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

[mlugowski]

Have a HP Pavilion (a6700y) where it appears my hdd has failed.  drive is not being detected and computer will not boot up - gets stuck at blue screen.

I have a read a lot of info on the iternet about this error.  Looking for advice/guidance on how to fix it myself or at least recover the files/photos that are onthe hdd.  I have been told and from what Iread that i have a good chance of at least recovering my data from the hdd.

Have 100's of pictures from my 4-month old baby girl on the hdd and would love to not loose those pictures.

THANK YOU IN AVANCE.

Mike

[fzabkar]

Does the drive spin up?

What are the model number and firmware version on the drive's label?

[mlugowski]

barracuda 7200.11

s/n = 90m9c8w8

p/n = 98x144-621

firmware = hp24

not sure how to answer if the drive spins up - it makes noises like its working starts to boot up and then goes to a blue screen - never lets me get to part to choose user and enter paswrd

[fzabkar]

I don't understand what you mean by "blue screen". Is this the screen you see just after Windows has started to load, or is the computer still stuck in the BIOS?

In any case, your drive is affected by the 7200.11 BSY firmware bug. If your drive spins up, but hangs during detection, then it may be a victim of the bug.

Here is a thread that describes the issue:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/TouchSmart-PC/READ-THIS-If-your-model-7200-11-Seagate-Barracuda-drive/m...

This thread has a detailed explanation and an easy, inexpensive DIY fix:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/ATA-and-Serial-ATA-drives/Updated-firmware-on-a-bricked-hard-disk-but-n...