Hi,

I have searched for a solution or some pointers to my problem but can't find any, so I'm posting a new topic.

I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500gb drive with firmware SD15. Sunday morning it suddenly wasn't visible in BIOS and I ended up getting another HD to keep me going.

I also got another Barracuda of the same part number and size (but turned out to have a different firmware number - SD1A) from ebay, as my complete ignorance of hard drives told me it must be a pcb issue as the contacts looked a bit oxidised to me.

When I swapped the pcb's over today, BIOS now recognises the drive, and it is visible in Windows Device Manager, but none of the partitions are visible in Windows Explorer.

In Disk Management in Windows 7, it shows the drive but says it's not ready and can't be initialised "I/O Device Error."

So next I decided to try and update the firmware to SD1A so the disk would match the pcb I put on it.

I used Seatools and it directed me to the Seagate site but when it's run, the firmware update won't progress in the reboot phase saying "no firmware match"

I'm a bit stuck now and wondered if anyone has any advice for me?

Cheers,

Joe

Based on your description, your original hdd has a system area fault - notorious with this model drive.

Swapping the PCB will not solve your problem however. You need to put the original pcb back on the drive and address the original issue. Retrospectively applying the firmware upgrade does not work, especially with the wrong pcb.

The system area repair is not a DIY job if you have no experience, so if the data is valuable, I suggest you contact a professional in the UK. There are lots of guys here who can help you for a reasonable price.

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Data Recovery Ireland

Thanks for the reply. I am skint now with a new baby and we're down to one income, so paying for recovery isn't possible for me at the moment.

I am reasonably good with electronics and PC hardware work and would like to take my chances with DIY, and learn about the subject - I might learn something which helps out someone else along the way.

I don't think I have any data on there which is irreplaceable either as far as I can remember.

Is there a DIY thread/route you can point me to at all? I have my soldering iron at the ready

Thanks,

Joe

SD15 FW is a well known Seagate srewup . As for the fix -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29FztWJVxbM

Rememebr , in ALL DIY runs u always have a chance to screw ur data. So if ur data is important or u feel uncomfortable - i suggest searching for a proffesional help. ( Especialy since this issue is not expencive to fix )

Another one for u.

tutorial-resolve-lba-seagate-7200-bios-don-recognize-t11040.html?hilit=SD15


And one more thing. Contact Seagate. They might to pro DR for free. They have some sort of a stupid criteria u have to match. But AFAIK - SD15 issues are worked on. Altough i had a customer with the same problem and SD46 FW and seagate declined recovery for him...

That video is great - makes it all look so easy

Well, I'm going to find a Nokia cable now and will report back. Do you think the original Nokia cables have the Tx/Rx markings on the pins or was that an aftermarket part?

Thanks,

Joe

That video is great - makes it all look so easy

I've ordered a genuine Nokia cable and so it looks like this weekend before I can get stuck in trying to fix it. Do you think the original Nokia cables have the Tx/Rx markings on the pins like in the video or was that an aftermarket part?

Thanks,

Joe

Pinout of Nokia's Pop-Port connector:
http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhones-Nokia/ ... nout.shtml

Use pins 6 (Rx), 7 (Tx), and 8 (Ground).

Sry Joe , i have no clue about the markings. Gl m8.

I'll report back on this thread when I have a go. Thanks again guys, I am likely to be back with questions..and hopefully a write-up

Check to see if your drive is covered under the seagate free repair before you do anything. Not sure if they are still running this, but do check.

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Data Recovery Ireland

Hi,

I got my CA42 this morning from Expansys (next day delivered - top notch!) but when I went to Maplin (like Radio Shack but UK version) they didn't have any of the crimp connectors needed to put onto the wires from the cable to go onto the jumpers on the drive, so I'm stuck (and gutted as I'm ready to get going on this!!)

Anyone know where I can get some connectors from in the UK?

Also, is there anything here which can do the job?

http://www.screwfix.com/cats/A331814/Electrical-Supplies/Cable-Accessories/Crimps-Terminals

or

http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?MenuNo=12326&MenuName=Crimp%20Terminals&worldid=-2&FromMenu=y

Thanks,

Joe

My posts are still being moderated, so an update is that I found them on RS website if anyone needs them in the UK:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/sear ... &R=3148026

With the time wasted, frustration and money spent on bits and pieces, not to mention the risk of bricking this drive - you really would have been better off sending this to a pro in the UK - this fix is cheap. Then again, if you like the challenge, I wish you luck.

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Data Recovery Ireland

Thanks for the warning - I do like the challenge - well the method in the video looks like it's doable at least.

My genuine Nokia CA42 cable doesn't appear to have the pcb inside with markings on it by the way, so this may make it more tricky as there are 6 pins on the phone end of the cable (some may be just blanks I suppose - I'll find out when I chop it down).

Ok, so I have got as far as finding out that the red wire when plugged into TX makes Windows recognise the modem.

How do I go about figuring out which of the other wires (blue, white, black, yellow) is the correct combination for GND and RX?

I have my multimeter here but can't figure out what to do with it to figure out the wires.

So close...yet so far!

Use you multimeter to test for continuity between the Ground pin of the USB connector and each of the coloured wires. That wire will be your Ground.

Here is the pinout of a USB connector:
http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml

Your CA-42 modem should appear as a virtual COM port in Windows. Use HyperTerminal (or Putty) to connect to this COM port.

With all the coloured wires disconnected, type any text at your keyboard. You should not see any echo. If you do, then turn off the "local echo" setting.

Now take any pair of wires and short them together. Type any text on your keyboard. If this loopback test is successful, then you will have found your Tx and Rx pair. If not, keep trying until you do.

Thanks for that. I've done it and found the black has the only proper reading on continuity setting (very low Ohms) so that confirms the ground.

The snag with the CA-42 that I have (a real Nokia one) is that it only shows in Windows (I'm on 7 by the way) when I connect the HDD to the red pin at TX or the unused pin on the jumper block.

Do you think my CA-42 is a duff one or am I doing something wrong? I also wondered if I could switch wires around to find the TX/RX by doing the CTRL-Z key sequence or is that not correct? I've read so many things and learned so much I've befuddled my brain a bit!

Cheers,

Joe

My CA-42 is also one of the ones where the wires are encased in the white/opaque resin with the copper foil around it if it makes a difference.

Ok quick question for you all - why does my PC recognise the cable as a modem only when red is attched to TX pin of the HDD?

Hmm, I just read that swapping boards over from a working drive of the same type is likely to have scrambled the drive - err, I did this initially - is this true? Am I flogging a dead horse?

PS Sorry for the number of posts I'm making but I can't edit them for very long after I post.