Hello Gurus,

There is no shock or blow to the hard disk drive in the Seagate FreeAgent Enclosure, niether has it been any power surges or spkies, but now the harddisk is not working. It cannot be detected by the operating system. However it was working fine just a day ago.

I took apart the Seagate FreeAgent Enclosure and to my disappointment it was the famous Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 One Terabyte harddisk inside it, which has gone down with all my valuable data which was never backed up. Tried hooking up the hard disk to an external sata enclosure box. The disk spins up, makes some mild clicking sounds and spins down and keeps repeating the same procedure, even tried hooking it up with the PC's internal SATA connection and the behaviour is the same.

I have read a lot of reviews and rescue stories about this particular mode of seagate, but am unable to figure out what could be the reason or where to start looking for the recovery process. It can be the firmware problem, or any other mechanical or electronic problem.

I cannot send the drive to anyone outside the country, cause of customs regulations on export of imported electronic equipment.

I just want advice and guidance as how to proceed ahead. If i try changing the PCB first then what are the exact parameters that need to match with any new donor drive. Similarly if I further try to find someone to exchange head or platters then again what specific attributes need to exactly match in any donor harddisk.

You can also write to me if you have or want to sell any donor harddisks.

My details are as follows :
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
Model: ST31000333AS
S/N : 6TE08QZ5
P/N: 9FZ136-568
Firmware: SD35
Date Code: 09204
Site Code: SU
PCB (printed on right corner of PCB) : 100512588 Rev A

Thanks a lot for helping in advance.

Probably your disk doesnt need a head swap and certainly not a platter swap (that would destroy your data).
Search this forum for Terminal connection to Seagate 7200.11 and post the results here. That could help to make a proper diagnosis. My guess is a LED CC error, and unfortunately, that is not something you can fix yourself.

Dobre

_________________
Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

You need expert help. This is most likely a big problem, not simple Seagate 7200.11 issue !!

Believe me - try nothing, if your data is important. Otherwise do as you please, but you will
lose all your data, forever. Your chance of doing this yourself is about 0%.

There are no problems sending a disk everywhere if you follow the right procedure(s). The countries where there are effectively BIG problems are few, and as you have access to the internet, you are not on them.
So what's the REAL problem ?

Well actually they are. A long clearance procedure is to be fulfilled before sending out any electronic equipment like hard disk out of the country via regular express courier service. If I were a business firm then i would have gotten all necessary license and permissions to send the faulty hard disk unit out to the regional head offices for warranty returns and etc. But since I am an individual it is quite a hefty and time taking procedure to obtain all regulatory permissions.

Thank Anyways.

Hello

Well why is a head or a platter swap to a same model harddisk not possible ? If i am able to find one.

Do you think a PCB swap of a same model can fix the issue. Secondly I wanted to ask that this same model is not available in the market anymore . Can I try swapping the PCB with that of a Seagate ST31000528AS (1 TB). Are there any chances for it.

Sorry for the stupid questions , actually I dont have much clue what to do. I dont have a terminal connection device and they are not easily available over here in the market.

Thanks.

It is possible just not possible for you.

PCB swap will not work without modifications. There are no chances.

Aceept your fate, send it to a pro if the data is important.

What device is needed to make a terminal connection and how to do it since I am new-bie. Can i purchase any terminal adapter online preferably the USB one. Is it a beginners how-to guide for using the terminal adapter, please guide to any purchasing links or price information.

Thanks.

Read this post here http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seag ... 09f8962792

Watch out; its on your own risk. Start by posting the terminal log, so we can do a proper diagnosis.
Dont try every solution you find on the net without beeing sure it is the solution to your problem; else it can make things (much) worse.

Dobre

_________________
Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Thanks Everyone,

Just wanted to ask that is it possible that HD Doctor Seagate for Windows (USB version) by Salvatation data can be of any use to me in this case and can offer maximum utility to revive the hard drive. Or if in case do I need any other accompanying product with it to make a more effective recovery. I am assuming that in this case by using HD Doctor (Salvation Data) I am not disassembling the drive.

Thanks again.
AlterEgo.

What country are you in?

Don't you see, he is trying to figure out where he is locating......

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

Thanks for the concern,

Yeah well figured it out now. At present I am in Karachi, Pakistan. And it kinda takes too much of time to send electronic goods like the Hard Disk due to length approval and documentation procedure.

You don't have to send it out of Pakistan.
One of the forum members is from Pakistan. Rameez, I believe.
He should be able to help you.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

Thanks Harddrive Specialist.

I will tried contacting rameez and waiting for his reply, by that time do you or anyone else thinks that my situation can be cured by using Salvation Data HD Doctor Suite. I was planning to buy one and have asked for a quote. But only if it can be really useful to bring such hard disk cases back to life. Any other product with a high remedy rate can also be recommended.

Regards,
S.F.Hasan.

There's something really strange : you cannot send a drive / electronic stuff outside Pakistan but you can buy hi-tech equipment from China...

It is not strange. It is simply an anti-terrorism norm. I am a no-pro, but I am very sympathetic with your case. My little experience for what is worth: Try definetly to have a USB-TTL or SERIAL-TTL adapter to get a terminal log. I used a Nokia cable CA 42, after some experiments it worked great. See the link above (on msn.com) where there are a lot of explanations about it too.

Look at what you see in the Terminal window (to be sure to not make things worse, do not send any command. Possibly only CRTL-Z). If you get
LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051
the firmware issue is a candidate. Be careful, it may not be the only one. Good luck.

Drives with the firmware problem don't click and spin down.

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

Sorry I was editing the previous post, but then I get (after 2 minutes) a timeout. [Errata previous post: msn.com read: msfn.com]

You may try a second type of diagnosis. It will cost you nothing. You should however avoid external boxes and attached the HD to the MotherBoard.
Download this program:
http://majorgeeks.com/Victoria_for_Windows_d5688.html
It is a freeware. Follow the instructions from the post:
"Instructions for checking if your drive is set to BUSY state" in the same forum of msfn.com. It will tell you whether the HD is or not in a BSY state. The diagnostic will not write anything on the HD.
Good luck again.

@science2002,

You did not understand....