Greetings ,

this is the first time i see this error ..

I received this drive (ST3500418AS) with no clue if previous data recovery operations have taken place .

drive sounds absolutly normal , with no odd sounds ,

drive ID in DDI after 50-60 secs of powering it up , but no further operation can be done , as it will go to BSY state directly .

what i tried is to clear the SMART only , but trying to stop sector reallocation gives the following


Drive AMPS Configuration has been modified from compiled defaults.
Drive must be re-initialized to controller firmware defaults by re-downloading controller firmware
DO NOT SHIP WITHOUT FIRST RE-DOWNLOADING CONTROLLER FIRMWARE OR RESETTING TO DEFAULTS!


noting that the NRG list is empty and the G list as well .

searched for this particular error but never found a solution ..

do you think some1 has cleared/messed something in the FW before the drive reaches me ?
any help will be appreciated , thanks in advance

thanks for the reply , drive is keep showing the mentioned error , no matter if before or after regenerating the translator

Are you guys aware of the real problem with the non-resident g-list and the translator ?

Do you understand now the problem of clearing the non-resident g-list and what it's that list in reality ?



First read here :

http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1402

Drives have a P-List that will make a sector that is present there to be "jumped" and a G-List that will "swap" a sector with another.

The non-resident G-List is like a P-List and not like a G-List.

At factory the self scan puts defect on the P-List. Then newer seagate drives do another scan to put extra defects found on the non-resident G-List but that list acts like a P-List and NOT like a G-List, so if you wipe the defect list you will lose those defects and the translator will shift and sector header will not match and you will have partial access problem from the first defect placed on the non-resident g-list till the end of the drive, because from that point of the translator have shifted as if you were to place one value or remove one value from the P-List.

To fix that without tools it's somehow easy but time consuming, if you know that the defective sector have a pattern that looks like a non-resident g list defect and not a g-list defect.

If you scan the drive to find the first defective sector you have to make sure that it's a defect that was present on non-resident g-list and not a new defect added to g-list. If you end up adding the defect that it's a g-list one to the non-resident defect list or p-list the translator will shift as well.

Playing with 7200.12 seagates i've figure out a cool way without sepcialized tools to fix the translator. It's funny when we know exactly (or at least more or less) the nature of the problem and how stuff works to start with

If you SCAN the drive with something like Victoria with the drive connected to TTL what LOG do you get ? Does it read any sector at all ?

What message do you get when regening translator ?

What command are you using ?

Greetings ,

this is the first time i see this error ..

I received this drive (ST3500418AS) with no clue if previous data recovery operations have taken place .

drive sounds absolutly normal , with no odd sounds ,

drive ID in DDI after 50-60 secs of powering it up , but no further operation can be done , as it will go to BSY state directly .

what i tried is to clear the SMART only , but trying to stop sector reallocation gives the following


Drive AMPS Configuration has been modified from compiled defaults.
Drive must be re-initialized to controller firmware defaults by re-downloading controller firmware
DO NOT SHIP WITHOUT FIRST RE-DOWNLOADING CONTROLLER FIRMWARE OR RESETTING TO DEFAULTS!


noting that the NRG list is empty and the G list as well .

searched for this particular error but never found a solution ..

do you think some1 has cleared/messed something in the FW before the drive reaches me ?
any help will be appreciated , thanks in advance