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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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[ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 26th, 2013, 15:59

http://imgur.com/YoVlthM
DDI sees the S/N, but LBA shows "ZERO CAPACITY!"
Spins up fine. No clicking or grinding.

We have a DDI & PC-3000, but I'm a bit green and need to know what the next step should be. I know there's a ZERO CAPACITY bug on Samsung drives but I thought it was for 3.5in drives, not 2.5in.

Any help or insight would be appreciated. Recently attended Scott Moulton's 5-day crash course, but he didn't cover PC-3000 much.

Thanks gurus!

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 26th, 2013, 17:01

Seagate, not Samsung....

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 26th, 2013, 17:06

Does Scott offer any tech support after you attend one of his seminars?

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 26th, 2013, 17:08

jono-ats wrote:Does Scott offer any tech support after you attend one of his seminars?

Not per say, but you do get a copy of his giant DR book, and video of the entire week.

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 26th, 2013, 17:52

Just curious . . .

Do you tell your customers that you are just starting out in this business?

Is that a fair question?

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 26th, 2013, 18:18

Why not post this question in the Acelabs forum?

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 29th, 2013, 11:44

bryan.chandler wrote:http://imgur.com/YoVlthM
DDI sees the S/N, but LBA shows "ZERO CAPACITY!"
Spins up fine. No clicking or grinding.

We have a DDI & PC-3000, but I'm a bit green and need to know what the next step should be. I know there's a ZERO CAPACITY bug on Samsung drives but I thought it was for 3.5in drives, not 2.5in.

Any help or insight would be appreciated. Recently attended Scott Moulton's 5-day crash course, but he didn't cover PC-3000 much.

Thanks gurus!


Scott is obviously a great teacher :D

If SN is identified correctly and (I assume) it reaches DRDY, you should try to read modules within PC3000. If it does have translator bug then there will be some error with module 002B, but at this point you need to take into account factors such as NRG list.

Check SA modules in PC3000 and report here with any with errors.

Also, if Scott doesnt cover PC3K much, what exactly does his course cover that is of any relevance to modern drives and problems? Your symptoms suggest a very common fw problem, one that should be covered in any course relating to data recovery.

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 29th, 2013, 12:11

hddguy wrote:
bryan.chandler wrote:http://imgur.com/YoVlthM
DDI sees the S/N, but LBA shows "ZERO CAPACITY!"
Spins up fine. No clicking or grinding.

We have a DDI & PC-3000, but I'm a bit green and need to know what the next step should be. I know there's a ZERO CAPACITY bug on Samsung drives but I thought it was for 3.5in drives, not 2.5in.

Any help or insight would be appreciated. Recently attended Scott Moulton's 5-day crash course, but he didn't cover PC-3000 much.

Thanks gurus!


Scott is obviously a great teacher :D

If SN is identified correctly and (I assume) it reaches DRDY, you should try to read modules within PC3000. If it does have translator bug then there will be some error with module 002B, but at this point you need to take into account factors such as NRG list.

Check SA modules in PC3000 and report here with any with errors.

Also, if Scott doesnt cover PC3K much, what exactly does his course cover that is of any relevance to modern drives and problems? Your symptoms suggest a very common fw problem, one that should be covered in any course relating to data recovery.


I will do what you recommended and report back asap.

I think Scott is a great teacher and I learned a lot from his class. I've already been able to do enough recoveries to cover the cost of the trip. I'm taking over this aspect of our business from someone who left, so there's a backlog of non-critical recoveries.
There's A LOT to learn about data recovery, and I think he did his best to fit it all into 1 week. The days are very long (14 hr+) and we covered many different aspects of data recovery (PCB swaps w/ IR soldering, lots of hands-on with DDI, data storage fundamentals, tons of Q&A.) I would think however if it was a 6 week class instead of 1 we could have covered everything extensively. There were a lot of "newbs" and non-IT students there (obviously), so a lot of time was spent getting them up to speed. And hey, I'm just 1 guy, so I may have been a terrible student. I think the class was definitely worth the time & cost.

Thanks for the help.

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 30th, 2013, 8:55

the drives owners will be so happy that their precious data is in the safe hands of a Scott Moulton course attendee.

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

April 30th, 2013, 12:56

HDD Spaz wrote:the drives owners will be so happy that their precious data is in the safe hands of a Scott Moulton course attendee.


Scott's course has some good info, from what I've seen (I haven't taken it, and I don't know if there is errata or if it has the most current info). The unfortunate thing is that guys complete what amounts to a survey course with (apparently) unbounded confidence and throw caution to the wind, with predictable results. There is just no way you can make certain diagnoses and judgements with a week's training.

His clients will probably never know that he took Scott's course, or if he did, what to make of it.

A big problem in our industry is that there is no reliable way for consumers to judge the capabilities of one data recovery company from the next. And no certification of any kind, except perhaps manufacturer endorsement. And for the consumer, that's a shame.

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

May 5th, 2013, 5:44

put here log, please

Re: [ZERO CAPACITY!] on DDI - Seagate 5TF0DMKB 80GB

May 5th, 2013, 9:15

I don't want to jump on the Scott Moulton bashing bandwagon but this post is a reminder of how many inexperienced guys out there who are offering DR to innocent and uninformed customers. This drive may have precious memories or critical business data on it.

The first rule of DR is to diagnose the fault accurately and proceed from there. You can't just stick a drive onto an imager and hope for the best.

@Bryan; I'll offer you some advice - we've all been in your position when we started. You need to take a step back and work on the basics of troubleshooting with your available tools. Use PC3K to diagnose the fault accurately and take it step-by-step. You run the risk of damaging a drive beyond recovery if you choose the cavalier approach and this has potential legal repercussions if you get an unhappy customer. I suggest outsourcing until such a time that you are experienced enough to handle drives and perhaps take a PC3K course with Andrei from Deepspar.
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