Hello

I have a Seagate 1.5 TB ST31500341AS which now picks itself up as a 500 Gb drive. When analysised with GetDataBack it can see the contents of the drive up to 500Gb, the partition that was there is now unreadable by Windows. I'm thinking this is a firmware/PCB problem - so can any of you guys help me out? I have listed the hard drive details below...

Model: ST31500341AS
P/N: 9JU138 - 500
Firmware: SD17
Date Code: 09373
Site Code: TK

If anyone can help me out or point me in the right direction I would gratefully appreciate it.

Brian.

Hi

I have send you a PM

For sure that is not a PCB ou firmware problem

Thanks

hi,
i have this PCB in stock. but your case isn't the PCB problem. i can handle it. please contact me by email or MSN if need help. thanks.

_________________
data recovery service[/b]

Do you have a Gigabyte motherboard with an Xpress Recovery BIOS?

If so, then your Gigabyte BIOS (Award ?) is trying to grab about 2000 sectors at the top end of the drive in order to store a backup copy of itself for BIOS recovery purposes.

To do this, it hides the copy in a Host Protected Area (HPA).

See ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Protected_Area

... and "Xpress Bios Rescue":

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Moth ... wTechID=84

Unfortunately, the BIOS code has a bug that causes it to miscalculate the size of the drive. In your case it reduces its capacity by 1TB, leaving you with only 500GB. A 1TB drive is cut down to 32MB or so.

You can restore the full native capacity of your drive using HDAT2:
http://www.hdat2.com/

You can also try the HDD Capacity Restore Tool:
http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/ ... tore-Tool/

I would also upgrade your motherboard BIOS.

It's not a PCB problem for sure.

Is it seen in the BIOS as the full size, or as 500Gb (or more likely ~465Gb) there?

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

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