The problem can come out or not come out / be triggered by many cause / concause.

The major problem (let's say things as they are)

- some people whine for having their drive working (and it can be - honestly - the only understandable scenario)
- other "people" had probably their asses kicked because they "fixed" the drive and then the drive went into coma again after a while and they are asked "why" / "now you get again my data for free AND my drive" (oh yeah, you got the sweet first time, now get the bitter, also !)
- OR : after applying one "fix" on same symptoms (but with something else behind as main cause) , they made the drive FUBAR, or better FUNAP (Fucked Up Need A Pro). Then the jaw goes down the floor, the eyes turn cracked like Wile E. Coyote after falling on the canyon, the ass is in danger if not immediately badly kicked. The drives then go back on their way to have data recovered by someone else, this time hopely more serious : after a quick look these drives are diagnosed as "REASON FOR FAILURE : INTERNET". What comes to mind : serves all them right (it won't have happened with accurate diagnose and SAFETY MEASURES). It is easy to diagnose if the customer or someone else has applied arbitrarily a "fix" thus the "asshole charge" that invariably is applied because of the work needed to fix the mess.

P.S. never seen drives fucked by bad command or tinkering with terminal ? I have, and a lot.

I want to add a few words
Pros know that the very command which is all over the Net does not guarantee data access and sometimes drive is "fixed" but data is not accessible and now the way to recover it became 10 times harder. Pros see such drive from time to time
Every recovery has its price. Obviously price of recovery of messed up drives should be adequate to efforts of a DR professional.

I personally try not to care about people who want to recover drives themselves. Sometimes they succeed sometimes not. It is their data to gamble

BUT YOU FAILED WITH YOUR DIY AND NOW WANT TO GO TO A PRO DO NOT EXPECT THE SAME PRICE AS IT WOULD BE FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE ITCHY HANDS

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

Exactly. BRAVO !

I've bricked quite a few tinkering in terminal just experimenting (for the record, my test drives, would never risk a clients data that way)

Do you have an expendable ST3500320AS, and would you be willing to try modding it with SN06 ES.2 firmware? If so, I can let you know the required command line for the CD ISO version of the updater.

Here are the configuration files corresponding to Seagate's SD1A and SN06 firmware updates for the above drives:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/SN06CCFG.TXT
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/MS-SD1A.TXT

Hi fzabkar,

I found some of your posts several weeks ago, when I was looking for an update file for ST31000333AS, PN: 9FZ136-568. Thanks!

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracuda- ... /m-p/45884
http://stx.lithium.com/t5/Barracuda-XT- ... /m-p/41801

Until now I didn't try to "upgrade" a disc, but of course it should be possible.
I'll do it within this week.

Kind regards,

Thomas

ST3500320AS can be modded to ST3500320NS with some tinkering to real NS firmware. Sadly there are many fakes out there at the moment and many upset customers who purchase a fake.

So before you start talking about command line parameters try to think what you are doing and who it can hurt.

_________________
All went well until I plugged the drive in.

I'm sure that people, who are producing fake NS discs, have these knowledge already.
And, of course, why are there no other (visible) differences between AS and NS drives? If Seagate makes modding so easy, we should not complain about.

There is a long thread at Seagate's forums where 7200.11 customers are complaining that their drives keep dropping out of RAIDs. Seagate's marketing clearly states that these drives are RAIDable, but Tech Support says otherwise. I suspect that NS firmware would give 7200.11 users the ERC (Error Recovery Control) feature that may mitigate their RAID issues. To this end, it would be justifiable. In any case, as long as the original label is attached, no-one would be deceived.

Lets hope Seagate allows warranty if people try but fail

_________________
All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Here is the configuration file for the SN16 update:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/SN16CCFG.TXT

I'm don't know which update, SN06 or SN16, would be the best to try, but the SDD1, SDN1, and SDN2 strings would suggest SN06.

Model -- affected part numbers -- firmware version
ST3500320NS -- 9CA154-510, 511, 512 -- SN16

ST3250310NS MS01__.SDN2.SN04N7.SN04.C0FA SN16c.lod
ST3250310NS MS01__.SDN2.N36100.SN03.C0FA SN16c.lod
ST3250310NS MS03__.SDN2.AU0100.SN15.C0FE SN16c.lod
ST3500320NS MS01__.SDN2.SN04N7.SN04.C0FA SN16c.lod
ST3500320NS MS01__.SDN2.N36100.SN03.C0FA SN16c.lod
ST3500320NS MS03__.SDN2.AU0100.SN15.C0FE SN16c.lod

Model -- affected part numbers -- firmware version
ST3500320NS -- 9CA154-301, 302, 303, 501, 502, 503 -- SN06

ST3500320NS MS01__.SDN1.SN0421.SN04.C0FA SN06c.lod
ST3500320NS MS01__.SDN1.SN0424.SN04.C0FA SN06c.lod
ST3500320NS MS03__.SDN1.AJ0309.CN04.C0FE SN06c.lod
ST3500320NS MS03__.SDN1.AL0P00.SN05.C0FE SN06c.lod
ST3500320NS MS03__.SDN1.AU0200.AN05.C0FE SN06c.lod

SD1A update for ST3500320AS

;Moose 7200.11 Disty SDD1 branch
;Moose 7200.11 4 head
ST3500320AS MS01__.SDD1.AD____._D__.C0F_ 2DSD1A.LOD MS010C.SDD1.AQ1700.SD1A.C0FF
ST3500320AS MS01__.SDD1.AQ1300.SD1A.C0FF 2DSD1A.LOD MS010C.SDD1.AQ1700.SD1A.C0FF
ST3500320AS MS01__.SDD1.DS____._D__.C0F_ 2DSD1A.LOD MS010C.SDD1.AQ1700.SD1A.C0FF
ST3500320AS MS01__.SDD1.DY____._D__.C0F_ 2DSD1A.LOD MS010C.SDD1.AQ1700.SD1A.C0FF

Firmware Update for ST3250310NS, ST3500320NS, ST3750330NS, ST31000340NS [207963]:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/s ... cId=207963

... they were more than upset, I bet. If only they used them on critical storage.... brrrrr !!!!