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Actually, I should be doing drive repairs as soon as I figure out the pcb electronics (which is probably the reason why the drive is never ready). Spent a lot of money on training and on tools. Apparently, the training was too hasty (four 4 days from 08:30AM to 05:00PM). A lot of information but nothing really complete. We students complained in the end of the four days, we didn't repair any hdd whatsoever. We had some hands-on soldering practice... using burnt pc motherboards...
I considered the course good, into some extent, and the teacher well above average. But the course is far from complete.
We mostly learned about ESD (Which is very important to avoid), a clean room and a clean box (which we call in Brazil "Fluxo laminar"), some other tools used to exchange the platters; Some specific softwares for imaging the disk, how to do that using Linux commands, etc. The basics of one of 2 PCBs, the explanation of what controls what on the hdd. And so I think a lot fo material was covered even if somewhat superficially.
I translated data recovery material for a company for some 2 years (2004-2006) and althoug I learned many things, I still feel I need to know more about the electronics involved. Not only the circuit protection stuff like TVS and some fuses and diodes.
Although it is much easier (not necessarily faster) to substitute the pcb, I want to be able to actually repair it because that's what I think most professionals here in São Paulo (Brazil) lack. I bought a lot of hdds just to practise and, that's what I am doing right now (unsoldering U12 and stuff from WDs, which I have some 10 or even more drives, wd400, 200, etc (but who's counting?).
I requested the fw for that Maxtor because I don't have it and, yes, I would try doing the fw too (which would be a wast of time, at least in this specific case). But still without your warning, I would try it, even if it were only to test the tool I have.
How do I know you are right? Ha, I don't remember everything I translated in 2004, but I remember well I tested some drives using MHDD, and the ones with FW problems were posting ok. The fantastic (free) program showed me a lot of letters (I don't remember if they were ssss or else) when it was an FW problem. I tried the drive on MHDD yesterday and...it keeps busy.
So, please, give me some time: I'll solve this problem soon, and I don't intend to exchange the pcb; that would destroy all the fun. I am going to test the voltage on a specific controller and I'll post the results here. Today was a full day for me, and I didn't have the time test. Tomorrow, I'll have fun and post the voltage here.
Thank you for helping me. Your help reminded me of MHDD, which is cool, and this pointer has led me to a different direction, althoug it is now more like a trial and error. Lack of experience, you know.
And just so you know, I am doing this alone. And I still have to revise a lot of material. Only when I'm ready, will I start working with data recovery.
Thanxs again;-)
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HDDGURU FILES
The same info applies even if you're just trying to make the drive work - and with the drive in that state (not recognised by the BIOS), a normal drive firmware update won't succeed anyway.