Seagate Hard Drive Problem

[crackinfoxy]

Good Day eh!

I will try to be as specific as I can be as to my problem. I Believe that my Seagate drive is displaying BSY symptoms, but I would like further confirmation before I proceed.

My Drive info is as follows:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1Tb
ST3100340AS
P/N: 9BX158-303
Firmware: SD15
Date Code: 08496 Site Code:KRATSG
Thailand

The drive was hot docked as extra storage, and without warning, showed up one day as "RAW" and asking for a format, which I obviously did not do. After attempting to dock with 2 other computer to no avail, I mounted it in the original computer, and no change. If I power up my dock and reboot, it disappears. If I move a good drive in to the tower and place it back in the dock and reboot, it will not show either. It will remain if I power my dock after reboot.

I began with Seatools to try and get smart data, but it does not recognize it. I then tried GSMARTControl, and recieved the following error:
Cannot retrieve SMART data
Device open failed, or device did not return an IDENTIFY DEVICE structure.

I then tried TestDisk 7.0 to see if I would have any luck there, and although the drive does show up, I get and I/O error, so nothing is accessible. would I be correct in assuming that this is because the drive is locked in a busy state? If so, then the fix suggested by my fellow Canadian CarterinCanada would be correct? This is one of the threads I've been looking at, I have found many similar threads regarding two specific problems with these drive. If I'm missing something in my diagnostics, please advise.

Thanks
Collin
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/143880- ... -me-first/

[jerovsek]

hello,

you Will need TTL adapter.
Then show terminal output

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29656&p=204787&hilit=ttl#p204787

[kaxi]

crackinfoxi, remove the drive from dock and connect it to your motherboard directly using a SATA cable. Is it recognised corectly by the BIOS at boot up? Do model and capacity report corectly?

[crackinfoxy]

When I say I mounted it in the original computer, I meant a hard mount, not docked. sorry for not being more specific. I does show in the bios, and the model and capacity are correct, it just shows everything as raw data. GSMARTControl shows it as an unknown device that cannot be accessed. I started a quici scan using TestDisk last night at 6pm, and this morning it has yet to read a single sector, we're currently at 118/121600, 00% and showing read errors.

[kaxi]

Probably a head problem, certainly not the known 7200.11 busy Firmware problem.

[crackinfoxy]

Figured it was wishful thinking
So is the inability to read anything at all an indication of a head problem? There were no signs that I can recall (noises, etc) that there were any issues with the drive previously.
So the next question is if that is the case, will purchasing a donor and executing a swap of the head be a realistic option? What about swapping platters and PCB with the donor?

I do know that phoning around locally has yielded little in the way of people capable or perhaps willing to do the BSY fix, so I can only imagine a head swap or platter swap to be likewise, which is frankly a piss off. I do have a clean room, and any fixturing that may be required can be manufactured ( I'm a college machining instructor with a state of the art machine shop at my disposal). I would rather pay someone to do it locally, but am not afraid of attempting it myself either.

[crackinfoxy]

I have found a donor, the only difference being the site code it's from china and mine was thailand. everything else is the same, will it work?

[jerovsek]

hello,
first step would be: how important are data on drive for you. If they are important, contact pro data recovery service.
You can contact forum member lcoughey or Larry Sabo,...

If drive is detected by BIOS, try recovery software(rstudio, mini tool data recovery, get data back,..)

Next step would be to use TTL adapter to check terminal output from drive. TTL adapter is not expensive. Less expensive then donor drive.


DON't OPEN drive.

Without propper tools, environment and knowledge(and experience) don't do anything.

[pcimage]

Figured it was wishful thinking
So is the inability to read anything at all an indication of a head problem? There were no signs that I can recall (noises, etc) that there were any issues with the drive previously.
So the next question is if that is the case, will purchasing a donor and executing a swap of the head be a realistic option? What about swapping platters and PCB with the donor?

I do know that phoning around locally has yielded little in the way of people capable or perhaps willing to do the BSY fix, so I can only imagine a head swap or platter swap to be likewise, which is frankly a piss off. I do have a clean room, and any fixturing that may be required can be manufactured ( I'm a college machining instructor with a state of the art machine shop at my disposal). I would rather pay someone to do it locally, but am not afraid of attempting it myself either.

It was only SUGGESTED it could be a head problem, it needs proper diagnosis. It could equally be a firmware issue.

DO NOT try and head swap, 99.9% you will fail and 99.99% it won't fix your issue.

DO NOT swap the platters, 100% you will fail and 100% it won't fix your issue.

Please don't take offence, just telling you how it is.

[pcimage]

As its already been suggested, try and get a terminal output, it might give us some useful info.

[mr_spokk]

I would say, clone the drive in non windows environment. Then work on the clone.
Try Media tools pro or ddrescue (linux).

Bosse

[mindprints]

I had a similar problem (my D disk showed up as raw. Correct size but impossible to get into.) I also went through all the tools on Hirans and eventually tried Seagates 'free' file recover app. The free version found the files and I (reluctantly) paid the 99 bucks to retrieve them. I wasn't extremely careful using the tool and ended up recovering a million VOB files (I guess these were video frames -- don't know, but hell to clean up. If you end up using the file Seagate recover tool don't forget to check the "look for non-deleted files" option since you are not really looking for deleted files.

And of course don't pay the money if you can't see your files with the free search tool first.

[fzabkar]

AIUI, "Seagate's" tool is an OEM version of R-Studio.

https://secure.r-tt.com/cgi-bin/Store?id=2

Price: 79.99 USD