Hi,

i'm kind of new to all this hdd-recovery stuff, but willing to learn. So maybe someone could take me by the hand an guide me towards some steps one could do to diagnose what problem my drive has. Final goal would be to restore the data at minimum costs.

The patient is a 2,5" Seagate ST9320325AS 320GB drive whick lived in an USB-Enclosure und suddenly died.
What happened so far:
I took it out of it's case and attached it directly to the PC (SATA).
The drive is recognised by the BIOS, but the BIOS is already complaining and displaying Disksize=0.
I bootet of Hirens BootCD and ran Victoria and MHDD - just looking, trying not to touch anything.
MHDD says:
D1 ERR INDX CORR DREQ DRSC WRFT DRDY BUSY AMNF T0NF ABRT IDNF UNCR BBR 04


ST9320325AS LBA:0
SN:5VE6RWYE FW:0002 Cache:8192KB Size=0
Important Notice: This device does not support LBA mode. MHDD will NOT work with this device.

! ERROR: Drive not responding or operation canceled
Drive is not ready.


Is there something one can test to get closer to what the actual problem of the drive is? Any non-destructive commands to execute?
If it's a PCB/Firmware-Problem I could by a new PCB if needed...

kind regards
Beorn

Hi,

Most probably that's related to a FW issue.
But if your data is important, you should go into a DR company and ask them for a proper diagnosis.

If your data is not so important, you can search around here and try some commands yourself.

Data is important, but money is too.
If i could narrow it down to a specific problem i probably could get the data back for a fraction of the cost of a DR company :-/

greets
Beorn

How does this help minimize costs? It is near impossible to accurately diagnose a specific failure without seeing your media. Based on the symptoms it could be FW related. But these symptoms are also seen in cases of head damage and spindle failure where ID can still be read from ROM and LBA = 0.

If data is not so important that you want to try DIY then ensure there is no knocking of the heads and spindle remains powered and you can find instructions online but you should be aware that the solution can vary between different series of Seagate and there will be risks associated with DIY.

Ultimately, the decision is yours.

Hi and welcome

I agree with dmarques.

This disk should be recoverable, but i'm afraid its not DIY.

Give it some recovery company of your area and ask for a quote. Then, if the quote exceeds your budget, consider alternatives.

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There's always a relation between price vs information value.
What you have to think also is that sometimes to save some bucks in the end we spend much more.
If you have a problem with you car, do you usually open the engine to repair it youself as it's less expensive?

Exactly that's the point why i was looking for a diagnose. If it's the engine it got to be brought to a company. If its the battery, i could replace it myself...

If it's most likely a FW issue, is it woth a try to replace the whole PCB?

kind regards
Beorn

No, firmware in this sense is stored on the platters.

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Nick is correct, it's the firmware on the platters that have failed and require repairing (not upgrading) which requires specialist equipment.

Shouldn't cost too much AT THIS STAGE before you start fiddling with it. Feel free to try DIY of course, it's your data you're potentially destroying.

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The problem is that even to diagnose correctly you need proper equipment and knowledge also.