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
August 26th, 2023, 13:23
Hello,
sometimes juice from a drunken neighbor can produce strange results. In my current case, the whole drive is Ok, but the rom with the adaptive informations read as empty even with rom ship unsoldered.
I found an hard disk with an almost identical serial number (first 5 chars match along logo placement). Drive does intialialize and seems to pass reading the System Area with the other pcb (no click of death) but all sectors read as corrupt (at least the 150 first Mb).
I know it will be far more expensive than usual, but who can rebuild the adaptives? The drive contains course which represents a knowledge not available on the Internet and I m expected to access them in 3 weeks.
August 26th, 2023, 18:41
What was the original symptom before you removed the ROM?
August 27th, 2023, 4:31
fzabkar wrote:What was the original symptom before you removed the ROM?
It s the original symptom. There were juice at 80% alcohol just under that part when the drive was off. I couldn t deal with it before several hours as I was trying to get the neighbor go and then clean everything in home that don t belong to me. I found the liquid turned from orange to light blue at the top right of the pcb (were the bios chip is). I managed to clean it without using additional liquids and then waited several days that internals get dry. Drive did not spin when plugged back.
Though to be be fair, I also self invit but not for a whole night and I leave before drinking too much.
Rom seems to be Ok but read as completely empty using an external reader. Swapping the donor rom to the patient board makes even the donor drive working
August 27th, 2023, 8:15
Nevertheless, check the native ROM for reading. Possibly a 1.8V chip.
If the native ROM is lost, read the system files RAP, SAP, CAP from SA and put them into the donor's ROM.
These are test modules, but can give access to the user zone.
If you pray...

ps Don't forget to save the donor ROM image before changing...
August 27th, 2023, 9:37
SWM wrote:Nevertheless, check the native ROM for reading. Possibly a 1.8V chip.
If the native ROM is lost, read the system files RAP, SAP, CAP from SA and put them into the donor's ROM.
These are test modules, but can give access to the user zone.
If you pray...

ps Don't forget to save the donor ROM image before changing...
Native rom can be flashed with the donor rom. Donor rom data is lost. It s as if the drive had lost pcb.
I don t understand what you means as the donor rom allows already to read the System Area (as I said in the beginning) but with the User Area which appears as completely unreadable (definitely a donor rom error from incorrect parameters as I m definitely sure no damage affected the heads and the platters). What I also mean is no liquid touched the case (it only touched a part of the pcb) so the case along it s contents must be intact
I rather ask about which professional can rebuild the drive s adaptives such as head parameters.
August 27th, 2023, 20:38
Are you able to read the donor ROM with your equipment? (if you dare to risk it, just be aware of the supply voltage)
August 27th, 2023, 21:11
fzabkar wrote:Are you able to read the donor ROM with your equipment? (if you dare to risk it, just be aware of the supply voltage)
Yes I can. Of course the donor should be backed up. But why such question?
August 27th, 2023, 21:22
Otherwise I m completely unable to perform the first exercise here
https://apelletm.pages.math.cnrs.fr/pag ... o/TD06.pdf. And the peoples who have the know how are in typically I don t talk to you mode.
In 2/3 weeks a lie will be revealed that I forgot my course because they were untouched for 4 years.
August 27th, 2023, 21:46
I just wanted to be sure there was nothing wrong with your equipment or procedure. It may also be useful when rebuilding the patient ROM, assuming you are able to dump the SA firmware.
August 28th, 2023, 7:50
From the ROM that the CA reads, read the files from the patient:
F3 T>r1,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
F3 T>r3F,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
F3 T>r208,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
Character case is IMPORTANT! Everything is done carefully!
If the terminal is not locked...
August 28th, 2023, 8:38
SWM wrote:From the ROM that the CA reads, read the files from the patient:
F3 T>r1,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
F3 T>r3F,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
F3 T>r208,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
Character case is IMPORTANT! Everything is done carefully!
If the terminal is not locked...
I m not a data recovery service. I don t have the connector for using the com port so the only way to determine it is to use the 1er164-302 model.
I need someone who does routinely rebuild roms from almost scratch in a way all physicall sectors get their original lba addressing back. I tried to pm pepe but without answers so far.
August 29th, 2023, 4:56
SWM wrote:Nevertheless, check the native ROM for reading. Possibly a 1.8V chip.
If the native ROM is lost, read the system files RAP, SAP, CAP from SA and put them into the donor's ROM.
These are test modules, but can give access to the user zone.
If you pray...

ps Don't forget to save the donor ROM image before changing...
there are no such files in SA on 1ER.
Moreover, if there were, you can't read SA with donor adaptives.
pepe
August 29th, 2023, 7:40
Yes. I downloaded a similar resource - there are no adaptives modules in SA.
And the terminal is locked.
Only a specialist can decide. Why is there a "click of death" with an "empty" native ROM.
August 29th, 2023, 10:46
SWM wrote:Yes. I downloaded a similar resource - there are no adaptives modules in SA.
And the terminal is locked.
Only a specialist can decide. Why is there a "click of death" with an "empty" native ROM.

Using the original rom, the drive doesn t start/spin at all so I don know.
However using the donor rom, the drive seems to initiative correctly and read the sa without click of death.
However it seems it s not every data recovery specialist who can decide. At least in France, they seems to all say we can t recover any files without the rom. Which means who would help me?
August 29th, 2023, 12:19
This is exactly what you need to ask Pepe.
If he does not know how to drive such discs, then none of the known ones here ...
August 29th, 2023, 12:28
Sounds to me like your whole issue may just be reading the ROM incorrectly.
You need to rule that out first.
August 29th, 2023, 19:53
It might be worth seeing what the PCB reports via terminal, eg ...
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40790You will need a 1.8V USB-TTL adaptor.
August 29th, 2023, 21:34
SWM wrote:This is exactly what you need to ask Pepe.
If he does not know how to drive such discs, then none of the known ones here ...
He said to me he never got succesfull at rebuilding firmwares for 1er or newer drives so need someone who does (difficult

).
If I can read the donor rom but not the original even when unsoldered, then I think it is indeed empty, so I posted this question as an extension
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=43617
August 29th, 2023, 21:59
Yes, it does appear to be empty, but it's very unusual, hence the "skepticism".
August 31st, 2023, 15:52
SWM wrote:From the ROM that the CA reads, read the files from the patient:
F3 T>r1,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
F3 T>r3F,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
F3 T>r208,3
receive a file to a PC using the Y-modem protocol
Character case is IMPORTANT! Everything is done carefully!
If the terminal is not locked...
https://www.intohard.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2711100x0001 RAP (Read/write Adaptive Parameters) super file
0x003F SAP(Servo Adaptive Parameters) file
0x0208 CAP(Controller Adaptive Parameters) file
Is this an SA copy of the ROM, or is it the actual ROM?
******************************************************************************************
Diag File IDs
******************************************************************************************
0x032A Entire contents of serial flash
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