Seagate Bricked Firmware Drive Fix (With Pics) - Page 5

To jroymd,

I´ve fixed the drive with "our" CA-42 cable - the TX and RX cabels were switched for some reason - when I changed places it worked like a charm. I actually used ended up using 3,3V from a power supply connected to the red wire and GND connected to the black wire and to the drive. I also powered the drive from the SATA-power on the power supply. It should work for you as well with your CA-42 cable so you don't have to cut your newly order cables... All the best /S

I repeated your tips above. The device manager recognized it as a Nokia USB Modem on Com3 but not a separate port. Checked all connections, reversed TX and RX a few times, but no communication between Hyperterminal and the semi-disconnected PCB on the 1.5TB drive.

Still waiting for more cables... Quite a collection piling up.

By the way, I have read how several people insulated the 16(?) pin connector while others insulated the central three pin connector prior to programming the PCB. Do you know which are the correct pins to temporarily insulate or does it really make a difference?

Hi,

I had a Seagate ST31000333AS model 7200.11 1TB HDD and it's stop working . This is an external HDD with USB case. I was using for backup and couple days ago I tried to get some files from my HDD and I couldn't reach the drive. HDD motor start to spin up but after couple seconds heads are parking and spin down and start over again (forever). I thought optimist AC adapter is broken and not enough power for USB box, I plug it to Desktop but result was the same. I fixed many HDD before some of my friends (notebook, desktop, Raid 5 etc) but this time it was my data's

I searched many forums on internet and I read about there is a fuse part on pcb. I replace that fuse but nothings changed. And I decided to use serial cable solution. Here you can find steps and some clues about my progress.

I bought a CA-42 cable. There are 2 type of it. One is original and the other is 3rd party. But both are working well. The original has 5-6 thin cable but mine has only 3.

Cut the phone side and use pin sockets



Mark GND (I checked with OHM meter) on my CA-42 there are 2 cables left. One is Rx and the other one is Tx. On original one when you open blue USB box you can see RX-TX-GND written on pcb.

Some people are using paper block on motor side and some of them using on data side. I used thick business card on data side. Loosen screws on PCB and put paper between pcb and data pins



After this point when I apply power on HDD, heads are did not parked. I realize that problem is on PCB. If you working on Vista there is no Hyperterminal anymore. You can search on internet "hypertrm.zip" and open on a folder and use hypertrm.exe. Here are the steps:

1. Plug CA-42 cable to USB without any connection. And install drivers about this cable. Under device manager you will see new device. Pls note that Com Port number. Mine is Com Port 11

2. Unplug USB side and plug small sockets on HDD serial port. I found GND already. If your system cannot talk with HDD switch Tx with Rx



3. Apply power to HDD, motor will start to spin up and plug USB to your computer
4. Setup Hyperterminal. My port is on Com 11 :

Bits per second : 38400
Data bits : 8
Parity : N
Stop bits : 1
Row control : N

5. After this point when you press Ctrl + Z keys you have to see below screen on hyperterminal if you cannot see switch Rx and Tx

ASCII Diag mode
F3 T>

now here are the commands : (P.S. be careful to uppercase and lowercase while you write commands)

F3 T>/2
F3 2>Z

If it's ok you have to see.

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.140 msecs

If you see after Z command

LED:000000CC FAddr:0025DDD9 or similar message listen to your HDD. When motor is down (not spin) press Ctrl + Z next /2 and next Z . Now you have to see Spin Down Complete on screen.

Now do not move HDD and remove the paper between PCB and Data pins. (Meanwhile all the cables are must be attached on HDD "USB and power cables"). Be sure to tight screws especially on data pin side.

If you're ready press U key and spin up motor

F3 2>U

After a while you have to see below message

Spin Up Complete
Elapsed Time 8.363 secs

After pressing U if you will see below message there was a problem on communication between PCB and HDD. Means PCB is not touching pins correctly. You have to start over everything from 1st step.

DiagError 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 39.083 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180

After Spin Up process motor will keep up spinning

New command is : /1

F3 2>/1

Next : N1

F3 1>N1

and : /T

F3 1>/T

Now while USB is attached to the HDD remove power cable from HDD. Wait 10-15 second and plug the power cable back. HDD will start to spin up

If you cannot type any command on screen pls press Ctrl + Z. And type this command i4,1,22 (be careful to uppercase/lowercase)

F3 T>i4,1,22

Now is the heart of commands : m0,2,2,,,,,22 (yes there are 5 commas)

F3 T>m0,2,2,,,,,22

After this command progress will take some time. Don't worry. Get a cup of coffee and relax. You have to see similar to below message. Important one is "User Partition Format Successful " now we can reach our HDD again.

Max Wr Retries = 00, Max Rd Retries = 00, Max ECC T-Level = 14, Max Certify Rewrite Retries = 00C8

User Partition Format 3% complete, Zone 00, Pass 00, LBA 00004AA5, ErrCode 000
00080, Elapsed Time 0 mins 30 secs
User Partition Format Successful - Elapsed Time 0 mins 30 secs
Zone re-format was skipped.

Remove everythings from HDD and connect to the computer in normal way. Turn on computer you are able to see your HDD again.

Of course copy all important data's on another media in any case.

This connector I made for better usage



If you sure about cables triple socket



If not seperated sockets




Good Luck
CyberGuy
Edited by cyberguy - 8/30/11 at 8:55am

To Saolix:

I gave up on the Thailand CA-42 cable. Vista recognized it, but that's about all. There was no communication. Today, I received two more CA-42 cable from the link suggested by USER928754, which repeated below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370128943335

These are the CHINESE cables with little circuit boards with serial designations that you can actually read!!!! Oddly enough one cable header was black, the other the usual blue. Luckily, I bought two, because the potting material covering the IC splashed over and partially covered up the GND and RX silkscreening on the circuit board. The other was legible. As stated before, for the three wire Chinese cable the serial code/wire combinations are as follows:

BLUE wire -- GND
GREEN Wire -- RX
WHITE wire --TX

I made up new connectors by taking the pins from a Radio Shack DB-9 kit, spreading apart the forked end of the pin slightly, flattening half of the pin with an ultra fine pair of needle nose pliers, rebending the fork so the two halves tough each other, and then covering each connector with 1/8" shrink tubing. I thought this worked quite well, but I'll have to admit that little mini-connector that CYBERGUY (or CYBERGUYTR) made up has to be the classiest connector of all time for this fix.

Anyway, the sixth cable in my long journey communicated right away with my extra "test" Seagate 1.5 TB drive. I used the drivers that came with the Chinese connector, specifically the Win Vista DKU-5 driver (version 3.0.1.0). This is a driver for the Prolific USB to TTL converter chip. I tried using the newest driver form the Prolific Technology website (3.3.2.105) but it kept giving me errors on the Vista Device Manager.

The only dilemma I face is that I am not sure which error I have. It seems likely it is one of the two previously cited in the MSFN Forum: 0 LBA or the BSY problem. I read the posts by Gradius2 where he states:

There are two common errors on Seagate 7200.11 HDDs (caused by bugs on firmware):

- 0 LBA error: it happens when your BIOS can recognize your HDD at POST moment, but as an 0MB drive.
- BSY error: it happens when your HDD enter on a halt state, or BuSY state. In this condition, your HDD will not be recognized by BIOS at POST moment.

My computer attempts to boot, goes through the post, but hangs up during the sequence. It allows me to continue to the BIOS by pressing F1. The BIOS identifies the drive but with ZERO megabytes. I do not know if that is from the LBA 0 error or if the drive is hanging in the BSY state (BSY error). After three weeks, I would hate to initate the wrong fix.

Can anyone clarify my drive's problem? (This question was also submitteed to the MSFN forum.)

Hi,

Most of the times a virus will cause such problem. And sometimes partition table corrupt. You can solve boot problem with fdisk /mbr command but you have to recreate HDD partition for reach your folders and files.

You can search on internet there is a cd image called "PE recovery tools" . This is a CD and you're booting your system with that CD, it's containing many disk/data recovery tools and diagnose tools as well.

Meanwhile you can try to use "DI Partition Recovery" tool for check your HDD

Good Luck

I appreciate your prompt answer (and and the pictures of that great little mini-connector).

Why do you think my drive's problem might be a virus or corruption of the partition table as opposed to the LBA 0 problem? The LBA 0 problem described by others seems very similar to my problem.

Hi,

Normally we're using serial cable method if system cannot detect HDD. In your case you're able to see your drive.

I though you already tried this cable test/diagnostic.

Some of my friends had the same problem an they recovered their data's with recovery tools.

You can download DI Partition Recovery trial version and give a shot.

BR

To Cyberguy,

I tried the DI Partition Recovery, but it does not acknowledge the existence of the "bricked" Seagate 1.5 TB drive. Yet, I immediately ran the Seagate SeaTools for Windows which can find the drive, but the drive fails all the disks tests offered (and shows as ZERO megabytes in BIOS setup).

I guess I'm still leaning toward the LBA 0 fix. I just hope it's non-destructive.

Just let me get this straight; it's either one one the other ........

LBA 0 fix -- No pin separater card.
BSY fix ---- Yes to pin separater card with different programming instructions as per the Gradius2 posts in MSNF forums.

Is this the correct thought process or do I not understand the problem? I tried the LBA 0 fix on a "test" 1.5 TB drive with no loss of data. Once I firmly pin down the problem, the next step is to implement one of the two fixes.
Edited by jroymd - 12/4/09 at 10:49am

Finally, success. I tried the LBA 0 fix and I have restored the Seagate 1.5 TB to its former perilous self. It took six cables, alot of driver loading and unloading, and a little luck. Now I'm not sure what to do with the drive. The firmware checker on the Seagate website says there is nothing wrong with the drive, although the tech suppport person at Seagate stated weeks ago that there is no cost-effective way to save the data and the drive has to be replaced. I can't reflash the firmware, because the flashing utility states that I do not qualify for a firmware upgrade.

The one thing about which I caution others is the card insulator topic. To me, a novice in this firmware fix area, I think there is a over emphasis on the PCB removal and contact pin isolation which apparrently does not apply to the LBA 0 problem but rather the BSY problem. In retrospect it is clear, but for first-timers I'm not so sure it was obvious. I just hope the BSY error does not show up now.

good job jroymd , i hope u can find a use for that drive and if not u can always give it to some one els who can take a chance with it , in any case +reps for u