7200.11 500 gig disappars after a few mins or accessing

[richms]

st3500320as

p/n 9bx154-303

firmware sd15

date code 08421 site code KRATSG

Firmware was upgraded with seagates tools (After they first told me that it was unaffected the first time)

Anyway, it will show in device manager when I plug the esata cable in, but goes away as soon as its tried to be accessed.

I have access to someone with SMD soldering gear who could swap the chip to another board if thats likly to solve it, but all the ones I read about doing that are from drives that are totally dead.

Is this likely to be solvable that way or are there other things that may have died inside the drive like problems with the actual surface etc that cause this. Is it worth making up the serial converter cable to do the commands or is that also for a drive that doesn't show at all?

Thanks

Richard.

[drc]

Use MHDD to investigate further.

[prodata]

mostly likely you got problem with reading instability and head problem./
Do u hear some strange sound.
I just got one here to recover with the same problem with you.
Head related problem. You got no Option to do except head swap.
if there is head problem No any free Software can help you. and no any terminal command can help you too.

[richms]

Finally got around to trying mhdd on it - not too sure what to do but started with scan to see what that did - the first 5-6 lines are white blocks, then the next 5-6 have about 10% coloured bits, then it just goes hard with the pink ! and then tells me the log is full. Upon rebooting the drive is gone till powercycled.

Is there something that will read all the good sectors to another drive, and if it disappears not try to re-read that bit after its powercycled?

[harddrivespecialist]

the first 5-6 lines are white blocks, then the next 5-6 have about 10% coloured bits, then it just goes hard with the pink !

Seems like a weak head.

[pcimage]

Agree

[richms]

There is no strange sounds when it happens, so, whats the rough cost of a pro recovery on something like this? All the local places want a few 100 to just tell you what it will cost - the wonders of a small market with few people that will do the work.