Hello to all HDD gurus,

I have a problem with this drive:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500 Gbytes ST3500630AS
S/N: 6QG3E7BW
P/N: 9BJ146-500
Firmware: 3.AAC
Date Code: 08341
Site Code: SU
Data Recovery barcode on PCB: 100406528 E M83379TS
Main Chip on PCB: 100404225
Bottom Sticker: TONKA MD 6228 2 56974 100376471

HDD is not detected in bios via SATA port on any computer. The drive has not been dropped nor mechanically stressed and does not produce any bad clicking sounds. Just spins up quietly. It writes the following output on the seagate technological port:

Reset
4096k x 32 DRAM
GALAXY = 1_Disk S-6D 09-22-06_15:48
Buzz HM SFI
!
(P)SATA Reset
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0040
DiskAccess ReadSector EC=43 at ffffffff.00.0040
Unable To Load Overlay 00|0014
(
T>

I tried replacing the main PCB by a donor one of exactly the same model, but no luck - same result. I have no previous experience with DR. I am just a skilled low-level programmer and hw designer with some empirical knowledge of how the hard drive works. I don't want to pay excessive fees for proffesional DR cause the data on the HDD are actually not worth this. Nevertheless I am willing to pay something for the information.

I've read on the forums that "HM SFI" means "unstable heads". But this statement can mean a lot. All of the heads are "unstable"? Would it be possible, for example to disable the deffective head and read the remaining sectors? I am also not sure what 'overlay' means. I suspect the "Unable To Load Overlay" problem causes the drive not communicate over SATA port.

After extensive googling I found lot of "Seagate terminal description" manuals, but they were either mostly incompatible with my drive or not well explained of what actually the command will do.

Is there a possibility to perform data recovery in DIY way? Or is there an available software which will communicate through the COM port and do the job? Or do I definitely need the proffestional attitude like PC-3000?

Thanks a lot !!!!
Jerry

It has physical bad sectors in the firmware area.

_________________
DR Research Engineer

Thanks a lot!

That's what I started to thinking recently. At first I was hoping that the entire firmware is stored on chip which seems to be not the case. So any possibility to fix that for DR?

If necessary, I could forward the Seagate's diagnostic serial port on a TCP port of public IP address, so you guys could connect to it using telnet or even create a virtual serial port on your PC which could be used by DR software similarly as local port. I am willing to pay $20 for the recovery.

This is what I've found in Salvationdata FAQ:



As tckin said, i think it means to replace the firmware data on corrupted sectors. Or perhaps by 'FW repair' they suggest to read what is possible, perform manual repair of the data and write back. I still have no idea how to do that, since I can't find no good-enough description of "shell commands" for my model. Any clues?

What about hot-swapping the powered PCB from identical, but working drive to this one? I mean let the ATA firmware get loaded from the donor, then issue spindown cmd, replace and spinup with patient? I've heard somewhere that ATA tracks are unique for each drive. Is that true?

Head Mask Success Full Init

Thanks for make things clear. Next time I won't thrust everything I'll read

So, any options for me? Apparently I need the ATA firmware and a guide on how to put it into chip memory through the terminal. The hot-swap probably won't work because each spin-up the device re-reads all the firmware sectors, true? ....

Not apparently, you need a lot more than what you called "ATA firmware" and "a guide" ....
... and there could be something else too beside FW , it needs a separate diagnose.

Just take care on what you do, otherwise it is very easy to destroy data / drive.

I was of opinion that HM SFI indicated head crash i.e broken heads. please correct me if i am wrong.

Isn't difference between HM SFI and HM $SFI ?

You are wrong.

So what about the PCB hot-swap? Should I try it?