cycled
* MHDD: Can read LBA from 302.900 to 500.100 -> drive is not accessible anymore
** I did not try any other LBA ranges

Code:

SMART-Log:
[PRE]HDD: ST9500325AS; FW: 0002BSM1; SN: 5VE6XXXX
--------------------------------------------------------
            Name                        Val Worst Raw
Att #   1 : Read error rate           :  77   77  164937619 
Att #   3 : Spin up time              :  97   97  0 
Att #   4 : Number of spin-up times   : 100  100  209 
Att #   5 : Reallocated sectors count :  94   94  126 
Att #   7 : Seek error rate           : 100  253  213880 
Att #   9 : Power-on time             : 100  100  283 
Att #  10 : Spin-up retries           : 100  100  0 
Att #  12 : Start/stop count          : 100   37  104 
Att # 184 : Unknown                   : 100  100  0 
Att # 187 : Unknown                   :   1    1  11210 
Att # 188 : Unknown                   : 100   99  131079 
Att # 189 : Unknown                   : 100  100  0 
Att # 190 : Unknown                   :  73   42  454623259 
Att # 191 : Unknown                   : 100  100  0 
Att # 192 : Power-off retract count   : 100  100  7 
Att # 193 : Load/unload cycle count   :  94   94  13962 
Att # 194 : HDA Temperature           :  27   58  27 
Att # 195 : Hardware ECC recovered    :  54   54  164937619 
Att # 197 : Current pending sectors   : 100  100  1921 
Att # 198 : Offline scan UNC sectors  : 100  100  1921 
Att # 199 : Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate  : 200  200  0 
[/PRE]


I'm guessing it's not a firmware problem.

First question, could a bad/weak head cause the problem?
Second question, can someone recommend a DR guy in europe?

Thanks for any advice. If you need any more info, let me know. I haven't got a seagate to serial interface built yet. Will it help?

[dick]

Hi,

Drive is showing both pending bad and reallocated bad sectors.

I would guess it has taken a bad jolt sometime previously. Sisters eh?

Try scanning the drive in reverse using Mhdd but if you hit bad sectors either stop or jump a couple of percent at a time. I often use Victoria for windows to do this.

[harddrivespecialist]

Where exactly in Europe you live?

[harddrivespecialist]

Anyone in Germany to help this guy?

[pcimage]

Certainly sounds like a bad head, given good zones then bad zones.

[dobrevjetser]

I got some clients in germany

[pcimage]

Me too!

[madmotz]

First of thx for your replies!

@dick: Is there a way to do a reverse scan with mhdd? The drive is not accessible in windows/linux as the drive scan during boot "kills" the drive. I think drive initialisation from the sata driver "kills" (access beyond LBA 204157) it. Does anyone know how to disable drive initialisation in linux (libata?)?

@pcimage/dobrevjetser: Do I have to get a donner drive on my own? What is the price for a head change?

[fzabkar]

You can use dd_rescue or ddrescue to clone your drive in reverse.

[andrea8310]

Hi,

I'm having exactly the same experiences as madmotz, with a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS. BIOS recognizes the name of the drive but not the size. Any reading test returns "bad sector". From the disk I hear the same noise as the file "dying heads and slow down" from the HddGuru seagate mp3. In your opinion is it a matter of firmware or a phisical damage of heads?

[BGman]

What do you want - to save the information or to get the drive fixed?

[andrea8310]

Save the information is first aim. Is there any difference (for saving the information) if a firmware reconstruction or alternatively a phisical head substitution is performed?
Anyone has an opinion about the sound "dying heads and slow down" of seagate momentus? more likely firmware or phisical damage of heads? As I've written before, BIOS recognizes the name of the drive but the size it's "0 MB"...
Thank You all for helping

[BGman]

Save the information is first aim. Is there any difference (for saving the information) if a firmware reconstruction or alternatively a phisical head substitution is performed?
Anyone has an opinion about the sound "dying heads and slow down" of seagate momentus? more likely firmware or phisical damage of heads? As I've written before, BIOS recognizes the name of the drive but the size it's "0 MB"...
Thank You all for helping

If the information is important - contact DR company, if not - we could help...

[wire_weaver]

Hi there,
I have an identical drive to madmotz with nearly identical symptoms, so I'm posting here to seek confirmation of my plan which in short is to clone the HDD then recover whatever data I can.

Problem description:

* The Drive is detected by BIOS and MHDD
* MHDD: Can show ID and EID
* MHDD: Can read SMART attributes (F8) - see below
* MHDD: Can read LBA from 0 to 230465 with multiple read delays and afterwards ! ABRT -> drive is not accessible anymore
** F2 -> Device not ready; F8 -> device error
** To get access again, the drive has to be power cycled
* MHDD: Can read LBA from about 168,000,000 to >973,776,168 with no read delays >3ms and no ABRT messages

Using MHDD, here is the SMART log file output:

[PRE]HDD: ST9500325AS; FW: 0003DEM1; SN: 5VE.....
--------------------------------------------------------
Name Val Worst Raw
Att # 1 : Read error rate : 95 72 115908760
Att # 3 : Spin up time : 97 97 0
Att # 4 : Number of spin-up times : 96 96 4305
Att # 5 : Reallocated sectors count : 95 95 103
Att # 7 : Seek error rate : 79 60 93308185
Att # 9 : Power-on time : 95 95 4847
Att # 10 : Spin-up retries : 100 100 0
Att # 12 : Start/stop count : 96 96 4281
Att # 184 : Unknown : 100 100 0
Att # 187 : Unknown : 1 1 21751
Att # 188 : Unknown : 100 99 196618
Att # 189 : Unknown : 100 100 0
Att # 190 : Unknown : 76 45 404160536
Att # 191 : Unknown : 100 100 1341
Att # 192 : Power-off retract count : 100 100 54
Att # 193 : Load/unload cycle count : 68 68 64791
Att # 194 : HDA Temperature : 24 55 24
Att # 195 : Hardware ECC recovered : 51 41 115908760
Att # 197 : Current pending sectors : 100 100 1936
Att # 198 : Offline scan UNC sectors : 100 100 1936
Att # 199 : Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate : 200 200 0
Att # 240 : Unknown : 100 253 4702
Att # 241 : Unknown : 100 253 3950347515
Att # 242 : Unknown : 100 253 1248635570
Att # 254 : Unknown : 100 100 0
[/PRE]

In my novice opinion it appears to me that a head is faulty. So, could you folks

• Confirm my plan to clone and recover data is an appropriate next step, and if so what S/W will permit me to manually specify the LBA range(s) to clone because once the bad sectors are read the drive needs power cycling - so even if S/W can automatically detect then not copy bad sectors, I know it will fail/hang unless it is able to power cycle the HDD.
• Confirm that this is most likely a head failure and no S/W methods will recover the bad/unreadable sectors ?
• This SMART log is sufficient proof for me to make a replacement warranty claim with Seagate ?
• How common this kind of problem is with this model/series of seagate HDDs, 'cause I reckon seagate has a lot to answer for with the anecdotal evidence I have come across showing such similar problems...

Thanks.