OK, I'm trying to learn how to use the Seagate terminal interface and have successfully connected both ATA and SATA models. It looks like the best set are fCCCC and fAAAA which rewrite the factory and user code from spare copies. When I run each, I get 5 or 6 OK's and then a "check sum ERROR" and when I reinitialixe the drive, I get the error listed in my subject after a normal startup. This leaves me at the F> prompt.

Is there any way to simply force it into user mode or to get the drive to report to the system?

I will happilly clone it to another drive and see what I get if I can force it to be online.

Thanks

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

what?

I don't think you did what you think you were doing. Error reading reserve tracks means your drive can't find the SA.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Ah, you are right:
fxxxx: Program the FlashROM with either AT- or CERT-built code stored on the reserved tracks

xxxx = AAAA Flash with AT (customer) code
xxxx = CCCC Flash with CERT (factory) code

So, I reflashed the PCA from the media. Luckilly, no harm done as PCBA wasn't changed.

Can I bypass the failure in the SA or, how do I correct it.

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

The actual error I get is "Error Reading Reserve Track Defect List"

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

I still don't think you are quite getting it right. What command level were you in when you input the command? Did you supply the code to write to tracks using SDLD or something like that?

From what I can tell you have overwritten the ROM with something. Meaning the information stored in ROM is gone. Meaning that you have no way to access the data anymore.

Perhaps Doomer or guru or someone more knowledgeable of seagate terminal can put in their two cents.

Defect list is the first thing it tries to load, afaik. Sounds like your PCB is completely unable to read anything from media.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Have you overwritten the ROM by a chance ? In any case, do you need the data or the drive ? (If you still need the data, well... it's going to be a tough job :S)

In the 80's, we did thousands of component level repairs on hard disk drives, including readjusting the pll's and other analog components. In the 90's, we did thousands of head swaps ( I, once, even resoldered the broken head wires back onto a Seagate 4.3GB drive after noticing the stack was visibly misaligned. ).
I really detest the recent policy by manufacturers to call technical documentation and schematics proprietary secrets!
I don't believe there is any electronic or head damage at this point. How tough is it going to be?

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

Davis, you have all the background needed. Probably you only need some update. Times are changed, markets and technologies either. It's not a tough job, but you have to continuously RESEARCH, UPDATE YORSELF and INVEST. INVEST means time and money. Much money. But the results will come.

Beside this, if you have destroyed the unique adaptives of the drive, only advanced techniques and , yes, these are MORE than proprietary secrets, of course - can revive your drive and maybe get the data back.

From your posts, seems that you were poking with commands. I always warn people : terminal commands are dangerous if you don't know EXACTLY the scenario and what you are doing. If you can trace back exactly what you have done try posting the first logs, then the commands issued and the results and we'll try to give an answer. Otherwise, the drive needs to be analyzed right from scratch by an expert and then make a final conclusion.

P.S. it took me 2 years of attempts, trial and error and a lot of time - plus the equipment needed - to develop a method and gear for try getting data back on two brands drives where adaptives are destroyed or, for example, the entire SA is destroyed. 2 years of my life... this is the answer about how tough it is going to be.

Most of the times this message occurs due to faulty heads , also check pcb contacts for carbon .

In this particular case the drive was probably fine before the user ran some arbitrary terminal commands though.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

The only two commands which wrote anything flashed the PCA with the CERT code ( fCCCC ) and the AT user code (fAAA); but, they were both read from the reserved track(s) which belies the idea that the media cannot be read or that I am having any serious hardware problem.
I have the terminal command reference document; but, it is maddening in the lack of any methods to solve a problem and precisely what any error messages may mean.
Given that the drive can read from portions of the reserved tracks, is there some way to tell it to use those alternates or, better yet, ignore the error and report to the SATA (user) interface?
I appreciate your help, guys and am trying to learn (always).

