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
November 26th, 2013, 5:47
We have already found the problem. The solution shouldn't be too far away.
November 26th, 2013, 6:25
mr_spokk wrote:Hi Stefan,
You can compare the contence of the ROM you read, and the ROM from the donor Pcb.
But as said earlier, DIY is over. If you care for your information don't play with it anymore.
Regards/ Bosse
Assuming the drive will like it later
November 26th, 2013, 10:41
BlackST wrote:mr_spokk wrote:Hi Stefan,
You can compare the contence of the ROM you read, and the ROM from the donor Pcb.
But as said earlier, DIY is over. If you care for your information don't play with it anymore.
Regards/ Bosse
Assuming the drive will like it later

Yup, thats the next battle
November 28th, 2013, 14:44
Hello all,
latest news: rom compiled by Spildit was accepted, disk fired up and data could be rescued with Clonezilla!
Thanks to everybody trying to help, especially to Spildit and fzabkar who managed to bring the drive back to live.
Urmel
November 18th, 2015, 10:16
Hi, good morning.
I have a question: I exchanged Mainboards between two disks HD103SJ:
Disk 1 - New disk - No spinning.
Disk 2 - SMART activated, old disk - Spin ok.
So I assemble the good disk with the electronics of the SMART disk, also replaced the memory chip.
The disk is working perfect, no bad sectors, speed is OK, everything fine BUT....the smart diagnostics triggered is driving me crazy, windows and BIOS remember me it all the time.
I wish to clear these SMART.
Do you have a disk pinout? is RS232 TTL or C? Speed?
Which command should I use?
Thank you very much
Santiago
November 18th, 2015, 16:19
sgallinger wrote:I exchanged Mainboards between two disks HD103SJ:
Disk 1 - New disk - No spinning.
Disk 2 - SMART activated, old disk - Spin ok.
So I assemble the good disk with the electronics of the SMART disk, also replaced the memory chip.
The disk is working perfect, no bad sectors, speed is OK, everything fine BUT....the smart diagnostics triggered is driving me crazy, windows and BIOS remember me it all the time.
I'm confused. Are you saying that you replaced a faulty PCB on Disk 1 with the PCB of Disk 2, transferred the "ROM", and now Disk 1 is reporting a SMART error?
Is the "good disk" the one that fails to spin???
November 23rd, 2015, 0:08
Hi, thanks for the reply.
Yes, I have two discs.
Disk One: Good disk, but no spinning (I checked internal power supply and driver IC and appears OK)
Disk Two: Bad Disk, with good electronics.
So I exchanged PCBs, results: the good physical disk with the good electronics.
But the BIOS didn't recognize the HDD after a long time.
So Finally: Good Physical disk (disk one), good electronics disk (disk two), and ROM IC of disk one (good physical disk)
It´s the smart data:
Model .................................. : HD103SJ
F/W Version ............................ : 1AJ10001
Serial Number .......................... : S246J9AZC03031
Logical: CHS ........................... : 16383/16/63
Cache Size ............................. : 32767 Kb
Sectors available with LBA cmd ......... : 268.435.455 (128,0GB)
Sectors available with LBA48 cmd ....... : 1.953.525.168 (931,5GB)
Real MAX LBA ........................... : 1.953.525.168 (931,5GB)
Technological passport
Flash Version .......................... : 1AJc3suM.d26
Head Number ............................ : 4
Zone Number ............................ : 24
SA Cyl ................................. : 64
SA SPT ................................. : 1584
Table modules is loaded ................ : from SA
Zones distribution table ............... : loaded
SMART \ SAMSUNG HD103SJ
------------------------------------------------------------------
ID Attribute Name Val Worst RAW |
------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Raw Read Error Rate 1 1 87162
2 Throughput Performance 252 252 0
3 Spin Up Time 70 68 9173
4 Start/Stop Count 98 98 2159
5 Reallocated Sector Count 252 252 0
7 Seek Error Rate 252 252 0
8 Seek Time Performance 252 252 0
9 Power-On Hours Count 100 100 3034
10 Spin Retry Count 252 252 0
11 Recalibration Retries 252 252 0
12 Device Power Cycle Count 98 98 2200
191 G-Sense Error Rate 100 100 7
192 Power-Off Retract Count 252 252 0
194 HDA Temperature °C 64 57 34°C
195 ECC On The Fly Count 100 100 0
196 Reallocation Event Count 252 252 0
197 Current Pending Sector Count 252 31 0
198 Uncorrectable Sector Count 252 252 0
199 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 200 0
200 Write Error Rate 100 100 641
223 Load/Unload Retry Count 252 252 0
225 Load/Unload Cycle Count 100 100 2207
------------------------------------------------------------------
November 23rd, 2015, 15:14
This is the problem now:
1 Raw Read Error Rate 1 1 87162
AIUI, you appear to be suggesting that this SMART attribute was OK before you swapped the PCB. If so, then I can't see how it could be possible. SMART data are stored on the platters, not on the PCB.
