Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[Immy74]

Drive is ST3500321CS, Firmware: ES11, Date Code: 09491

For some reason when computer is either shutdown / reset / poweroutage, the drive "unmounts" itself.  During restart, drive doesn't post to bios, even after 5mins.  The only way I can get drive to be seen by bios is to use my Linux live CD, and remount then shutdown Linux, and during next boot, the drive is present there.  Bios is only 2 years old and can handle all of today's drives, etc.

Any clues on how to fix this, other then run a Linux os as a main os?

[fzabkar]

Could it be a Power Up In Standby (PUIS) issue?

See sections 4.20, 7.19.6, 7.52, 7.52.7, and 7.52.8, and Table 40 (words 83 and 86), of the following document.

Working Draft ATA/ATAPI Command Set - 2 (ACS-2):
http://www.t13.org/documents/UploadedDocuments/docs2010/d2015r3-ATAATAPI_Command_Set_-_2_ACS-2.pdf

To modify the PUIS setting, you could use Hitachi's Feature Tool:
http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/ftool_user_guide_198.pdf

[Immy74]

But is that even usable on a Seagate drive? and safe?

The drive originally came out of a Direct TV DVR.  Someone left one out by the dumpster and I picked it up.  I was starting to think that maybe someone tossed the box and thats why the drive is screwy, but the box has no scratches.

I have no idea what you have described for me above, just find it wierd that it will not show in bios unless I boot linux to mount it.  And if I run Win 7 after the mnt w/ linux it will work good and all, but if I shutdown system forget it, have to reboot w/ linux, mnt it and shutdown, reboot and run Win 7..... pain in azz.  Also I have another drive by Seagate, it started to fail booting, ran some older tools on drive that I had, found out several LBA's were damaged.  Failed short test, Long test showed 9 LBA errors, but all were fixed. Possible drive is on the way out?

[fzabkar]

Using Hitachi's Feature Tool to modify the PUIS setting on a Seagate drive would be perfectly safe because it uses a standard ATA Set Features subcommand rather than a vendor specific command.

The fact that your drive came out of a DVR makes perfect sense. In such an application one would expect that the drive would be powered down when not in use. There are two ways to wake such a drive out of standby. One is to send it any read or write command that requires access to data on the platters. Another is to send it a special Set Features ATA command. It appears that your BIOS doesn't understand how to wake your drive, whereas Linux does. Once Linux wakes the drive, then BIOS can see it.

As for your other drive, you could try a comprehensive SMART diagnostic. Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows / Linux):
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:
http://hddscan.com/

See this article for SMART info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

[daemonfox]

Dont bother with the Hitachi tool it is useless.

The HDAT2 recommendation is perfect.

Burn the image to CD/DVD, reboot from CD/DVD

Follow the tutorial and browse through the lists of settings and READ THEM ALL. Find the list with the commands to power up or standby etc... and choose to power up the drive. Esc back to the main list and find the list with the word FEATURES in the right hand list.

Here is where the 4.20 section of the dovument linked above comes in.

"The PUIS feature set allows devices to be powered-up into the Standby power management state to minimize
inrush current at power-up and to allow the host to sequence the spin-up of devices . This optional feature set
may be enabled or disabled via the SET FEATURES command; may be enabled by use of a jumper or similar
means, or both . When enabled by a jumper, this feature set shall not be disabled via the SET FEATURES
command . The IDENTIFY DEVICE data or IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE data indicates whether this feature set
is implemented and/or enabled."

So... once powered up, the drive will allow you to execute those various commands in the SET FEATURE section... Go ahead and enable SMART and disable PUIS. Esc to prompt and CTRL + ALT + DEL

You should now see the drive appear in your POST SATA/IDE listing and in your BIOS as well as windows/ whatever OS you like.

FYI i noticed just booting Mini Linux via Hiran's BootVD 12.0 and then rebooting into windows made the drive power on and visible... but a shutdown and boot without it yielded no drive.

Have fun with your new drives!