Seagate ST2000DM001 Recovery

[Frozen001]

Hello all I am hoping to get some help recovering the data off a ST2000DM001 5-1/4" HD. This drive was in a Seagate USB external drive enclosure. It was working fine until this morning when I got nothing from it. The Drive does not spin up at all when connected to a PC via the USB connector. I decided to pull the drive out of the case, and it appears to be a standard SATA drive Connecting it to my desktop internal power and SATA interface I still get no drive spin up. From web searching since I get no drive spin up the first thing every site says is it is the control board. I decided to order a replacement board via e-bay so at lease that has starting to make its way to me. From what I understand I may have to swap an IC from my current board to the replacement board. My first question is does this drive have the external ROM/BIOS IC or am I looking at possible swapping the controller IC? I am OK with either of these and have access to the right equipment to do the swap, just trying to plan ahead.

While I am waiting for the replacement PC board to arrive is there anything I can try? and no I am not going to put it in the freezer or oven.

Thanks in Advance!

[fzabkar]

It is far safer to attempt a repair of the original PCB. If you damage the serial flash IC (aka "ROM"), data recovery will become extremely expensive, if not impossible.

See http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

... and http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/ST ... 01_TVS.jpg

[Frozen001]

I just removed the PCB and checked both the diodes and the 0 ohm resistors. Both are good.

Diodes measure 0.6V in the forward direction, and open circuit in the reverse as expected.

[fzabkar]

Can you measure the voltages at the onboard power supplies?

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/ST ... 1_regs.jpg

If your board differs from the above, could you upload a detailed photo or scan?

[Frozen001]

TP1 = 0.92
TP2 = 0.95
TP3 = 1.79
5V = 0

[fzabkar]

The voltages are OK. TP1 and TP2 are the two Vcore supplies while TP3 is the Vio rail. The -5V supply is probably missing because the MCU is switching it off after failing to detect the preamp, as expected.

Are you certain that there are no sounds, however faint, coming from the drive? Can you measure any voltage pulses at the motor terminals (with the PCB on the drive)?

Do you have an LVTTL adapter, and can you provide a terminal log from the drive's diagnostic port?

[Frozen001]

The voltages are OK. TP1 and TP2 are the two Vcore supplies while TP3 is the Vio rail. The -5V supply is probably missing because the MCU is switching it off after failing to detect the preamp, as expected.

Are you certain that there are no sounds, however faint, coming from the drive? Can you measure any voltage pulses at the motor terminals (with the PCB on the drive)?

Do you have an LVTTL adapter, and can you provide a terminal log from the drive's diagnostic port?

I will put the board back on and listen again, but I can't hear anything at all. I will also probe the motor pins with an O'Scope and see if I see anything.

LVTTL adapter is a negative. And since I do not even know where the diagnostic port is I am going to say no on that one.

[Frozen001]

All three motor terminals measure about 1.4 volts DC, no pulses.

I put my ear right on the drive and I hear nothing at all from the drive.

[Frozen001]

Also, for other projects of mine I do have a bus pirate coming in the mail. That should allow me to connect to the diagnostic port. Did some googling and now that I now what it is, I should be able to connect to it.

My next question is when I can connect to it, do I need anything special other than a Terminal program?

[fzabkar]

This thread discusses various serial adapters:
http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=192

You should be able to get the HDD pinout and baud rate from numerous "7200.11 bug fix" threads. Note that the I/O voltage is 1.8V, so your adapter will need to support this reduced Vio. Suitable software would be HyperTerminal or PuTTY. If you can't find this information, let me know.

One other thing you could try with your scope is to watch the -5V rail immediately after switch-on. If it comes up and then goes away, this will confirm that the MCU is not brain dead.

[Frozen001]

I will check the -5V after work today. What are the scenarios if:

1) the -5V is there briefly?
2) The -5V never shows up at all?

[fzabkar]

If the -5V appears briefly, then this would mean that the MCU has powered up, executed a POST, and then commanded the motor controller IC to turn on this supply. Since the -5V rail powers the preamp, one would expect that the MCU would be testing the preamp at this time, in which case it would be reasonable to believe that the preamp was faulty.

If the -5V supply doesn't appear at all, then I would think that either the MCU is brain dead, or the motor controller is not responding to commands. Another test would be to see whether the drive spins up when a business card is placed between the PCB and the HDA connector. If it does, then this would suggest that the preamp is bad.

[Frozen001]

So the -5v is there briefly at power up, less the 100ms. I then placed some paper over the HDA connector and the motor spun up.

So it sounds like the pre-amp from your last post.

[fzabkar]

My understanding of the power-up sequence appears to be a little flawed. Your results would suggest that the MCU may be switching off the -5V supply in response to a failure to detect the spindle motor rather than the preamp, as I had originally thought.

That said, it does appear that the preamp is faulty.

I would install the PCB on the drive, but don't apply power to it. Now measure the resistance between appropriate -5V and ground test points. Alternatively, locate the corresponding pins on the HDA connector and measure the resistance there. This should tell us whether the preamp has an internal short circuit on this supply.

[Frozen001]

OK so I traced the -5V from the Test point you identified to the HDA connector. then found a ground pin on that connector. I measured the resistance on the connector, and I got an open circuit.

On a whim I put the PCB back on the drive and connected it to my desktop power supply. and it spin up!!

I immediately turned the power off, connected the SATA cable and powered back up. Drive was recognized and I am now pulling the data off it. Hopefully it works long enough to complete the copy.

Thank you for your help!!!

[Jano952]

maybe you had dirty pins on PCB or HDA ? these HDDs have oxidized contacts very often.

[Frozen001]

Might have been the pins. First thing I did when I removed the PCB was to clean the contact pads with an eraser. There were pretty oxidized. I put it back and nothing. Probably should have done the same on the pogo pins.

[fzabkar]

maybe you had dirty pins on PCB or HDA ? :? these HDDs have oxidized contacts very often.

That did occur to me also, but how do you then explain the fact that the drive spins up when all the contacts are open?

[Frozen001]

I was successful in pulling the data off the drive. At this point the drive appears to be functioning normal. I may put it in my desktop just to see how long it keeps going. Since I had to destroy the external case to get access to the drive, why not. I would obviously not use it for anything, just leave what is on there and see what happens.

[fzabkar]

Could we see the SMART report?