hi all
i am hoping someone can assist with issues i am having with a 7200.12 drive
model no ST3500418AS
f/w cc34

initially drive would get ready, when i try to clone drive it will startto clone for about 100 thousand blcks and then stops cloning, and keeps on showing black blocks in DE

suspecting heads with the drive i took a set of matching heads, same model, same country, same f/w and now drive just lcicks softly 11 times then spins down and gets ready, it will show, model, f/w and s/n but not the size of the drive.

terminal is not showing any thing in it, i can set baud rates but dont get any error messages for leds like the 7200.11 drives.

Any ideas on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone here a merry chrsitmas and a happy successful and great new year and thank all for answering my posts over the year.

Thank you

Did you at least try and jump the black sectors? or even reverse?

_________________
Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

hi, tried jumping with different paramaters set, tried reverse, tried Atola also and same results on both pc3000 and Atola

I think this is a common issue with the F3 drives, and results from a bad block or blocks that canot be relocated and prevent translator loading correctly. I think you need force relocate these blocks.



I think now there may be physical issue if it clicks often then powers down. The model fw and sn are identified from PCB not SA.



Try to isolate PCB to get terminal, then spindown and reattach HDA then on spinup you may get terminal access, but if HDD clicks then maybe new heads are needed, or maybe even place original heds back if available. I think the original issue is related to bad blocks preventing translator loading. I have had some success with this on some drives, not had a 7200.12 with this issue. You can PM pepe, I know he has good solution for this that should help.



Merry christmas to you also