Seagate Donor Drive

[jtpiano]

I have a hard drive that has failed. I had a data recovery pro look at the drive and give me an estimate (he told me the heads are failing). The one issue he was not completely sure of was if my other drive was a potential donor. He said he wouldn't know for sure until he opened the potential donor drive. He did indicate that at least from comparing the labels they should be very close and it might work. Does anyone have enough experience to say for sure based on the label if the head assembly is a match? I'd hate to have him open the drive only to find out it's not going to work. Here is my label info-

Bad Drive-

S/N 5QJOYACZ
ST31000340AS
P/N 9BX158-501
Firmware SD15
Date Code 09093 China

Possible Donor Drive?-

S/N 5QJO9H8S
ST31000340AS
P/N 9BX158-303
Firmware SD15
Date Code 08344 China

The part number after the dash is what has us concerned. Your input is appreciated. Thanks!

[fzabkar]

Something doesn't sound right.

A data recovery professional should not be asking an end user to source a donor drive, and he certainly should not be expecting the user to determine whether a potential candidate is compatible.

In any case, SD15 firmware was affected by Seagate's well known BSY bug. If yours is one of these, then you may be entitled to free data recovery.

Failing that, there may still be an opportunity for an easy DIY fix costing less than US$10. At the very least, a terminal report will allow others to diagnose the actual problem.

Seagate 7200.11 BSY bug and 0 LBA fix:
http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807
http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-st ... -pics.html
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracuda- ... 009/page/1
http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=38&p=1399

[northwind]

A data recovery professional should not be asking an end user to source a donor drive,

Sometimes end users ask to bring the donor drive themselves, in order to cut down costs. (we're ok with that, as long as the donor drive is indeed compatible).

In any case, SD15 firmware was affected by Seagate's well known BSY bug. If yours is one of these, then you may be entitled to free data recovery.

Failing that, there may still be an opportunity for an easy DIY fix costing less than US$10. At the very least, a terminal report will allow others to diagnose the actual problem.

Just because SD15 was affected, it doesn't mean all SD15 drives that fail have the BSY bug.
Actually the last couple of years it's the other way round: We rarely see now SD15 with BSY bug. It's usually heads or spindle nowadays.

@OP: Your donor and patient *should* be compatible. But with Seagate you never know.
We had a 5400.6 the other day, patient and donor's info on sticker were exactly the same, s/n was different by a few numbers on the last digit. Heads incompatible.
But anyway, chances are that heads should match.

[thatdellguy]

I've had several customers over the years get involved with the donor search process. I think they enjoy getting involved with the data recovery process. Although I can't remember one that ever found one faster than we could. The tech probably needs the donor drive in their hands to determine if that drive would be 100% compatible. It should be compatible but with Seagate you just never know. I would ask which head went out and if they examined the head/platter surfaces with a microscope. No sense in wasting the customer’s donor money if the recovery chance is zero.

Assuming you took your drive to a reputable DR facility and they diagnosed head failure, this would have nothing to do with the SD15 common firmware failure. We need less jumping to conclusions and more professional posts from people who actually work in the DR field. While you’re researching on this forum be cautious of members suggesting you run terminal commands without a 100% accurate diagnosis.

[jtpiano]

I realize I have jumped to a specific question without shaing the background- My drive started stuttering during video playback. (used for mythtv) After a reboot the drive wasn't recognized by BIOS. I was aware of the SD15 bug and sent the drive to Seagate. Seagate flashed the drive with with SD1A. They advised me the drive had further issues and gave me a price for recovery. I asked them to ship the drive back to me as I couldn't afford the price at the time.

@fzabkar- the pro didn't ask me, I already had this drive on hand and I asked if it would work.
>>>you may be entitled to free data recovery - ***for clarification only***- I think what you are talking about is applying new firmware so the drive becomes readable again. Is that what you mean? I did inquire about recovery with Seagate and they aren't doing if for free based on the fact that there are other issues with the drive.

@northwind- yes, exactly I am trying to cut down on costs and I enjoyed the process of finding the donor drive.

>>>@OP: Your donor and patient *should* be compatible. But with Seagate you never know.
Ok, if I give up my drive to become a donor at least it didn't cost me $300. My main intent was to see if you could know for certain based on label. I think that question has been pretty well covered. It sounds like my drive should be a good donor with a small percentage chance of it not matching.

As a sidebar, and I do digress, I am still not comfortable with differing answers I have heard from Seagate and the DR pro that looked at my drive as to what/why failed. I'll start a separate thread so as to not confuse the issues. Thanks everyone for your input!!!