Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750630AS broken (a bit)

[cottmonter]

Hi there!

My HDD doesn't work anymore, although detected, there is no HDD sound or whirring or movement at all.

It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750630AS - Firmware: LC11

It was originally in a LaCie external USB caddy for external Mac storage (well, 50% Mac partition and 50% NTFS) until I tripped over the power cable in the dark (long story as to why it was across the floor!) which didn't completely pull the power connector out but enough to make a few sparks jump from the power cable to the power connector. Upon plugging it back in, there was nothing.

So I removed it from the caddy and I placed it into my PC, on the POST BIOS thingy, it detects the model, firmware and the SATA that it's connected to, however after a few seconds it says 'secondary master hard disk error' and after pressing F9 to continue, it doesnt appear in the boot menu, and in Windows it is not detected (it used to show both Mac and NTFS partitions as 2 extra disks).

I have read a lot online about removing the 5v and 12v diodes but before removing them I saw a post that said that if the computer can see what Firmware etc it is, and that in the BIOS page it sees it as a 0MB drive, then it's not the same problem as those who require TVS diode removal have.

I saw someone (maybe yourself) had posted on this forum/thread: bricked-seagate-7200-t14222.html and was wondering if you'd be able to help? I'm not good for money at the moment, so obviously I'm praying that it's a repair job other than expensive data recovery.

Is anyone able to help me? I'd be very very appreciative as I have so much personal work on that drive.

Thanking you in advance,

Scott

Attachments

[drc]

You said it does not spin up? Sounds like the spindle is seized, which is consistent with receiving a sudden bump

[Nick_CT]

If you put your ear to it, do you hear a slight, intermittent buzz/hum?

[cottmonter]

When I put my ear to it, there's about 5 regular noises per second... trying to think how I can write the noise! It's not a buzz, or a click, hmm maybe a very soft click with a constant harmonic to it.

[loki]

Your BIOS pics show the drive listed but as 0MB. Doesnt that mean its read part of the SA? which would mean that the motor spins

Sounds like the Seagate 0LBA/BSYfirmware bug


Loki

PS hopefully not the pending bug

[cottmonter]

Well the sound is so so quiet, barely audible with my ear against it, and there is no spinning or 'gyroscopic feeling' when I rotate it on any axis whilst on. I'm confused

[pcimage]

Your BIOS pics show the drive listed but as 0MB. Doesnt that mean its read part of the SA? which would mean that the motor spins

Sounds like the Seagate 0LBA/BSYfirmware bug


Loki

PS hopefully not the pending bug

Model and serial are stored in ROM on the PCB on this model, it would still ID like this with no HDA attached at all.

[loki]

Your BIOS pics show the drive listed but as 0MB. Doesnt that mean its read part of the SA? which would mean that the motor spins

Sounds like the Seagate 0LBA/BSYfirmware bug


Loki

PS hopefully not the pending bug

Model and serial are stored in ROM on the PCB on this model, it would still ID like this with no HDA attached at all.

Thanks PCimage for that. I'm learning more day by day

Loki

[unknown]

Your BIOS pics show the drive listed but as 0MB. Doesnt that mean its read part of the SA? which would mean that the motor spins

Sounds like the Seagate 0LBA/BSYfirmware bug


Loki

PS hopefully not the pending bug

When I put my ear to it, there's about 5 regular noises per second... trying to think how I can write the noise! It's not a buzz, or a click, hmm maybe a very soft click with a constant harmonic to it.

Loki is right, it's common 7200.11 FW bug.

[pcimage]

Well the sound is so so quiet, barely audible with my ear against it, and there is no spinning or 'gyroscopic feeling' when I rotate it on any axis whilst on. I'm confused

Judging by this (not spinning and not buzzing), the sparking and the strange barely audible ticking, I would say the problem is PCB.

Assuming this prognosis is correct then it won't be mega bucks.

[cottmonter]

Well, to add to this situation, there's a bit more info.

I read about SeaTools. I ran all tests on my broken HDD and it failed them all. I tried the DOS version and it just hangs whilst locating the IDEs, well, it doesnt hang but it never finds the drive and the program doesnt do anything, I assume it's stuck in a loop expecting to find the drive. Same thing happens with the DOS version of the firmware upgrade, it never finds the drive and therefore cant progress to updating the firmware. Do you have any idea how much it may cost?

By the way i disconnected the TVS diodes to test if it was them, but no change, so resoldered them back.

Scott

[Dizidago357]

Please stop trying random things you read about on here. If during the process of attempting a DIY repair, you fry something else on the board, you're going to make a few hundred dollar procedure turn into something upwards of $500. Contact pcimage, get the drive shipped to him, and he'll be able to help you out with this one.

Dizi

[Nick_CT]

I sense another "DIY gone wrong" event about to happen

[cottmonter]

I shipped it earlier today, don't worry

[cottmonter]

PCImage has fixed this drive for me, good as new! Performing a backup as we speak...

MANY THANKS PCIMAGE!!!!!!

[Nick_CT]

Great news. Good choice sending it to PCImage, the man knows his stuff!

[pcimage]

Gee, thanks guys

[unknown]

Congratulations Mr.Pcimage,

For curiosity, what was the problem ?

[pcimage]

PCB was bad. TVS were OK etc... But did not allow drive to spin.

Required new PCB and ROM transfer.

[unknown]

Thanks for reply sir

Good job, well done sir.

Best regards,