Hi everyone,
I have a 1 TB drive (ST31000333AS firmware:CC1F) that does not work. When I turn it on, it clicks 11 times and then spins down. I tried connecting to it VIA a serial cable (that works on other seagate drives) but I get no terminal output. Does anyone know if the CC1F firmware should produce serial/debug output?
Any ideas on where to go from here? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

11 clicks, sounds like heads to me.

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I Agree with Mr Spokk! Can't be absolutely sure, but sure sounds like bad heads.

+2

Absolutely bad heads IMHO

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+3. Heads.

+4

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Excellent! Thank you!!! Heads it is!
Is there something that indicates a head problem, does the number of clicks (11) for seagate mean something before power down?

Also sorry for all the questions, but is it normal not to get anything out on TTL (serial) interface? For other seagate drives I get an error or some text, for this one, nothing

There's a very slight chance that it could be a faulty PCB, but 99% a head problem in my opinion going on statistics. For example a 7200.11 500GB I saw recently had the symptoms of head failure, clicking and spinning down. PCB 'seemed' OK as it gave the expected terminal output, ROM was read correctly and all interactions with the drive suggested the PCB was not at fault. However, the client mentioned they had a power failure before it failed. PCB replacement solved the case. These are few and far between though.

What baud rate are you using? Are you sure you are connecting to the terminal correctly?

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Thank you for your time,

I am using 38400 baud rate. I get absolutely nothing coming from the drive over the serial connection (not even garbled text). I tried both minicom and hyperterminal. Other seagate drives do produce diagnostic output, and also respond with a prompt to ctrl-z using the exact same setup and cable. The firmware on the drive is CC1F which I have not encountered before.

Has anyone else had seagate drives that do not produce diagnostic output over the serial connection? I am fairly sure I am connecting everything correctly, loopback works and other seagate drives respond using same setup.

Thank you for all the help!

Yes many times. I too vote for heads.

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