Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 fix procedure

[hddvic]

Hi all,

I have a Barracuda 7200.11 500 GB hard disk (ST3500820AS, fw SD25).
It was part of a Iomega USB enclosure. The HD was spinning up on
enclosure power on. I don't know yet if the HD is recognized by the BIOS
but we'll know it soon.

My only goal is to recover/backup data and not to fix the disk for future use.

I already fixed another 7200.12 Seagate disk but I want to be wary and patient.
I've got an USB to TTL device to send firmware commands.

I have a couple of questions (provided the BIOS sees the disk):

* how to know this HD is affected by the BSY bug?
* if the BSY repair procedure is efficient, what is the best procedure/tool to backup data? dcfldd/dd/ddrescue or mhdd/other tools?
* I guess I need to fix the bug then backup but before any attempt to update firmware?
* is there a list of SD25/Seagate firmware commands?
* is the a SD25 command giving the state of the drive?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Attachments

[hddvic]

@Spildit,

I'm really surprised by what you've been writing.

What is VERY CLEAR to me is that you probably are in the business of data recovery, at least your advices sound like you are...
If not, I agree with you, you're a rude guy

It's really funny how you consider a forum's newbie asking for hints and consider him at first sight as a future
competitor

I won't be and never be a contender for you or anyone in that business. I'm trying to do it for a friend of mine who lost
10 years of kids photos (no backups ), and I'm here to try to recover his data, learn and not to steal knowledge
from anyone.

I'm essentially a DIYer, I'm an IT professional (not in the data recovery business though) and I think I have
enough tech background to get by. Please just consider I'm taking the risk of bricking the device,
and this is solely my responsibility to do it so.

@others (or Spildit if ready to help),

Now, if anyone in that forum is kind enough to answer my questions or point me to other posts, I'll be happy.

Cheers!

[harddrivespecialist]

I don't know yet if the HD is recognized by the BIOS
but we'll know it soon.

First, you have to find an answer for your first question. Otherwise, we'll have to write several books on all possible problems with Seagate and all possible solutions with all possible tools.

Spildit gave you very good advice, because you can turn a little problem into disaster in one wrong move.

[hddguy]

Download a copy of MHDD (you can Google for the link) and make bootable CD/USB/Floppy etc
Boot into MHDD and connect your HDD via direct SATA connection (may be worth connecting a known good drive to correctly identify the channel it occupies)
With it connected check its status register. If constantly on 'BSY' flag and no other register is lit, then probably it has common bug. If you can read ID good, but capacity is '0' then it possibly has translator error, though this is also symptom of physical error as this can sometimes be displayed from PCB only. also, check behaviour of the disk during powering.

I wont condone DIY repairs, nothing personal against you but the majority of DIYers generally do more harm than good. ultimately its your choice (or your friends). You can search for the solution, there are plenty of info on it here (assuming you do have one of the common fw errors) but do at your own risk. Generally the process is safe if you know what you are doing, so I highly advise you make some research before you attempt it.

Probably the best advice I can offer is to get MHDD, check the status of your HDD and report back here. Hopefully you can gt a more definitive answer to your problem.

[sathyan]

I'm trying to do it for a friend of mine who lost
10 years of kids photos (no backups ), and I'm here to try to recover his data,

DIY on drives with important data is not advised (because, most of the times, DIY attempts on drives will make the condition of the drive worse, making recovery by a pro later very costly or even not possible.)
And also this is not your data.
So don't risk it.
So was the advise by Spildit

[hddvic]

@hddguy,

Thanks for your reply. I'll first check if this is the common FW bug.

I will otherwise consider alternative solutions.

[hddvic]

@Spildit,

I'm not crazy, I won't do anything which is not fully backed-up by a strong bunch of information and feedbacks.

I'm not against sending you the hard drive, but as I already stated I also want to learn. If this is really
a fw bug, there's a chance I can save some data, with a little risk. Otherwise, I'll probably give up, not going further
and consider sending you the HD, provided shipping is not too expensive. But I have to confess I was surprised by such
an unfair answer like yours.

As hddguy advised, I'll check flags next week (can't do it this week) and come back to this forum.

[BlackST]

I'm not a data recovery professional, i work on a diferent area, i do Data Recovery as an part-time.
I dont see you as a competitor at all as for me data recovery is more of a hobby and i've by now invested on it way more time and money that i will ever make with it (dr)
If you reall want the data i dont mind to fix the drive for free, as i stated, but i cant guide you step by step on how to fix it and see you damage the drive in the process,
I've spend a big part of the day yesterday trying to help a guy here only to see him damage the drive even further because of the lack of experience of the user and and dificulty to transmit the exact instructions by forum. Again we dont even know if your drive have firmware issue or if its another problem like bad heads, as i hade quite a bunch of those on drives of the same model of yours.
If you want the data back you have choices. If you still want to do it yourself practice first with a drive that you can risk to destroy and follow the guide and brick the drive if needed, and learn with it.
If you want to risk data loss, there are lots of guides on the net about 7200.11 with pictures and easy to follow. Just google them. Sorry, if you want for me to check the drive i can do that too, providing you pay for the shipping. I cant do more than that.
Maybe someone else can assist. I'm very sorry.

Maybe it's time to stop "helping" the way you were doing till now, isn't it ?

[hddvic]

Maybe it's time to stop "helping" the way you were doing till now, isn't it ?

Really helpful, thanks

I just posted (not yet shown, don't know why?) that I was not against shipping to him

BTW, the only one who REALLY answered me is hddguy....

[hddvic]

spildit

this is mainly the tone of your first reply who bothered me.

I was here only to ask naive questions and in return I got your post!

but I also confess you are kindly willing to help and I recognize it...

[hddvic]

Ok with your post.

