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
Post a reply

7200.11 ST_M13FQBL with dead terminal

June 18th, 2009, 10:23

Got a 7200.11 (1.5 TB) here. With HDA, it spins with hiccups and just keeps busy. With standalone PCB, it is detected weirdly as ST_M13FQBL (along with more weird information as F/W and Serial).

So far, it seems the initialization not done completely, only with the help of a part of ROM.

The best part is, that I get absolutely no response from terminal (atleast in the conventional way). As, the pcb take a normal 2 seconds time to get ready, I wished I could have seen atleast a single thing on terminal. But it seems, that either Seagate has changed pinouts/Baud Rate or there is something went wrong with terminal access of PCb too (which I don't think is the case).

In any case, I may need to tinker it a little more to find it out atleast my way to access the terminal and/or shootout that problem specifically, some specifc experienced words will be helpful a lot. :)

PS: Beginning of an End or End of a Beginning? I saw a few more peoples crying over the same problem there on the net. Are we going to see an another milestone of Firmware classics?

Re: 7200.11 ST_M13FQBL with dead terminal

June 18th, 2009, 10:29

Terminal will not work on this model until proper initialization (which hasn't been done)
That type of ID goes from ROM

Check PCB
Also you probably need to wait more time until init

Re: 7200.11 ST_M13FQBL with dead terminal

June 19th, 2009, 9:39

Hi Artem,

To be very frankly, it was you, whose response I was expecting at the very first place and waiting for it... :)

My next step is swapping the board with an Identical(?) model, follwed by ROM transferring.

But though, does it worth it? I mean, as the drive perform cycles of spinning up and spinning down, it could also be a head/motor issue. Atleast what it does seem to me. Anyone else has a bet on head/motor?

Finally, if it's the case with head/stuck motor, I am not feeling quite ready in ordering a donor drive and then perform a live head-motor-spindle-platter-chasis (along with a PCB) swap on a 7200.11 - 8 heads - 1.5 TB beast. With customer's crucial data present on it. Atleast for now...when customer is also behaving like typically (ooh...this much amount? It's "N" number of times costly even then the drive's price!!)

Re: 7200.11 ST_M13FQBL with dead terminal

June 19th, 2009, 11:16

HardDiskBug wrote:But though, does it worth it? I mean, as the drive perform cycles of spinning up and spinning down

Sounds like LED CC to me :)
Are you sure there is no LED CC error in terminal?
Terminal will work on out even w/o proper init

Re: 7200.11 ST_M13FQBL with dead terminal

June 19th, 2009, 11:54

That is the problem Artem,

As, I really got no response from terminal. It is just cold dead (No LED CC or such)..

Also, if some of your terms meant the shorting of standard read/write channel points (the resistor near the MCU), I already tried doing that... :)

Well, leave apart the HDA, but I have experienced the proper Model No., Serial and other things with only the PCB. So well, if even the standalone PCB has become ST_M13FQBL, doesn't it put a question mark on PCB/ROM functionality?

Re: 7200.11 ST_M13FQBL with dead terminal

June 19th, 2009, 14:55

I would double-check serial port adapter maybe that's the issue
Spinning up and down behavior really sounds like LED CC
Post a reply