Hello,

Need expert advise. Maxtor diamondmax16 does not identify itself in normal mode. Disk spins and all sounds are normal. When jumper switched to service mode it does show up. Here attached is image how it is seen on Seagate tool on both service and normal modes.
I suspect it is symptoms of firmware problem on the disks service area. Can somebody confirm this?

And if so what it the way and tools to fix it?
I've seen PC3000 and Salvation could put loader and fix firmware. Is there any alternatives to them?

Disk:
Maxtor DiamondMax16
RAMB1TUO
4R080L
N,F,G,D

1) wrong jumper maybe ?
2) assuming there is a problem in service area, if you have access to a LEGIT pc3000 or SD you should be able to diagnose it properly and (with necessary resources and know how) eventually fix it. But I have a feeling from what you said that you don't know how HDDs work , and unfortunately without tools and knowledge it is not possible to do anything.

P.S. your drive is very likely more than 10 years old or so, so it may have a lot of problems.

The point is that I believe I know how HDD works but I do not have the tools. I'm hardware engineer programming FPGA's and microcontrollers. Actually writing USB/SCSI interface at the moment for ARM processor.
HDD is not my specialty and I need just one. Quick look to SD and PC3K indicates that this is nothing more but database of proprietary HDD low level instructions. The hardware is most likely plain physical interface which could be done on any microcontroller or level translator or alike - no magic. So thinking it might exist some alternative to them.
Any way in short - is there other way look in to service area beside SD and P3K?

That work ? NO.

P.S. don't ever think about pirate or 'grey market' tools and asking here, just in case.

Hi!
To carry out any diagnostics you need to connect the drive directly to a pc motherboard.
Run Mhdd and check the drive details and smart.
Then start a scan and check the first few thousand lba's.
The results or non-results from these checks will help to diagnose the state of the drive.

Could you give more detais how this feature works and looks. I'm going to have access to legal PC3000

Model is defined correctly = Maxtor 4R080L0 so the loader is not required

Ok,

just run MHDD and there are logs.
Anyone experienced could see what might be a problem?
Firmware?
if so what can be wrong in firmware? P-list? G-list? else?

22.01.2014 19:10:56 MHDD>EID
22.01.2014 19:10:57 Maxtor 4R080L0 LBA: 184,499,987
22.01.2014 19:10:57 SN: R34FMETE FW: RAMB1TU0
22.01.2014 19:11:03
22.01.2014 19:11:03 MHDD>SCAN
22.01.2014 19:11:04 Maxtor 4R080L0 LBA: 184,499,987
22.01.2014 19:11:04 SN: R34FMETE FW: RAMB1TU0
22.01.2014 19:11:17 Scan started
22.01.2014 19:11:17 MODE: IDE
22.01.2014 19:11:17 Device: Maxtor 4R080L0
22.01.2014 19:11:17 F/W: RAMB1TU0
22.01.2014 19:11:17 SN: R34FMETE
22.01.2014 19:11:17 -------------------------------
22.01.2014 19:11:17 Lap : 1
22.01.2014 19:11:17 LBA scan: 0 to 184499986
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 0
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 255
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 510
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 765
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 1020
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 1275
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 1530
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 1785
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 2040
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 2295
22.01.2014 19:11:17 þ LBA Error: 2550
.........And continues - there are endless list of LBA Error...

[PRE]HDD: Maxtor 4R080L0; FW: RAMB1TU0; SN: R34FMETE
--------------------------------------------------------
Name Val Worst Raw
Att # 3 : Spin up time : 220 208 12352
Att # 4 : Number of spin-up times : 253 253 1390
Att # 5 : Reallocated sectors count : 253 251 0
Att # 6 : Read channel margin : 253 253 0
Att # 7 : Seek error rate : 253 252 0
Att # 8 : Seek time performance : 253 245 47274
Att # 9 : Power-on time : 244 244 1265
Att # 10 : Spin-up retries : 253 252 0
Att # 11 : Calibration retries : 253 252 0
Att # 12 : Start/stop count : 250 250 1417
Att # 99 : Unknown : 253 253 0
Att # 100 : Unknown : 253 253 0
Att # 101 : Unknown : 253 253 0
Att # 192 : Power-off retract count : 253 253 0
Att # 193 : Load/unload cycle count : 253 253 0
Att # 194 : HDA Temperature : 253 253 19
Att # 195 : Hardware ECC recovered : 252 252 56766
Att # 196 : Reallocate event count : 253 253 0
Att # 197 : Current pending sectors : 253 252 0
Att # 198 : Offline scan UNC sectors : 252 252 1
Att # 199 : Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate : 199 199 0
Att # 200 : Write error rate : 253 252 0
Att # 201 : Unknown : 253 252 52
Att # 202 : Unknown : 222 222 49
Att # 203 : Unknown : 249 249 3463
Att # 204 : Unknown : 253 251 0
Att # 205 : Unknown : 253 252 0
Att # 207 : Unknown : 253 252 0
Att # 208 : Unknown : 253 252 0
Att # 209 : Unknown : 148 147 0
[/PRE]

I can go an use PC3000 on pay-per-hour basis. It is surely legal. But if they will give me their password and user name for forum access - dont know. Will ask.

But basically all sounds like your described translator restoration procedure is a same as this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BstYNyOZVrE (see from 4:20 min).

What is, start disk with loader in service mode, then copy bad modules (A,B,C) from PC3000 database, then restart disk in user mode and do autorestore from disks native D modules.

Could you confirm that?

7 out of more than 2000 in my stats on 6E, 2B, 2F, 6Y, 33Hxx. And not on 4R. How do you say "very frequent" ?

Could you tell what it might be with this drive in your opinion - from stats or experience?

From what I see the drive comes ready flawlessly:
1. Correct model shown (drive is not in the safe mode)
2. Correct FW shown (overlays are loaded)
3. Correct SN and size shown (DISK module is loaded)
4. Drive is able to show SMART (SMART modules initialized)
That said, the percentage of probability the drive has bad translator modules is very small

So I would probably think that drive has unstable heads(more likely) or incorrect adaptives module (less likely) and that's why it has read errors

Att # 201 : Unknown : 253 252 52 <-Off Track Errors
Att # 202 : Unknown : 222 222 49 <-Data Address Mark errors
Att # 203 : Unknown : 249 249 3463 <- ECC errors

_________________
SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

That makes very much sense.
So assuming heads unstable - treatment would be to replace head block. Right?
On other hand if adaptive parameters wrong whats then?
I think simply they can be preserved as they were, but with aging mechanics it would require different current to properly position heads or something alike. Heads swap again?

Try to read by heads and determine how many heads are bad/unstable
Read the good ones first then replace the heads stack
Making Maxtor drive work with non-original heads stack could be tricky

_________________
SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

If adaptives are gone or "no longer valid" you can't "fix it".
Moreover , another thing that ruins the day is that this drive is D3 DSP based...
...and then you need to find someone who borrows a DDI4