From my private messages:

I don't want to give you bad advice that destroys your drive. The first thing to do is to get ST_MEM_FREE and backup your drive tracks. You need to get ST_MEM_SDLD to be able to send them back to the drive though if anything goes wrong, and trust, me it will go wrong... I think I saw ST_MEM_FREE.ZIP or .RAR on some Russian site.

One mistaken command and your drive will be brain dead at the ATA/SATA connector. Be prepared to search through Russian and Chinese posts for hours. Enter these into google.com, then click the translate link:

site:http://forum.ru-board.com send_file
site:http://forum.ru-board.com selfscan
site:http://www.chinafix.com.cn selfscan
site:http://www.chinafix.com.cn send_file

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... 6prmd%3Div

The commands are different for each drive family. E commands write flash rom, stay away from those. Learn buffer commands, the w command, the N commands (N1 from 1> clears GLIST on some drives), the T and D commands T>N2,,22 then ^T (ctrl-t) tests relatively benignly, (dangerous: T>D1,,40 does but destructively and have to use a form of w command to write the cert table after). Have to learn what age means and how to set or reset it.

Be prepared to screw your drive and have to reload the tracks with ST_MEM_SDLD or a homemade program, because it will happen. I'm still learning myself, so I can't help much. I would read posts for a month if i was you to get a feel for the interface, without touching your drive. Experiment on some flaky drive first before touching a halfway good or repairable drive.

Try
site:http://forum.ru-board.com send_file N1
site:http://forum.ru-board.com selfscan N1
site:http://www.chinafix.com.cn selfscan N1
site:http://www.chinafix.com.cn send_file N1

and you can probably clear glist, but you might want to run MHDD afterward to erase and then remap bad sectors that way, to save yourself a lot of learning curve, rather than having the drive scan itself.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/TerraformingMaster

You should be sure to add that any data will be COMPLETELY GONE and the drive will be NON-WORKING until a correct copy of firmware is uploaded after some of these

Saying nothing at all is much easier than dealing with that many more IT know-it-alls who read something on the internet and then completely destroy their clients' data before outsourcing it to one of us

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Hadn't thought of that, maybe drc is right. A number of fools might think they were overnight wizards and try to use hard drive repair information and tactics to attempt to perform data recovery, and that is exactly what the result would be. No recovering any data after that, not even in a $100,000 class 100 clean room. There are plenty of fools, but are there enough of them who would perform that retardedness to make any real difference? Its a big planet...

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http://www.youtube.com/user/TerraformingMaster

Dunno, but I already see enough completely ruined RAID arrays and opened drives coming from IT consultants and other "experts" that I wouldn't dream of giving them something else to play with

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Your point is well taken. My level of understanding has increased now, and I appreciate that.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/TerraformingMaster