Mine died last week-end.
Spinning, but not recognized by bios.
No clicks.
2nd drive -no OS but valuable data (lots of music)

ST3500320AS - 500 Gb -OEM
firmware SD15
date code 09133
site code KRATSG

country: Belgium

Have read some earlier threads from 2009/2010
Doesn't look very encouraging.

Help wanted, please

It is most likely a very common firmware bug.

Many people have fixed it DIY, but to be safe it would be best to have a professional do it.

If you accept the risks of DIY there are many how-to articles around. Otherwise, a pro should be able to fix this for a minimal charge.

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Normally SD15 is the FW bug and it should not be too hard to make your terminal cable and follow the instructions on this one. They are all over the web and this forum.

But also agree wtih Nick_CT that is is a DIY but in doing so there are a lot of risks involved in this one and some have killed or bricked their drives doing this. But DIY is possible if you want to accept the risks in this one

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Iorana Haraharaini

You both forgot one thing that must be added to the "caveat" : the "internet fix" one-fits-all CAN be potentially dangerous for data because of how it is. So even the successful DIY CAN lead to potential partial loss of data.

I don't know about others, but I still get a lot of this series of drive in, but hardly any of them have a firmware bug any more. Most are bad sectors and/or failing heads.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I have seen very few, actually. Exactly like failed TVS.

We get more seized than anything else now, very few with "the" fw issue.

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

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This month I've had 3 SD15s:

1x BSY bug
1x Weak head
1x Seized

So there are still some BSYs floating around out there, albeit very few. Maybe the OP is lucky.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Agree, FW problems more rare lately. Last two ST3500320AS w/ SD15 we got had bad heads.

Post a terminal log.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I'm still looking at my options.

Ironically, this originally was a backup-drive.
Which was later half filled with music, while waiting for HD's to become affordable again

Update:

I decided to contact Seagate.
After some mails they finally agreed to repair it for free, if it was the dreaded SD 15 firmware issue.
Today it was delivered, free of charge.


Thank you Seagate!