Hi,

Anybody out there who had some success in repairing Hard Drives with Uncorrectable ECC Errors in Track 0?

I have tried every software out there but never had any success. Did you?

I'm talking about any sector within Cylinder 0, Head 0.

Are you still using i80386 CPUs? Where did you found Cylinder 0?

May he would like to say sector 0 - but when we are writting in english we can make this mistake and we write TRACK besises sector. ( maybe; this is what happend ; maybe )
And if this is the case there are 2 possiblities - that I know ; of course .

1- You can try to fix the sector 0 using the ERASE WAITTS commnd in MHDD, and also the ERASE too.
2-You can change the first sector using the Disk Mananger ( ONTRACK - software ).

When I say Cylinder 0, Head 0 , Sector 1 I'm referring to LBA 0 or the first logical sector where partition information resides.

So far, I've not been able to find an HD repair software that is able to remap this first logical sector when it is really bad or uncorrectable. Do you know how to solve this kind of problem?

Posted 31/1/2005, 11:43:



Thanks for your advice, but MHDD is unable to erase sector 0.

Also, I have been very familiar with every version of Ontrack Disk Manager Software, but I could not find any feature whereby we can change the first sector. Can you please explain further how this is accomplished in Ontrack DM?

"So far, I've not been able to find an HD repair software that is able to remap this first logical sector when it is really bad or uncorrectable. Do you know how to solve this kind of problem? "

Really bad or uncorrectable = now is better. Now I have a small ideiia of what about we are talking here.

MAYBE ( again - I"m using the word MAYBE ) you only can fix this using an ATA command specific to the brand mark and model of the Hard Disk, so you will need to buy a comercial product, MAYBE.

About the Disk Manager from Ontrack, I would like to say sorry - I'm not so familiar with it - and Imade a mistake ; since you are familiar with it and you do not understand or know what I'mtalking about.

Hmm...

Are we saying here that every HD with this sector 0 (boot sector) problem is doomed for the trash can?

I've encountered plenty of HDs with this problem, and I don't think there's a commercial prog out there which can rescue this type of problem. Anybody who wants to object?

Again, all HDs I've encountered with this kind of problem has no other defect except that LBA 0 has really gone bad.

Sorry, don't understand you trouble

situation 1:
firmware fine, drive detected correctly, in mhdd all sector scanned fine exept LBA 0

a) ordinary bad sector - can be repaired by mhdd (if G-List not full), for normal repair need tool for what model (like pc3k for example) to perform normal defect management (move G-List to P-List etc.)

b) drive can't write at all (check is it write in other sectors) - well this can be drive board damaged, firmware problem, pream damaged etc.

situation 2:
drive detected incorrectly and some (stupid) software, from old time, say about track 0 error.

a) hardware problem - fix hardware

b) firmare problem - fix firmware, with tools supporting this drive model

what is you situation?

_________________
best regards, vi, http://pchdd.narod.ru

In MHDD you can get the bulb T0NF (Track zero not found) lit.
(Situation 2 in _vi post) - drive does not calibrate.
MHDD cannot fix this.

In MHDD you can get X in red at sector 0 (zero).
(Situation 1 in _vi post) - drive probably calibrates.
MHDD can fix this.

Which case are you describing ?

It's an ordinary bad sector, but G-List is full. That's why it cannot be remapped, unless G-List is emptied and defects moved to P-List.

I'm aware that PC3K can move G-List defects to P-List, but not for Seagate Drives. The drives I'm talking about by the way are Seagate U Series drives.

Again, the drive detects fine, calibrates fine, and no firmware errors.

AFAIK you are not right, PC3k can work with Seagate, you just need right version

not china or cracked version of course

_________________
best regards, vi, http://pchdd.narod.ru

Really?

But why do we have HRT? Isn't it because PC3K is not good at repairing Seagate drives? Especially the firmware zone?

Btw, have you personally experienced PC3K being able to repair Seagate drives without leaving much to be desired?

Is you try promote HRT or get answer?

Really, all commercial software bad And HRT don't show you most interesting things acelab has it's limitation too, but it have something what HRT will be never have...

_________________
best regards, vi, http://pchdd.narod.ru

I'm not promoting any HDD software, I'm looking for answers or solutions to this sector 0 problem.

Any more ideas out there?

TO DMITRY:

Is it possible to cut the size of the drive specifying the starting position anywhere after sector 0? Why do we always have to start from sector 0 when it is already uncorrectable?

Is it possible to cut the size of the drive specifying the starting position anywhere after sector 0?

Using MHDD — no.

Any HDD prog known capable of doing this?

Posted 4/2/2005, 23:57:

hmm..

Very unfortunate that nobody has the answer.