Seagate 7200.11 hardrive detected but not working

[-whiplash-]

Okay so last night I turned off my computer and went to sleep, and when I woke up I turned my computer back on but I got this message telling me to insert disk. I tried my turning it one a few more time to no avail. There is no clicking or beeping or anything to suggest a hardware error.

Luckily, I had an extra hard drive with vista (my current comp is win 7) lying around so I was able to see what the heck was going on. Now, while my second 1TB storage hard drive works, my main HDD. (a 750 GB Seagate 7200.11) does not work. I can see it with the Hard drive detection and recovery programs I could get for free, seatools, WIndows device manager, Partition wizard and FInd and Mount. Both find and mount and Parition wizard report my drive as having 0 bytes of data, windows says it's "uninitiated" and seatools, whenever I scan or attempt to repair it fails.

Now, I did a bit of research and discovered the "BSY bug" but my computer still detects the drive so I don't know if that's it or not and I'm scared of screwing up fixing it if it is because I need the stuff on my Hard drive.

So I was wondering if there was any possible way to just get the stuff of my HDD, or I absolutely need to buy that nokia cord and fix it myself? (if that is indeed my problem.)

[michael chiklis]

This is not the busy bug, rather seems to be the 0 LBA bug.
Usually it happens this if heads are faulty, but can be also translators issue. Less unlikely a PCB problem.

You need to do a correct diagnosis before trying any DIY repair, some professional in the forum may help you with this.
I would check first if HDA contacts on the pcb are durty, in case clean them with a pencil eraser, then i would input some dignosis commands in terminal to check spindle spin-up and spin-down, heads, g-list.

If you don't know what i'm saying, you should get help from a pro.

[hddguy]

ID but 0 capacity happens in 2 scenarios:

1 - Translation system is damaged and HDD cannot translate PCHS to LBA so no capacity is available

2 - SA cant read so ID is taken from ROM only. this could be the result of physical issue

If it makes no unusual noises it possibly could be SA problem, but you really need a proper diagnosis to be sure.

[mr_spokk]

Almost every .11 drive that comes in with 0mb these days are head-related problem and not the bsy-bug

[unknown]

Almost every .11 drive that comes in with 0mb these days are head-related problem and not the bsy-bug

Agreed. Never seen bsy-bug from a while those days.
The HDDs all over the world are failing the same.

Weird.

[mr_spokk]

Almost every .11 drive that comes in with 0mb these days are head-related problem and not the bsy-bug

Agreed. Never seen bsy-bug from a while those days.
The HDDs all over the world are failing the same.

Weird.

It's like an amusement park, when the coins expired the ride is over

[unknown]

Almost every .11 drive that comes in with 0mb these days are head-related problem and not the bsy-bug

Agreed. Never seen bsy-bug from a while those days.
The HDDs all over the world are failing the same.

Weird.

It's like an amusement park, when the coins expired the ride is over

lol

[-whiplash-]

If it makes no unusual noises it possibly could be SA problem, but you really need a proper diagnosis to be sure.

How do I do a proper diagnosis? Can someone walk me throught it or link to somewhere that can?

I didn't attempt anything since as I said, I was unsure since it didn't sound quite like the BSY-bug.

I DO, know a professional computer tech, but I was wondering if it was something I could do quickly.

[labtech]

Read the forum using the search function, you will find what you need for a diagnosis start up. It won't be quite quick as some equipment is needed.

Warning: computer tech does NOT equal hdd tech.

[michael chiklis]

Search in the forum about RS232 to TTL adapter and hyperterminal.
When you find it, you need to input some commands for diagnosis in level T.
Example command:

V4
V1
X

you can input someother diagnosis commands in level 2 to check the spindle
Z (for spindown test)
U (for spinup test)

then write a message here with hyperterminal output log, someone may be able to understand what's the problem with your drive.
Don't give any other commands you find in the forum, expecially if you don't know what are you doing, some commands can destroy your data and the drive.
If you don't understand the commands, don't insert them but ask first.
Be carefull also to uppercase and lowercase letters (example "Z" is not the same of "z")

Here an example of spindle test:

Code:

F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 6.035 secs

F3 2>U

HighPowerMode
ExecuteSpinRequest
Spin Up Complete
Elapsed Time 3.573 secs
F3 2>/