Hi,

This drive is an ST313021A, 13G U8 series drive with FW rev. 3.03 according to the label. It had PCB problem, so I tried to replace the PCB. Since I didn't have this FW rev, I moved the ROM from the bad PCB to the good one. Still nothing happened, so I suspected the ROM to be bad.
Indeed It was, I read it out with a programmer and it has cyclic damage on every page.
OK, I burnt a ROM with ver. 3.03 into a flash and soldered onto the good pcb. The drive started once, though it complained about head map mismatch.
I could once read LBA 0, but never more.
I checked the original ROM's content and it practically equals to the one I have with ver. 3.13 apart from the damages of the beginning of each page (0x200 bytes).
So I tried 3.13. It also complains about Headmap, but calibrates OK and gets ready and drive ID and SN is OK too. But the terminal says:

And I cannot read the surface.

I remember I met this message already, and it was because of wrong ROM version.
But now I tried many (3.02, 3.03, 3.13, these were somewhat ok, but 3.20 and above were clicking) ROM versions, but neither one gave access to the data.
any ideas?
thanx,
pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

First try to read ALL track from the SA . If it can read as well then head got no problem.
For this report in terminal, Mostly is caused by not compatible ROM. Your Patient is 3.03 so You need the same ROM Version and Be carefull with the Site COde.

I found 3.03 AMK and 3.03 WU or Malaysia is not 100% same.
try to match 3.03 and site code must be same too.
You can also use 3.03 ROM from 4.3 GB or 8.4 GB. only will complain about head mask. but it can work perfectly.
I dont think it is a SA problem.

Thanks

Aping

_________________
Спасибо
СУТИОНО / АПИНГ

Thank you Aping!

The ROMs I used I don't have any info other than version. The Tracks were read without problem from H0.
As I wrote the strange thing is that the native ROM of the drive is almost identical with one I have of version 3.13., they only differ in the damaged parts.
Could it be that when I first started the drive with the non-native 3.03 ROM, it changed something in the SA?
I will post a terminal log soon...

thx again,
pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

Here goes the terminal log:


'Loading Overlay #05h' occurs when I try to read from the data area.

Thx for any suggestion!

pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

Doesn't the "$" mean the heads are struggling to find the servo marks?

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Hi,

thanx for all the tips and time, it is done, thx God.
I digged some more into my archive and found another ROM image with version 3.03, this one did it

pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery