Seagate Bricked Firmware Drive Fix (With Pics) - Page 3

I am thankful for the continued interest in this topic. I guess it is still relevant.

I have tried to overwrite/update the firmware with SeaTools, but the program will not allow it, because the drive's firmware CC1H does not qualify.

I'm interested in how kurosu was able to get i365 to fix his drive for free. I called them last week, and they said it would probably cost a minimum of $700. No freebees were offered.

I have been able to have my secondary Vista boot drive identify the CA-42 equivalent data cable as another port, and I'm able to reassign the COM number, but as of yet I cannot communicate with the drive or other similar drives.

I will try to use the pinout that Saolix posted. It looks to me like Pin 6 is white (phone Rx), pin 7 is blue (phone Tx), and Pin 8 is black (GND). I'll see if I can communicate with the drive.

This solution works perfectly. I fixed my 500 gb drive last night. I did not lose any data. I had to do the optional parts as my drive did not respond to the last command the first time through the procedure.

If people are looking for an alternative to the phone cable, I used a "USB to TTL" device I have for another purpose. It is based on the CP2102 chip. I checked on ebay (search for "CP2102"), and there are a couple of sellers with these sort of devices. I used (forced windows to use them) the VCP drivers from silabs to create the required com port.

THANK YOU FOR THIS INFORMATION !!!


User1202

Yup,I can confirm this fix works. I used it on my Seagate 1TB that was affected by the BSY error with no data loss. I watched this youtube video though ( YouTube- Seagate 1TB BSY error fix 7200.11 Firmware SD15 ST31000340AS ) which links to the article posted by the OP as well as showing step by step visual instructions on how to prepare the cable and where to hook the pins,etc.

I still am having no luck connecting the "semi-connected" harddrive board to my PC, probably because I cannot determine the correct wiring with the many CA-42 connectors I have purchased. Once again as you can see from the pictures, not all CA-42 connectors are created equal, and none of them have any designations. The first two connectors (front/back pictures) are recognized as a Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (Com2), but I cannot transfer data. When I jumper my supposed Rx and Tx lines, I do get echo commands on Hyperterminal. Unfortunately, I cannot communicate with the bricked drive. I purchased an identical Seagate 1.5 TB drive that is fully functional, but I cannot communicate with it either. Seems like the converters were at fault although they were recognized as comm ports. I finally bit the bullet and purchased an actual Nokia CA-42 data connector, but this was even worse. As you can see from the third picture, the unit is made in Thailand, not China like in the previous posts. The USB head does not pop open. You have to carefully cut it open, because it is completely molded as one unit. Again unfortunately if you open it, the unit is internally sealed with heavy copper and shrink wrap. (I'M STARTING TO GET REALLY ANNOYED HERE!!!) Even worse the computer does not recongize the USB converter before or after the Nokia Software is installed. Another $27 dollars down the drain.

What bothers me is that I viewed a YOUTUBE video were a guy stated that the OEM Seagate drives have nonfunctonal jumper pins compared to the retail harddrives. So I not sure if I've been wasting the last two weeks and $100-plus trying to fix the drive. I have yet to find any information as to the actual designation of these four pins, other than the pinouts listed in this thread. The Seagate site only talks about slowing the drive down for older SATA controllers by jumpering the left two pins. Shouldn't I be able find the pinouts on the Segate site or did I miss it?

At this point, I am at a loss. I guess I'll have to go the USB to Serial to TTL converter route. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jroymd,

This is the CA-42 cable I bought ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370128943335 ) At the time of this posting there are 5 available. I would buy that one. Once you get it there will be a USB end and an end that normally would connect to the Nokia. Cut off the Nokia end and strip the insulation. There will be 3 wires. One blue. One Green. One White. Strip each of those wires of insulation. Attach female RS232 pins ( http://www.frys.com/product/2065227;...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG ) to each of those wire ends.

Now on the USB side, the only thing you have to do is take off the plastic cover. There are no wires to fiddle with or anything you have to do on that side besides take off the plastic cover.

The cable that I linked to above from ebay should come with a driver CD. I put the cd in the drive and plugged in the cable. It was automatically recognized but not as a modem, it just showed up like another COM port, COM6. I opened HyperTerminal and chose COM6 and adjusted the settings as shown in the Youtube video ( YouTube- Seagate 1TB BSY error fix 7200.11 Firmware SD15 ST31000340AS ). It said connected but it was at a blank screen. I pressed Ctrl+Z and input the commands as show in the video. You do have to wait a little while after that last command. But once it says "User Format Partition Successful", your good to go. It doesn't actually format your drive, all your data is still there. You can unplug and put it back in your box. I just did this whole procedure no more than 5 hours ago.Brought my once dead HDD back to life.

If you can get loop-back to work, then maybe the problem is the reference (gnd). It could be a bad connection to the drive, or a tx/rx reversal. You have probably tried the latter already. Get the part number off the IC in the middle picture and get the datasheet for it. That should give you all the information you need. It should tell you if the IC is actually putting out TTL, and where the TX, RX and GDN connections are.

I found that the pins that are on the hard drive are very small. Maybe the pins you are choosing to mate with the drive are too large and are not making a proper connection. I had to use very tiny pins to get a good connection. I found that the ones the youtube video recommends too large.

Thanks for the great info! I have 2 of the 7200.11 1tb seagate drives. Neither is posing a problem (yet!) Thank God, but I had a couple of questions in the event that they should ever "brick"

1. When you crimp pins on the ends of the cable, where do the green, white and blue wires attach on the drive?

2. Why do you have to remove the housing for the usb connector if you don't need to fiddle with the wires there?

Thanks again for a great tutorial and REP + for you!

+ REP for the great info!

Thanks for the rep Hollywood406

To answer your question, the 3 wires attach to the small jumper pins on the back of your drive.
If you hold your drive upside down with the PCB facing the ceiling and the connectors facing you,from right-to-left you will see: the SATA power connector,the SATA data connection, and 4 small jumper pins. Let's focus on those set of 4 jumper pins since when the drive is in a BSY state that is the only communication it recognizes (SATA port is locked out). If we look at the jumper pins, going from left to right, the first pin is not used for anything, the second pin is your ground, the third pin is your TX and the fourth pin (closest to the SATA data connection) is your RX. After you crimp your pins, the blue wire connects to the 2nd pin(GND), the green wire connects to the 3rd pin(TX), and the white wire connects to the 4th pin(RX). Once those pins are seated properly(not touching each other,fully connected with the jumper), then you can plug in your USB side and begin the setup process on your PC.

As to why you have to remove the housing. Thats a good question. Now that I think about it I guess you really dont have to since there is nothing to really do there.My only guess is possibly to make it a little easier to plug in if your tight for space with a bunch of other USB devices plugged in, also if you wanted to manually verify the wiring or something. Really though, theres no reason and at the time I didnt think about it I just followed the video.I certainly didnt modify mine and it worked fine. Hope that answers your questions.

Sure did, Thanks! I just hope that I never have to use this tutorial. In any event, I buy Western Digital and Samsung drives now. If Seagate ever gets their s~~t together again, I might try them again.