Dear gurus
My personal hard disk seagate 500GB ST3500820AS firmware LC11 is detected in bios but shows 0mb. No abnormal sound is heard.
It does not give LED error but in terminal I get F3>T prompt,
checking seagate site by serial no. shows disk is affected by firmware bug.
Is it OK to apply F3 T>m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 command to fix this disk?

Pls. help me as i have all personla photos in the disk.
Thanks a lot.
Jamil Ara

Do you know EXACTLY what m0 in that syntax does ?

DON'T PLAY WITH COMMANDS if you don't know what exactly is the problem and how things work as it may work or kill your drive and what can be a relatively simple recovery becomes an expensive one.

Idiot advice found on the internet can kill your irreplaceable data and then you are ALONE WITH YOUR LOSS. Do you want this ?

There is a valuable member of this forum in Portugal (Jose , aka zebong) that can help you in your country or you can have your drive analyzed and data recovered from other reputable people.

Seagate are still offering free data recovery to anyone affected by the firmware bug.

Otherwise the well publicised DIY fix should work for you.

See this thread for more info:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/ATA-and-Se ... 036#M19464

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you fzabkar
I am following similar article from msfn forum ,however I know that these drives gives Led error on terminal , I have made a terminal and all I get is F3>T promt.
In case of 0LBA issue , is this normal to get this prompt. As a student I cannot afford professional charges , besides it has all photos only.
please help.

This article explains the meanings of each command:
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807- ... 0011-hdds/

The LED errors occur when your drive is in the BSY state. You have a different problem (0 LBA), so your prompt is normal.

If you have any doubts about proceeding, you might consider asking for confirmation at msfn.org.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

There are MANY things that give same result (ZERO LBA / no access to LBA) each one with different cause and different solution .
Would be better to SAVE everything before tinkering, just in case...

I totally agree on this one. Beware of advise. Frank is not a DR guy and it is not his data on this one. You can follow a pros advise and save your data or follow Frank if you wish on this one. Your data your choice. Do not cry when the drive becomes furbar on this one we did tell you.

_________________
Iorana Haraharaini

The guys here are right, these could be symptoms for any number of faults. The disk is possibly identifying from information in ROM as service area cannot be reached.

Assuming it is the firmware bug, the command you mention will work on this specific disk anyway.

If you need the data you are better off checking if this is one you can get recovered for free from Seagate.

Alternatively you can take Franks advice, and at least you got a 50/50 shot. Not good odds in my opinion, but it is your decision. But your 'm0' command for this case has wrong parameters.

Thank You all for your Detailed explanation.
I asked shopkeeper to get free recovery from seagate , but he refused so and said he is not responsible for Data he can replace disk free of cost .
I will ask my parents if they can give some money so that I can get professional help.If that did not work ,then I will have to gather courage and go ahead with upgrade.
God Bless everyone
love
Jamil

You should really contact Jose (Zebong) here member7351.html He is local to you and can deal with this.

Also, I did not notice before, but LCxx firmware is for Lacie and pretty sure is OEM and exempt from free recovery from seagate...

Thank You all of your suggestions.
Finally I decided to go ahead with DIY recovery as that was the only option left for me.
.... I read all posts & procedure carefully & started firmware recovery , but drive did not got detected this time ( no O MB) & command m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 gave Led Error.
I did not panicked & tried normal process ( Z ,N1 etc) & finally I got success ,disk has become live.
My advice to everyone -
1) If you are ready to take calculated risk & are sure that this is indeed and f/w bug ,you can
give it a try.
2) Take all precautions while handling and connecting disk drive.
3) ensure you put right commands

Thank you
Jamil

Congratulations!

BTW, I would have approached Seagate directly, even though you appear to have an OEM drive. If it means anything, some Lacie firmware versions were called out in Seagate's updates.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

My advice was to seek free Data Recovery from the manufacturer of the drive. In contrast, your advice, and the advice of your colleague, was to seek the assistance of your mates, whose abilities are an unknown quantity.

BTW, in most cases, at least in this forum, DR appears to involve Diode Removal or Drive Repair, rather than true Data Recovery, in which case the solution is often easy DIY procedure.

As for your comments regarding the safety of the OP's data, I am just as concerned as you, but my concern isn't sullied by financial self interest.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.