I ran into a problem with my seagate hard drive recently.... that lame BZY error. I didn't realise it wasn't up to date to the latest firmware. So, I ordered the cable, and did the recovery. It worked fine... so I thought. I had access to my data and what not.... and instead of backing my data up right then and there, I figured "meh... I'll just use it normally" So I plugged it back into its original PC, and turned it on. Windows 7 came up normally, and then it started acting very slow... so I turned off the PC, and decided to update the firmware. So I downloaded the SD1A firmware (the latest I believe?) and updated it. It updated successfully, and when I tried to reboot the machine.... it didnt' work properly.... in fact, it just hung at the "starting windows" screen.

SOoooooo, I hooked it back up to my external drive and connected it to my laptop, and the drive was recognized... however, only the "System reserve" drive showed up.... and the main partition took a while, but only showed the drive letter in my computer. I went into the disk manager, and it showed the 698gb partition, but showed it 100% free space....??? Where's my stuff? But thats not where it ends... the hard drive has activity for a split second every 3 seconds or so... you can hear it accessing just like that.... and it continues to do that. I'm sure if it would stop doing that, I could access my data.... but it doesnt. It just hangs the computer when I attempt it for a few seconds. Soo.... now what?

Would sending this to Seagate help? (would it cost anything, being under warranty?)
Is there anything you guys can suggest?
Possibly flashing to an older firmware? (Does anyone have the old SD15 firmware that I can re-flash it with, so that I can at least access my data?)
Or maybe some other type of command I can type into the console of the HD?

Thanks.

You cant downgrade FW normally on HDD's and its ill-advised even if you know how to- unless you know what you are doing.

If you got the cables to access the terminal i suggest you rig it up all again there- conenct to the terminal and power up the drive. let us know what comes up in the terminal when the drive starts up and you try to access partitions.
Its possible you might have a partitions corruption and some software could help but it could be the FW problem.
You should have read the rest of the manual where it said- backup up your data. update the firmware and reformat the entire thing. it would have saved you this issue now.

Let us know what terminal spits out

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Frequently drives with the "BSY error" also have some or many bad sectors.

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

Yeah, I wish I had done the backup.... but now I'm stuck here.

So i rigged up the terminal again, and here's the output.. nothing crazy:


Power on:
Rst 0x20M
(P) SATA Reset

Nothing else... reset again:

Power off:
½¨Ôªõ
ú@UЪT¨ÔªPèÔªÕêT¨P¨½ªÔªô @ U¨TµUõõ
/ èÕªTý@ ÕêÕý ô¿

Power on:
Rst 0x20M
(P) SATA Reset

One time I got : (H) SATA Reset

Any other suggestions? I can try the m0,2,2,,,,,22 command again... but should I? When I tried using recovery software, it started searching sectors, got to 1400 out of 23 million or whatever, and it found 14 files so far.... but then the drive starts acting goofy... which causes the software to stop reading the drive. Maybe bad sectors? Is there a way I can fix these bad sectors if thats the issue? or any other ideas I can try? Different commands to type in?

Yup, happened one more time:

Rst 0x20M
(P) SATA Reset

(H) SATA Reset

(H) SATA Reset

Garbled data as a result of improper/absent diagnose BEFORE applying the "bullshit fix" ...

You are having more serious problems with the drive now. I suggest you RMA it to seagate and get a new one and forget about data or save up a few quid and sent it to somebody that can extract the data for you- If software is crashing you wont get very far..
Sorry..
Where in Canada are you?

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So i'm screwed more or less?

So none of you harddrive guru's know how to fix this?

I'm in Toronto Ontario (west end, in Oakville)

And if it's screwed anyway, like some of you are saying... does anyone have the SD15 firmware iso that I can use to try to flash it back to SD15 for shits and giggles to see if it works?

The Guru's know how to get past the issue and get your data, but they're not going to spoon feed you the info to do it yourself, basically.

The Gurus know.

I would suggest not putting any more commands into the terminal- and stop tinkering with it. You are risking loosing your data forever. One wrong command in the terminal can be catastrophic.

I would have suggested a colleague in Canada- but he is in Vancouver. So the best thing now if somebody can suggest a trusted DR company in your area and let them sort it out for you- they have the equipment and knowledge.
Sorry, but your DIY went a bit pear shaped.

_________________
It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
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Bullshit. The garbled data are merely death throes during power off.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Your firmware update was fine, as was your BSY fix. As drc says, your drive has an additional, probably related issue with bad sectors or weak heads.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hey fzabkar, you're right... the garbage data did happen the second it turned off, and I came to the same conclusion that it was due to corrupted communication upon power off. Either way, if it has bad sectors or weak heads, why would that happen all of a sudden? And if thats the case, am I able to use some sort of data recovery software, or am I stuck sending it off to seagate?

Thanks.

If ur drive IDs - its not locked. So no point in tinkering with terminal.
Mount the drive on a working computer , u said it assignes ur partition letters ETC. Scan those with a logical scaner like R-Studio or EASUS or Recover My Files ( search around ,there is a bunch of em ).

You can try sending it to seagate , however that probably wont help. Had a guy come into our shop. Had a busy bug. I told the guy that seagate should cover him. He went to them and they said that his drive is NOT locked , just has bad sectors. Quoted him 750$ CAD. Long story short he came back to me with the drive and it WAS , like i initialy diagnosed locked with a busy bug. I unlocked it and what do you know , it indeed had bad sectors affecting 1 of 3 partitions. Moral of the story: Seagate unlocked the drive , noticed the bads and locked it again when client asked for it. They suck.
Also , Rob Ford is a fat *bleep*.

Can't locate R-Studio, or EASUS... but I did find Recover My Files, and it hangs after scanning all sectors... i'll try that one again, but do you have a link to one that you highly recommend?

Thanks.

Scanning or using recovery software without first cloning the drive is a bad idea

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

In some situations its better to go for the data straight. In some - clone the drive 1st. From a certain perspective Drc is 100 percent correct. However if what plagues ur drive are in fact bads - its ok to scan. If its weak heads - well , then scanning and cloning will kill em the same with the tools that you can acquire.

Now for a program that is recommended - R-Studio. It costs money. Unless u are a pirate =)) Then its torrent time. Good luck m8.

BTW When u scan the drive with Recover My Files, do u get a lot of CRC errors ?
Peace.

What happens when you're scanning or cloning in windows, the drive hits some bad spots, and windows locks up? If you're cloning, you still have your cloned copy of everything up to that point. If you're scanning, all that was for nothing.

What happens when you're scanning with one tool that doesn't find anything and now you want to use something else? Now you have to torture the failing drive all over again. If you cloned it first, you can do whatever you want and it will not hurt anything (and probably also be much faster)

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

With proper equipment or at least *some rework* it can be solved - it is a common issue. But unfortunately it is more a job to do than a thing to say.