If you wish to examine the terminal log ...
How to connect a terminal cable on a Samsung drive ?
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php? ... =189&p=432Try cleaning the HDA contacts. Different brand but same principle ...
Oxidisation on Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php? ... 649&p=1789
November 23rd, 2015, 15:31
Hi Fzabkar, I'm beginner, but you are right, the HDA contacts was oxidized, I cleaned and painted with silver paint.
The disk works fine, no bad sectors.
I tried to clean the SMART data with the SHT demo software, but in the demo version doesn't allow it.
I must prepare a TTL RS232 interface, to connect a terminal.
Do you know another way to clean the SMART data? Low level format? Firmware upgrade?
Many thanks for helping me
November 29th, 2019, 18:18
I have the same problem with my HD103SJ as Urmel_31:
- drive does not spin
- all voltages are present
- serial printout is
- Code:
*PA VID=0000 PN=0004 Rev=0002- 785x Found*PA VID=0000 PN=0004 Rev=0002- 785x FoundChipRev = 63B0U
S_0
[DEBUG HALT @MDL_RSRC_BufferAlloc():10034A95 L0 1003A451]
RV En Sensor Circuit
En Shock Sensor Circuit
@Spildit: where can I find the description of your fix - your link is broken. Thank you for sharing!
November 30th, 2019, 14:58
See
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=643Give me a little time and I'll see if I can help you repair the FIPS via terminal.
December 1st, 2019, 5:59
If it's a real FIPS problem, command EI should fix it.
December 1st, 2019, 14:32
BGman wrote:If it's a real FIPS problem, command EI should fix it.
I posted this potential solution at the HDD Oracle, but received no feedback. Have you verified that it works?
December 1st, 2019, 20:35
BGman wrote:command EI should fix it.
How do I use 'EI' correctly - just enter it without arguments? Should I give it a try?
BTW: I sent commands SU and SD to start and stop the motor and they worked. Got them from here:
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?t=26366
December 2nd, 2019, 3:36
fzabkar wrote: Have you verified that it works?
No. I don't have such a drive.
"DI" = Dump Image
"MI" = Modify Image
"EI" = Erase Image
"DI 64" = show Heads Map
"MI 64 FF" = unlock all heads
"DI 0 4" should return ASCII of IF SP (FIPS header)
Commands are valid for some (Trinity) models....
December 2nd, 2019, 15:01
@eNDi, try the "DI 0 4" command.
Then try "DI 0 400"
December 4th, 2019, 15:23
"DI 0 4" returns only zeros:
- Code:
DI 0 4
I:00000000 0000 0000 0000 0000
"DI 0 400" returns for addresses 0x0000 to 0x03ff always 0x0000, and for addresses 0x0400 to 0x07ff the 32bit address itself following a 0x4eed 0000:
- Code:
I:00000000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
...
I:000003F0 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
I:00000400 0400 0000 4EED 0000 0408 0000 4EED 0000
...
I:000007F0 07F0 0000 4EED 0000 07F8 0000 4EED 0000
December 4th, 2019, 15:34
Did you use the EI command? That would explain why the data are all zeros. Am I correct in assuming that the drive is still not working?
December 4th, 2019, 19:51
I didn't use EI - I didn't want to erase it before you said "go"

And yes, the drive is still not working.
At least I got it to spin up with 'SU'.
December 5th, 2019, 11:09
I would try resoldering of the FLASH chip. It's easy and safe.
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