Hello, I need some help and guidance to retrieve data from a Seagate SSHD
Model: ST1000LM014
Firmware: LVD3
It stopped working while used in a laptop, without a cause (no drop, fell, electricity etc), computer just freezed and that is all.
BIOS or OS doesn't recognise the drive anymore, no spin, no sign of life. PCB or disk doesn't have any visual defect, I am not very keen on electronics so I couldn't check it more that wise.
I swap its PCB with another disk's PCB of same brand-model-firmware-date (simple windows formatted before as GPT, no partition etc empty one data wise).
After PCB swap It was recognised by OS with right model, size etc and it shows as unallocated, but when tried to interact, it just freezes trying to read the disk or something. So I used a CH341a to read broken disks (Patient?) and new disks (Donor) ROMs, did a secure erase on Donor, copied Patients ROM to Donor. It is recognised in BIOS or OS, but interaction same, when you try to read or query it freezes almost computer hangs.

I used CH341a + PuTTY for a terminal connection

If I just power up the disk, terminal output:
*** continues to repeat

If I just power up the disk, and use CTRL+Z, terminal output:
it stays like this for 5-6 minutes, I thought it will not change and didn't wait anymore,

I send "/O" in the terminal without power recycle (so terminal was interactive not frozen or busy etc), output:
*** "LED:000000BC FAddr:00005657" repeats like 30 times or so for half an hour and goes on, and terminal not interactive anymore or drive is so much busy to react.

It seems very similar to problems in this topic:
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php ... 8&start=20

I actually posted there but it is from 2023 and no reply so I post a new topic (I hope I dont break any rules with this)

I attach Patient and Donor ROMs.
I need opinions and help if possible, thank you.

RECOV Servo Op=0100 Resp=0005
Doesn't see the servo. ROM and NAND have nothing to do with it.

SIM Error 5000 LBA 0000000000097E38 FD 3811611F
0x011F Work Load Management Log File

Inspect and replace heads if surfaces are intact (if you have experience and equipment).
Let the guru correct me if I'm wrong.

Seeing disk kinda alive (spin etc) after PCB swap, I thought main problem source was NAND related. I dont have enough experience + equipment for head replacement.

Update:
I didn't try before, I was thinking PCB was dead cause of some electronics problem, now I tried and got response with Original ROM and PCB

terminal output:
and no more interaction in the terminal

P.S. I can not pm it seems, idk why

This is typical NAND Flash error.
Nothing to do with heads.

There are several ways to fix it, Ace has a blog post about it with step by step instructions, if you have PC3K.
If you don't, then you need to outsource to someone experienced.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

I think so, NAND seems to be the problem. I dont have PC3K. Similar posts points I need a patched FW to initialise NAND, do you think an already patched copy of same model-firmware from another drive will work and will give access to data? If I had 1 more similar drive I would test this, but I dont know the structure of ROM, my current knowledge is way less to decide, I dont know if any individual data saved in ROM about the DATA of drive, and/or if it will block access to NAND so I will end up with having 2 non working PCB-NAND

datdit,

As far as I understand, the patch helps to clear the NAND on a faulty disk.
If the donor was in good condition, the NAND is cleared on it without a patch or problems.
Then the patient's ROM is written and the board is transferred.
And yet I am of the opinion that the heads or plates are faulty...
But I am not an expert on SSHD.

Sorry for late reply, I got all data back and first few days I was busy to organise data then with some other stuff to be busy with.

Thank you very much!
Also thanks to who replied and some other

Even I have less knowledge then you, yes it is safe to say it is a NAND problem, It seems FW has no fail-safe against that kind of a problem (It must imo, since NAND is just a way to make disk work faster in work? I would prefer a slower disk then a-bye-bye-all-data-suddenly-disk)
Maybe with different firmware revisions of this or similar models it is possible to directly swap PCB + ROM makes it work without a patch. Without patch I was not able to make "/OI" work.
I will try to learn more when I have some extra time. I copied all data I need and can experiment with the disk now without any fear.

Indeed disk had some bad sectors etc but heads were safe I think, I will also try to get some extra information about that. After all disk was used for a very long time. But before NAND initialisation and after NAND initialisation things were like black-white, very different, and no spinning with original PCB etc was spicy.

Again, thank you all! This is a good place with good ppl imo.