Hello,

Your rom has FIPS deleted completely.
Here's a rom dump with correct FIPS, try it.


pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

pepe: the drive starts spinning with your dump Terminal output is attached - what do you think?
I haven't connected it to SATA yet.

That log looks promising.
It should be able to give you its content, but the best would be imaging it without letting the OS mess with the file system.
You may try hooking it up to an OS but don't force it too much, turn it off if the system starts hanging.
Better connect it under a linux and try cloning it for example. Be extremely careful with linux coz you may erase the source drive if you copy in the wrong direction.
Cloning may take a long time and even longer if the drive has bad sectors. It would be better to image it using pc3k applying some fw patches if it has bads...
To be honest i would be happier if it was cloned by a specialist using appropriate tools, coz it is easy to screw it up, either by reversing the direction or not noticing if the drive starts dying more severly.


pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

As a precaution, clean the HDA pads with a soft eraser.

Oxidisation on Samsung HD103SJ:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=649&p=21622#p15950

Clone the drive with HDDSuperClone or ddrescue.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I tried starting linux from an USB boot stick, but the HD103SJ is not recognized by the BIOS (it hangs).
Then I disconnected the SATA cable, and connected it after the POST, just before linux started loading.
Linux tries to communicate with the drive, but without success - the HD103SJ is not shown. There are two cases:
a) within the first 2..3 minutes after power-up - while the terminal output takes place - the drive somehow responds (Linux_log.jpg)
b) if I delay the linux startup until the HD103SJ terminal output is finished, the drive does not respond in any way (Linux_log2.jpg)

I cleaned the HDA pads as they didn't look perfect.

The drive spins up very smoothly and doesn't make any unusual sounds. Can the heads or surface however be damaged, that it can't get ready?

">>Flag=00000C8B BadHd=0000 dFod=003E 0026 0029 0024 (t=8773 c=24)"
It seems to me that Hd 0 is bad, but I could be wrong.....
The SMART is not initialized so the drive is rejected by the BIOS and the OS.

Time for a specialist i think...

pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery