I'm looking for guidance on how to properly diagnose a spinning, not clicking, but undetected ST2000DM001. It stays BSY for a long time and, once it comes ready, when I try to get details with the FRP-ST, no drive information is obtained. Corroded HDA contacts were cleaned without benefit.

Below are a terminal log and a few diagnostic command results. The SMART attributes shown severe media issues but the head test results are also concerning. If it has three platters (SN W2Fxxxxx ), why would both heads 3 & 4 have such low resistance values? Faulty preamp? The SMART attributes are so bad, it’s a wonder this drive even ran at all; I question their reliability and suspect firmware problems may be behind the horrendous numbers (although the slip list was *really* long, suggesting it was crap when it left the factory).

Diagnostic guidance (versus just a conclusion) would be most helpful. Thanks for your insights.

Larry
===================================================================
1. ST2000DM001 Terminal Log
SN W2Fxxxxx (3 platter)

[BSY]
Boot 0x40M

Spin Up
TCC-0016[0x000065B4][0x00006A20][0x00006E8C]

Trans.

Rst 0x40M

MC Internal LPC Process

Spin Up
TCC-0016

(P) SATA Reset

MCMainPOR: Start:
Check MCMT Version: Current
LCMailPOR: Non-Init Case
Reconstruction: MCMT Reconstruction Start
Max number of MC segments 0A61
Nonvolatile MCMT sequence number 001AEF03
[RSRS] 0A0A
Reconstruction: Completed 1:
[MCMTWS]
MCMainPOR: MCTStateFlags 0000002A MCStateFlags 00000041
MCMainPOR: Feature Enabled...

Starting LBA of RW Request=0000000000087D87 Length=000001_4
ProcessRWError -Read- at LBA 0000000000087D87 Sense Code=43110081
Starting LBA of RW Request=0000000000087D87 Length=000001A4
ProcessRWError -Read- at LBA 0000000000087D88 Sense Code=43110081
Starting LBA of RW Request=0000000000087D87 Length=000001A4
ProcessRWError -Read- at LBA 0000000000087D89 Sense Code=4311008!
Starting LBA of RW Request=0000000000087D87 Length=000001A4
ProcessRWError -Read- at LBA 0000000000087D8B Sense Code=43110081
Starting LBA of RW Request=0000000000087D87 Length=000001A4
[…]

[Then DRD & DSC around this point]

Dither
TCC-0019
(DNS)STE OGHT: 0x0000000000CB2924 - 0x0000000000CB6172 - 0x000018A5 - 0x000018C3 Count 0054
(DOS) Refresh Start.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081

AnitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2925!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2927!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB292B!.
(DOS) Read Error - 431100_1
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB292C!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2930!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
[…]

(DOS)ABT Count 0054

Dither
TCC-001E
(DOS)STE OGHT: 0x0000000000CB2AF5 - 0x0000000000CB6172 - 0x000018A5 - 0x000018C3 Count 0054
(DOS) Refresh Start.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2AF6!.
(DOS) Read Epror - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2AF7!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallmcateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2AFC!.
(DOS) Read Error - 03110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2AFD!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2AFE!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2B04!.
(DOS) Read Error - 43110081
[…]
===================================================================

2. Diagnostic Commands and Results:

Read SMART (F3 1>N5)

Att
Num Flgs normlzd worst raw
1 002F 57 57 0000000E5E58A0 ß Read Error Rate (Vendor Specific--relevant/valid?)
3 0023 5E 5D 00000000000000
4 0032 64 64 0000000000012D
5 0033 33 33 0000000000FE20 ß Reallocated Sectors Count
7 002F 4B 3C 000000022CFFC0
9 0032 53 53 00000000003CA3
A 0033 64 64 00000000000000
C 0032 64 64 00000000000121
B4 002B 64 64 00000026529F52
B7 0032 64 64 00000000000000
B8 0033 64 64 00000000000000
BB 0032 1 1 00000000000105
BC 0032 64 64 0000000000000
BD 003A 64 64 00000000000000
BE 0022 4B 3F 00000080800019
BF 0032 64 64 00000000000000
C0 0032 64 64 0000000000005A
C1 0032 3F 3F 0000000001258D
C2 0022 19 28 00001100000019
C4 0032 32 33 0000000000FE20 ß Reallocation Event Count
C5 0032 62 62 000000000001E0 ß Current Pending Sector Count
C6 0030 64 64 00000000000000 ß Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 0032 C8 C8 00000000000000
0 0000 0 0 00000000000000
0 0000 0 0 00000000000000
0 0000 0 0 00000000000000
0 0000 0 0 00000000000000
0 0000 0 0 00000000000000
0 0000 0 0 0000000000000
0 0000 0 0 00000000000000

Head Test (F3 7>X)

Head 00 Resistance 0113
Head 01 Resistance 014C
Head 02 Resistance 0116
Head 03 Resistance 00EB
Head 04 Resistance 00E3

Non-Resident G-List (F3 T>V40)

Primary DST List 0 entries returned
Total entries available: 0
PBA Len Flags Phy Ayl Hd PhySctr SFI
Nonresident GList 0 entries returned

Translator (F3 T>V1)