But what about the personal self-training if I clearly state that I accept the risk of loosing
data?

You know I did the same for my car. They asked me around 2000 euros for fixing
something related to the swirl flap actuator. After crawling on the net I decided
to do it myself. Not only I saved up 2000 euros but I had the satisfaction
to know what's going on in my car...

[poehere]

I would suggest that you follow harddrivespecialist advise and download MHDD from here. Make your boot CD and then mount this drive on your MB. Boot from your boot CD and see what it says.

If this is really a 7200 bug fix for busy or 0 LBA you can do a search here on this forum. The terminal commands are well posted. You can even know how to make a terminal adaptor for this drive from the internet. You can google the Seagate LBA 0 or busy fix. There is some good step by step instructions on how to do this one.

I will only advise you that if this is really not this issue and you try this fix you can brick your drive. I would start off with MHDD and see what happens. Second I would search on Internet to find out how to build you a terminal adaptor. Thrid after you have your terminal adaptor you can get an output for a terminal log. If you can post this output here this one would really help.

Also if this one is a major problem after seeing terminal logs I would like to suggest that you do send this to a DR company to fix it. There is some good ones in France that can do this for you. If not I can recommand PCImage out of UK he is a very valued member here and will be able to give you a very good price on this one.

Please post your terminal logs after checking on MHDD and making your terminal adaptor. Thanks and good luck we will wait to hear back from you on this one.

[BlackST]

Ok with your post.

But what about the personal self-training if I clearly state that I accept the risk of loosing
data?

You know I did the same for my car. They asked me around 2000 euros for fixing
something related to the swirl flap actuator. After crawling on the net I decided
to do it myself. Not only I saved up 2000 euros but I had the satisfaction
to know what's going on in my car...

I guess it was not a Renault neither a Volvo...

[hddvic]

I would suggest that you follow harddrivespecialist advise and download MHDD from here. Make your boot CD and then mount this drive on your MB. Boot from your boot CD and see what it says.

If this is really a 7200 bug fix for busy or 0 LBA you can do a search here on this forum. The terminal commands are well posted. You can even know how to make a terminal adaptor for this drive from the internet. You can google the Seagate LBA 0 or busy fix. There is some good step by step instructions on how to do this one.

I will only advise you that if this is really not this issue and you try this fix you can brick your drive. I would start off with MHDD and see what happens. Second I would search on Internet to find out how to build you a terminal adaptor. Thrid after you have your terminal adaptor you can get an output for a terminal log. If you can post this output here this one would really help.

Also if this one is a major problem after seeing terminal logs I would like to suggest that you do send this to a DR company to fix it. There is some good ones in France that can do this for you. If not I can recommand PCImage out of UK he is a very valued member here and will be able to give you a very good price on this one.

Please post your terminal logs after checking on MHDD and making your terminal adaptor. Thanks and good luck we will wait to hear back from you on this one.

Thanks for you reply.

I already have a USB to TTL adaptor. And to make it clear another time, I will not engage myself into
mods or commands I don't trust or understand.

As for the terminal log, do I need to send out specific firmware command or just connect to the device?
What do you mean by "terminal log"? Connecting to a host with ssh is a terminal log but doesn't get
so much information back... And do I need to install the plastic/paper stuff in order to disconnect motor
connectors first? What terminal do you use? Hyperterminal is no more provided with W7, so Putty?

What do you mean by "a very good price"?

[sathyan]

do I need to send out specific firmware command or just connect to the device?

No, do not send any commands yet. Just connect the drive and power it up and report what is displayed.

And do I need to install the plastic/paper stuff in order to disconnect motor
connectors first? What terminal do you use? Hyperterminal is no more provided with W7, so Putty?

Don't isolate the motor, connect the drive as it is, start a terminal session , power up the drive , post what is displayed.
Putty will do fine.

[gravity]

Hey all.. Just found this post... I have a ST3500320AS 7200.11 which wont show up in the BIOS and has loads of my family photos and work files that I never got to backup as only had the drive a short while.. I presume its the BSY issue.

Is there anyone here that could fix this issue if I sent them the drive? I mean just unlock it from Busy so I can access it again to retrieve my data? I dont have much money but could afford shipping and something towards your time. I would appreciate it a lot. Im in Dublin..

Cheers,

Alan
gravity

[gravity]

Wow that would be great mate! I would appreciate it and realise that I could lose the data but hopefully not Sending PM now..

Cheers,

Al

Hey all.. Just found this post... I have a ST3500320AS 7200.11 which wont show up in the BIOS and has loads of my family photos and work files that I never got to backup as only had the drive a short while.. I presume its the BSY issue.

Is there anyone here that could fix this issue if I sent them the drive? I mean just unlock it from Busy so I can access it again to retrieve my data? I dont have much money but could afford shipping and something towards your time. I would appreciate it a lot. Im in Dublin..

Cheers,

Alan
gravity

I don't mind to fix it as long as it's only the BSY or LBA - 0 bug. In case of bad heads or any physical problem that involves the aquisition of drive parts i will not do it.
If you are interested PM me.

[gravity]

hmm it seams im too new on the forum to PM you... could you please PM me your email addy? Tnx!

[gravity]

We are sorry, but you are not authorised to use this feature. You may have just registered here and may need to participate more to be able to use this feature.

[gravity]

Hey, yeah tried it in a few machines including a mates Linux box and not showing up... spinning up fine and no clicking. Tried it in an external USB case too but no joy.

hmm it seams im too new on the forum to PM you... could you please PM me your email addy? Tnx!

Done.

Just some questions, does the drive spin up ok ? Does it do some strange noises like clicking sound ? Or all apear to be ok apart from it not apearing on the BIOS ?
Did you try to connect the drive directly to the PC sata port (if you are using an external enclosure) ?