Drive responds to SMART and hdparm, but not AT-commands

[bos]

I have this odd drive, a Seagate ST3500320AS (firmware SD81), 500GB. Connecting it to a sata-port I see this in dmesg:

Aug 12 14:54:11 dr kernel: [ 1315.066516] ata1: hard resetting link
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.556126] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.557414] ata1.00: failed to read native max address (err_mask=0x1)
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.557418] ata1.00: HPA support seems broken, skipping HPA handling
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.557423] ata1.00: ATA-8: ST3500320AS, SD81, max UDMA/133
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.557427] ata1.00: 0 sectors, multi 0: LBA NCQ (depth 31/32)
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.558752] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 (device error ignored)
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.558766] ata1: EH complete
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.558774] ata1.00: detaching (SCSI 0:0:0:0)
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.559274] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] Stopping disk
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564107] ata1.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564134] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] START_STOP FAILED
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564139] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc]
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564142] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564145] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc]
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564147] Sense Key : Aborted Command [current] [descriptor]
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564153] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc]
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564155] Add. Sense: No additional sense information
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564342] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3500320AS SD81 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564720] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdb] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564723] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564808] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.564852] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Aug 12 14:54:12 dr kernel: [ 1315.565195] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

Invalid sector 0 and 0 bytes large, so trying fdisk -l gives a somewhat expected output:

root@dr:/home/bos# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb: No such file or directory

hdparm -I:

/dev/sdb:

ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST3500320AS
Serial Number: 5QM3HGGQ
Firmware Revision: SD81
Transport: Serial
Standards:
Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x0029)
Supported: 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 8
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 0
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 0
Logical/Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 8063 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 8455 MBytes (8 GB)
cache/buffer size = unknown
Nominal Media Rotation Rate: 7200
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = ?
Recommended acoustic management value: 254, current value: 0
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 *mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
SET_MAX security extension
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* 64-bit World wide name
* Write-Read-Verify feature set
* WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
* {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Phy event counters
* Software settings preservation
* SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
* SCT Read/Write Long (AC1), obsolete
* SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
* SCT Features Control (AC4)
* SCT Data Tables (AC5)
unknown 206[12] (vendor specific)
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
not supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
2min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 5000c50011aae0bb
NAA : 5
IEEE OUI : 000c50
Unique ID : 011aae0bb
Checksum: correct

A dead cylinder 0 is possible to live with, if I just was able to make a dd-clone so I could try to extract something from it. It spins up fine, no scratches/noises, yet it won't let me read a single byte from it.

(There is no sensitive data on the drive so I will not send it to my colleague for DR, I'll just use it for a learning opportunity)

[SWM]

With HDD Seagate (Samsung) diagnostics are carried out via a serial terminal. (USB-TTL)

[fzabkar]

LBA user addressable sectors: 0
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 0

This appears to be the problem.

What does smartctl (smartmontools) report?

[bos]

smartctl --all:

smartctl 6.4 2014-10-07 r4002 [x86_64-linux-3.16.0-6-amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, http://www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
Device Model: ST3500320AS
Serial Number: 5QM3HGGQ
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 011aae0bb
Firmware Version: SD81
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is: Wed Aug 13 07:37:27 2025 CEST

==> WARNING: There are known problems with these drives,
THIS DRIVE MAY OR MAY NOT BE AFFECTED,
see the following web pages for details:
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/e ... Q/207931en
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/e ... Q/207951en
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=632758

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Read SMART Data failed: scsi error aborted command

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Status command failed: scsi error aborted command
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: UNKNOWN!
SMART Status, Attributes and Thresholds cannot be read.

Read SMART Log Directory failed: scsi error aborted command

Read SMART Error Log failed: scsi error aborted command

Read SMART Self-test Log failed: scsi error aborted command

Selective Self-tests/Logging not supported

Regarding the "warning links", the two seagate-URLs are dead and the debian-link seems to report another firmware version, meaning (if I read correctly) this drive is not affected of smartctl:s warning.

[fzabkar]

It seems that the drive has a problem with one or more firmware modules.