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

[Sammy3]

Hello,

This hard drive was originally in a seagate freeagent external enclosure.

ST31000333AS

Firmware: SD35

One morning when i went to turn it on - it would spin up, turn off (spin down) and then try spinning back up (in a continuous loop). The hard drive does not click at all - but is not recognized in windows or the bios.

I searched the web and found out that this is caused by a firmware bug/issue - and ive downloaded the new firmware - but I cant flash it as it is not detected by my computer.

So I looked on the web and found this guide on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29FztWJVxbM

And tried doing the same thing for my hard drive.

When I connect it to my pc (in hyperterminal with apiece of card under the pcb) and try to do any commands such as

ctrl z
/2 enter
z enter

or

/1 enter
n1 enter

or

/t enter
i4,1,22 enter

or

ctrl z
m0,2,2,,,,,22 enter

I get the following error that keeps repeating:

 LED:000000CC FAddr:0025DDD9

And when I remove the card from under the pcb If just gets stuck in a loop again (spin up,down etc)

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024CDC9
Rst 0x20M
(P) SATA Reset

Does anyone know how to fix this? - or what im doing thats wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help,

I have over 900gb of data on the drive I want to get back

[Cantbecanit]

Where are youputting the card mate, I did my 500 model at the top of the board near the centre of the drive only, some others have used card over on the left near the bottom, can't say for sure if this would cause it, and check you have the correct pins on with the patch lead, and one other suggestion, use Putty, it's free as well.

[Sammy3]

Hi thanks for the reply

Im using a usb to serial ttl lead and connecting it to the pins on the back of the hard drive (where the jumpers go).

The piece of paper/card is under the pcb preventing contact as in the youtube vid i posted earlier.

The pins are round the right way (ive tried the send/recieve the other way round - but all i get is a blank screen in hyperterminal - cant send any commands).

Im not sure what else to try?

[Cantbecanit]

Yeah, the vid does it the other way, as I can't link a pic I'll have to say as best I can, slacken the three screws on the PCB that are nearest the centre of the drive, with the raised spindle hump, insert the card to blank out where what looks like an arm running under the board from the spindle area, try it that way and don't blank the one that you have been this time and see if that helps, if not blank both next time, and try using the Putty program instead of HT in Windows, lemme know how it goes either way.

Message Edited by Cantbecanit on 02-10-2010 07:05 PM

[Sammy3]

Hi thanks again for the reply,

ive now tried blanking the middle one (that goes to the motor) and both with no luck. I tried sending the commands and just get this error back that repeats:

LED:000000CC FAddr:0025DDD9

I will now try putty

Any other ideas? 

[Sammy3]

Putty does exactly the same thing

[fzabkar · Accepted solution]

Terminal commands are Case Sensitive. You can do SERIOUS damage if you get the case wrong.

Here are repair procedures for Seagate 7200.11 drives:

http://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807

Tutorial with photos:

http://www.overclock.net/hard-drives-storage/457286-seagate-bricked-firmware-drive-fix-pics.html

Pinout of Nokia CA-42 cable's Pop-port connector (use pins 6,7,8):

http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhones-Nokia/nokia_pop_pinout.shtml

See the following technical bulletin:

http://atulchitnis.net/files/seagate.pdf

[Sammy3]

Hello thanks for the reply - 

I just tried it again (being case sensitive),

And it got it to do the first command

/2

/Z

Spin Down Complete

Elapsed Time 0.132 msecs

But trying to do the  S.M.A.R.T. erase (create S.M.A.R.T. sector) or any other commands:

F3 1>N1 (enter)

Always fails.

I take it you cant do it with the card/paper under the pcb blocking the head contacts - but as soon as I remove the piece of card it gets stuck in a continuous loop powering on and off, preventing me from entering any commands:

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024CDC9
Rst 0x20M
(P) SATA Reset

Any ideas how to get round this?

Thanks again for the help

[Sammy3]

I just managed to do it

Whilst it got stuck in the loop of powering up/down I managed to send a command quickly and do the smart erase and it seems to be working correctly now - I I just have to flash the firmware now.

Can this be done over a usb to sata bridge?

Thanks again for your help

Sammy 

[fzabkar]

AFAIK, you cannot update the drive's firmware via a USB-SATA bridge.

You have a Windows option and a FreeDOS option, but both require that the drive be connected to a computer motherboard. Sometimes the firmware updater cannot access the drive in native mode via the SATA controller. In these cases you may need to configure the drives in legacy or compatibility IDE mode in the BIOS setup.