User Slip Defect List
log log log phys phys
LBA span cumm cyl hd sctr zn cyl sctr SFI PBA
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0
3_1F2 2 2 0 4 1F 0 0 21 C203C 3D1F4
3D2EC 3 5 1 4 D 0 1 10 C2326 3D2F1
3D4F4 3 8 2 4 10A 0 2 10D C24B2 3D4FC
3D5EE 3 B 3 4 F9 0 3 FC C2766 3D5F9
3D6E8 3 E 4 4 E8 0 4 EB C2A50 3D6F6
3D7E" 2 10 5 4 D7 0 5 D9 C20AB 3D7F2
3D8DC 3 13 6 4 C5 0 6 C8 C2395 3D8EF
3D9D6 3 16 7 4 B4 0 7 B7 C263E 3D9EC
3DAD0 3 19 8 4 A3 0 8 A6 C28F2 3DAE9
(…and so on, for many, many pages until cancelled)
===================================================================

_________________
Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

It is a p -list corruption.It could have happened with the wrong m0,6..... and other commands with the wrong type of tools that use one key fix command too, or by may be previous experts who tried to repair it with hyper-terminals.If you have a back up of sys files, and right tools you can repair the corrupted p list.

_________________
Aroara M P Singh.
Data Recovery Factory India.

Thanks for your reply. As far as I know, no one has run any commands to fix firmware on this drive. I certainly didn't. The commands you see in my post are the only commands that have been run on the drive, as far as I know.

I've told the owner that I believe the drive has weak/bad heads, extensive media damage, and probably firmware damage because of media issues in the SA. We have agreed to wait and see what responses I get to this post before deciding next steps, which will probably be referring the case to someone with more experience and more sophisticated tools than I have.

I may also ask Dolphin Data Labs engineers to have a look by TV, which they have done for me on a couple of occasions in the past, as part of their excellent support.

_________________
Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

What happens if you disable reallocations and retries in ConGen?

BTW the head resistances seem to be within range of each other, ie ...

0x116 / 0x14C = 0.84
0xEB / 0x116 = 0.85

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

[quote="fzabkar"]What happens if you disable reallocations and retries in ConGen?

+1

Thanks Frac & colanco. I'll try tomorrow. I'm in the middle of reballing a GPU by hand, one 0.5mmball ball at a time, and quickly going blind.

_________________
Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

HP DV6000 ?

I did one.. never again!!!

I would check the serial adapter. It appears to be dropping bits occasionally. I suspect that there may be a mismatch in the TTL levels on each side of the interface.

AnitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2925!.
InitiateMarkPendingReallmcateRequest for disc_lba: 0000000000CB2AFC!.

Starting LBA of RW Request=0000000000087D87 Length=000001_4

(DOS) Read Error - 431100_1
(DOS) Read Epror - 43110081

(DNS)STE OGHT

3_1F2 2 2 0 4 1F 0 0 21 C203C 3D1F4
3D7E" 2 10 5 4 D7 0 5 D9 C20AB 3D7F2

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

@HaQue: No, it's out of a Macbook. Here is what it looked like after my first attempt: http://prntscr.com/6054ea. Unfortunately, too many balls merged after melting them to bond to the chip, so I had to do it all over again last night. Only 4 merged balls this time, which is fixable.

@Franc, Thanks, I'll do that. BTW, I would like to better understand why you made the calculation you did, to ascertain the health of the heads. Why the ratio of the head resistance of top/bottom heads of a platter?

_________________
Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

@Larry, you suggested that the resistances of heads 4 and 5 may be too low, whereas I was thinking that the resistance of head 1 may be too high. I tested these ideas by taking 0x116 to be a median value, and then comparing the maximum and minimum resistances against this median. Both differed from the median by around 15%.

An alternative approach would be to calculate the mean:

(0x0113 + 0x014C + 0x0116 + 0x00EB + 0xE3) / 5 = 269.4

269 = 0x10D

This makes head #1 look even worse.

Of course this analysis is a purely statistical one and does not take into account the actual failure mode of the read elements. That is, is it reasonable to assume that the resistance decreases when a head degrades, or does it increase? Morever, what is to say that the spread of measured resistances is not acceptable?

BTW, you might like to read the following thread:

http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=557

Note that the numbers will most probably be different for your model, but the principle may be the same. AFAIK, you should also disable Media Caching.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks Franc. I've read that topic before, and just did so again. Thanks for the reminder. I've had kind offers from colleagues on the DFL forum to walk through the diagnosis with me using TV, to see what we can learn/fix. I'll update the thread when I have any news to report.

Re. How to interpret head resistance vs good/weak/bad heads, variance from median seems as good a measure as any, I guess. I don't have the experience/empirical data to know a definitive method, but would love to hear of one.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

That's correct, bad heads, surface damage in the SA, and the only one I'd correct a bit, a ripening concentric scratch are the most probable options.
Also I'd suggest to be careful with attempts to clarify that, as this drive needs to be handled very gently to avoid its total loss.

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• Remote RAID, NAS, SAN, VMware, DVR (CCTV), flash and tape recovery. Data recovery support.

Thanks, Dmitri, that's what I surmised. I think I'll suggest the owner take it to someone with considerably more experience and better tools than I have. I've already told him, these drives are a nightmare, even for seasoned pros.

_________________
Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

finally did the drive recover?
i request you to reply ..
thanks.

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Aroara M P Singh.
Data Recovery Factory India.

My apologies, Aroara. I didn't see this post until today. The customer abandoned the case when he heard the cost of donors.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery