PC specs (setup on 08 Dec 2010)
ASUS P7P55D-E
4GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium
MSI N460GTX graphics card
Corsair 750W PSU
1x Western Digital Caviar Black (1TB) - OS installed here
1x Seagate ST2000DL003-9VT166 (2TB) - added on 23 dec 2010
PC was working fine all the while until 03 Feb 2011, i tried to boot up my PC.
The PC refused to boot pass the Marvell BIOS screen and hang there for about half an hour with the word "initializing"
I thought my mobo has crashed after only 2 months of usage 
After some trouble shooting, i realised it was the ST2000DL003 hard disk that give way.
When i plug the drive into SATA II port, the BIOS will not detect the ST2000DL003 hard disk but the computer can still boot up windows 7 but with some lag. The lag occurs when the bios goes to auto detection mode on the port that this ST2000DL003 hard disk is installed on.
When you goto BIOS setup after running POST, the HDD is not detected in BIOS.
In Windows 7, the HDD is not detectable. Not even in computer management->storage.
When i plug into SATA III port, the boot hangs at Marvell BIOS screen.
The hard disk is definitely spinning when the computer powers up.
I have already tried the following
1) Switching SATA ports
2) Jumpering the Seagate drive down to 150MB/s
3) Changing the power cable
4) Reflash my Motherboard with the newest BIOS available from ASUS
5) Remove the CMOS battery
6) Changed to AHCI and then back to IDE again
7) Change SATA cable
I highly suspect this issue is similar to the 7200.11 hard disk firmware issue.
The ST2000DL003 i have is on firmware CC31. There is already a new firmware CC32 on the internet.
All i require is a Seagate representative to help unbrick the hard disk so that i can at least update the firmware and salvage my 1.3 TB of data in the HDD.
My calls to Seagate customer support always ended with them telling me that
"Sir, your hard disk does not have firmware problem. Your serial number is not in the list of hard disk with firmware problems".
Well, my thoughts
1) ST2000DL003 is too new a model to sell enough to gather as many complaints as the 7200.11. Of course it will not turn up as a firmware problem on Seagate website.
2) I can accept if this disk is ,more than a year old and the only way is to RMA it.
But this disk is barely 2 months old and the only solution i have been given is to RMA the HDD?
Can't any Seagate representative try to at least unbrick the hard disk for me?
I am cool if the data is erased during the unbricking process, at least Seagate tried.
My PC is still working....but i want the data on my seagate HDD back.
Can anyone offer me assistance?
