Maxtor Calypso Not reading SA

Hi!

Any suggestions what to do with a Maxtor 6Y120L0 with a SA reading problem.

It spins up and sounds OK (ish), it tries to calibrate but doesn't sound like it finishes calibrating.

So, start in safe mode with loader, all good so far.

But cannot read any modules (SA defects have not been read)
(tried both copies)

I would suspect heads, but there's no nasty sounds, or knocking.

Do we think the SA is stuffed? And any way round?

Cheers

Sean

Did you try several loaders? Sometimes you need to try several of them before you find a good one that allows writing or reading the SA.

Dobre

Well, I tried about 5 or 6.

I'll try some more.

Each time I can get into the utility, but just get "SA defects have not been read" :-(

This is a:

6Y120L0(132011)
YAR41BWO
N,M,G,D
F4FYA (ROM code - PCB)

If anhyone has any more loaders I can try :-)

Sean

what checksum are the loaders you used already ? (no using sending you the same, is it :-)

)

Dobre

3619
247A
AC1D
1B5C
247A
FFE9

BTW...

ANY of the YAR41BWO loaders I have work fine on a good 6Y120L0.
But not this one (SA defect list not been read) :-(

It is not a LDR problem I think.
Weak head or bad SA, most ptobably.

Regards
Samuil

Yep Samo, it's looking like a weak head.

With your excellent tip, I managed to get it to read most modules after a few tries.

Most importantly, the P-list and translator modules were readable.

So I'm trying a smart hot-swap, and image creation with DE.

But it seems to be reading in patches, so I suspect a weak head.

I'll leave it overnight, and see what occurs.

The client needs photos only, so maybe able to get a good quantity off.

Cheers

Sean

Hi,

the head might be dirty, needing someone to clean them

I had 2 such cases last week, a WD800JD and a 6Y080L0 (3 heads version). I cleaned them and made an image in an hour...
so it might be a better choice to clean the head than leaving it to struggle for a whole night creating more serious media defects while running...

regards,
pepe

Hi Pepe,

Thanks for your input my friend.

But I now think it's surface problem.

Have managed to get the drive to stand up on it's own, by re-writing the "Ad" and "As" modules over and over again. Now it ID's OK, with no need for LDR or hot-swap.

Imaging away now, still a lot of bad, but reads OK in large patches (100,000's of LBA at a time). Imaging in reverse with DDI. Some sectors have to be read with no ECC (10x with "best read bytes" algorithm) , but all reading somehow!! (So far!)

P.S. Please msn/PM me with advice on cleaning heads, if you would be so kind! :-)

Hi PCI image ,

them msn and pm me with the technique pepe told you .Keep on passing the parcel