This is a puzzler;

HDD came into lab with bent spindle and bad heads.
Performed platter transplant and new heads.

Using SATA PCB and / or Dolphin Tools USB to SATA overlay I can access SA.
FW backup was completed. Noted MOD11 was damaged (both copies) - there are other damaged modules; but none of importance.

I can upload MOD11 into RAM and HDD will ID properly. I can browse user area via utility. HDD is SED v2 so data is encrypted.

Attempted to write MOD 11 to SA; got DISK SERVO WRT FLT OFFTRACK ERROR ABA XXXXX where X is the ABA it cannot write.
I should note that MOD 02, 01, (other small modules) will read / write just fine.

Attempted to move 11 via DIR editor to working SA ABA. I've tried a bunch; always the same error (but at different ABA location).

I have even attempted to cut some modules in SA that are large enough for MOD11 (resize and edit DIR later). No success.
Finally did another heads swap; same symptom. Donor heads were tested and can R/W in 2nd donor without problems.

Any other idea's? I was thinking I could maybe upload 11 via SATA overlay board, then use special USB 3 cable (with power pins cut) and see if that will work.

This one is PebbleB, you could use sata pcb to access the data after uploading ldr i think, the decryption should be possible using donor pcb on these.
i just had an Apollo, SED, pc3k could not decrypt it, so i went for modifying the loader to have SA access while SED is on...

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Nice work Pepe.

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HDD, SSD, Flash and RAID Data Recovery
Founder of The Data Recovery Professionals Group

Thanks pepe;

If I use SATA PCB an upload loader I cannot access any sector via ATA - I just get an abort error.
If I use utility to read, data is encrypted.

Drive ID's with proper capacity in tested. Translator can be read from SA.
MOD25/38 are both readable as well.

that's normal for this model

There is no decryption support in pc3k for this model.

In order to get decrypted data the drive should start normally (without extra steps, like uploading a loader).
so either fix the 11, or copy encrypted data to another drive and decrypt on it, or send it to a person who has a decryptor for this model(this might be tricky, because to my knowledge only 2 people in the world can do it).

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Thanks doomer; I was aware of this - just trying to communicate I was reading something - albeit encrypted data.

Can't write loader to SA because SA is damaged, can't access data because drive is encrypted, can't use decryption USB because it's locked.

Round and round I go.

I'd go this route.

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http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Thanks for everyone's suggestion.
I will start the duplication process and duplicate on it - will let you know how it works out.