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

what level does drive initialize at now?

my guess is F, meaning that it is not properly starting up, meaning that you have erased critical adaptive data and the PCB is unable to read any information from the media at all. meaning you cannot fix it or even communicate with the SA until you have replaced the adaptive data. if you did not back it up before overwriting it, then you're pretty much out of luck.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

It has always started in F with "Error Reading Reserve Track Defect List" after a 15-20 second delay.
I think; though, that the error is on the media not in hardware.

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

There is a copy of reserved track defect list maybe u havent damaged that u can send it to a pro thats ur last hope .

rameez,
I am a pro with over 32 years of experience in fixing computers and I'd be willing to bet that I could teach you an awful lot about things you never dreamed of; but, rather than follow that train of thought or to chastize you for an attitude .........
Why I am here is to learn; to add somethng new to my arsenal of knowledge and, I hope, to be able to help someone else in return.
Does anybody else care that the manufacturers have secreted away all of the specific details about how the media is organized, how to address problems that ought to have fixes provided by those same manufacturers, or do I have to buy into some secret society in order to learn?
OK, so there is a backup copy of the defect list. How do I copy it to the right place or tell the drive to start using it?

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

you will need to have pc3000 or similar tools and lots of training.

people who know how to fix that sort of thing didn't learn overnight or by getting told how to do it on an internet forum and frankly you aren't going to get anywhere with that kind of attitude.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Hi,
All info you need is here on this forum but it's in the minds of a few members, the Gurus.
Unfortunately for you and many others and also for me its like a closed society. That means nobody is going to give out the info which has been gained through many hours of hard work and experimentation.
Perhaps if some of the people here see you are working hard at it and can see you are near your goal they might step in and help you.
It has hardly ever happened to me but I have since learnt to not worry about it and find even the small snippets of info that come out into the open useful.

I am enjoying reading this thread as I like you would also like to understand more about the posibilities with using the terminal commands in the repair process.

Have you noticed there is no 'sticky' telling people how to use the terminal command set?

Myself, you and many others will just have to accept this open forum as not as open and free as we would like.

Davis, I have been servicing PC monitors and other peripherals, and I have always bought the service manuals, single or collections, and the collections, organized in volumes , were in the hundred EUROs each volume range. Did I complain ? No. They have to be paid off by repairing.
If you buy some specialized complex for servicing and repair, it comes usually - either brand new or used - with the complete documentation. But you have to buy something. A terminal command set publicly disclosed will be dangerous and is much probably an infringement of some copyright (not sure for this). Beside the legal issues, improper use of commands has the effects you are trying to revert. And in any case it will be foolish enough to spread something that could at least bite us in the ass. You have still in mind the old good times of the dawn of the IT era dangerously mixed with some "emule culture" and "freedom of information" principles. Times are CHANGED and , as I usually say, war is business but for me business is WAR. That's all.

I had well over $100,000 dollars invetsed in service manuals; Tandon TM-5xx drives, NEC printers, OKidata, IBM PC/XT/AT; over 40 feet of 6 foot tall bookcases. I donated them to a computer club when I closed my shop in 1999. Maybe I didn't mention that I had 20 employees and a 10,000 square foot computer repair business for 18 years.
Yes, it was a different era when you used an oscilloscope, logic probe, front panel, and schematics to track down the problem and a soldering iron to fix it (or reengineering to correct a design defect)
Most of the data recovery jobs I get are easilly handled by simply cloning the failing drive and I really don't get enough of this kind to justify a PC3000. On the other hand, I take umbrage at OnTrack or Drivesavers charging $3,000+ when they have the actual details from the manufacturers and only need a couple of hours work to do it.

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Computer Dinosaur, servicing PC's since 1976 http://www.Computer-Help.Net

Search this forum for Seagate Diagnostic commands.

Something might come up

****Beware of what you find. This is a Promethean situation. Just because someone took it and posted it here does not mean that it will not come back to hurt you by using it. Be prepared to destroy a ton of drives****