seagate 1tb is now possibly a paperweight - any recovery programs?

[abitavenger]

hey i have a seagate 1tb sata drive that cannot be read when hooked up to 2 different computers. I checked the bios settings on both and they are both A-ok for sata. Are there any programs out there that will help me in my situation of recovery or just being able to read the hd?

[johan851]

If the BIOS can't see it, a recovery program won't be able to see it either. Can you hear it spinning up?

[abitavenger]

i can hear it spin up and it stays spinning. just can't see it for some reason

[abitavenger]

like i said i hear it spinning up and can feel it but why cant i see it with either computer?

[Bobnova]

Sounds like the onboard controller ate it to me.
You might be able to get another one of the same drives and swap controllers.

[nd4spdbh2]

7200.11 series?

figures.... another seagate bites the dust, another reason for me never to buy seagate again, they really have gone downhill.

[abitavenger]

7200.11 yes correct.... so im guessing this is toast? will newegg rma this? is this a problem seagate has been having recently?

[nd4spdbh2]

well they had a firmware "issue"... u might wanna try and flash with new firmware but ur gonna loose all ur data regardless.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=599868

[abitavenger]

i cant flash it if the bios cant see it right?

[thideras]

i cant flash it if the bios cant see it right?Once it breaks, you can't fix that board through normal flashing. Basically, the data is gone unless you can swap the PCB with a working drive. What happens is the board gets stuck in an endless loop of sending the "BUSY" signal. The motherboard eventually skips the drive (which you see by it not being listed) since it can't get a response from it.

[nd4spdbh2]

oh ya, dur if the mobo cant see it theres no way ur flashing it.... man im sorry call up seagate and RMA the sucker. you dont have to use their special shipping materials... i just had to rma 2 7200.10 250gb hds... put em in a static bag and packaged them real well.

[vlaszlo]

When you "flash" new firmware to hdd, it is written to platters, not into eeprom, so pcb swap is pointless... If the data is not very important, try to rma it. Data recovery on 1TB drive is very expensive, and if you try some DIY hacking before, it will be either impossible or with extra charge.

[thideras]

When you "flash" new firmware to hdd, it is written to platters, not into eeprom, so pcb swap is pointless... Where did you get this information? When you flash the drive, you are, indeed, flashing the chip on the board. How else was I able to recover the data off a drive that had this exact issue? I swapped the board with one that didn't bite the dust yet and retrieved all my data.

[Randyman...]

So you can -or- can't see it in BIOS? Your first post seems like it is detected "A OK" in BIOS...

If it is visible in BIOS - I'd consider Spinrite. Not cheap, but you will find uses for it in the future if you use more than a handful of HD's...

:cool:

[vlaszlo]

Where did you get this information? When you flash the drive, you are, indeed, flashing the chip on the board. How else was I able to recover the data off a drive that had this exact issue? I swapped the board with one that didn't bite the dust yet and retrieved all my data.

From being a member of "http://forum.hddguru.com/ "
since "Joined: 24/9/2006, 08:25"


hdd recovery is VERY-VERY complicated thing.
Beginners just screw up drives forever....

A direct PCB swap on Barracuda 7200.11 series is not possible. The ROM chip has adaptive information on it which must be transferred to the donor drive. Unless you are good a soldering I do not suggest you do this yourself as if you damage the ROM chip all your data will be inaccessible

Before spending money on a new PCB that may not work for you due to the adaptive info, research TVS! You might get lucky and that could be the only damage on your PCB...

[vlaszlo]

So you can -or- can't see it in BIOS? Your first post seems like it is detected "A OK" in BIOS...

If it is visible in BIOS - I'd consider Spinrite. Not cheap, but you will find uses for it in the future if you use more than a handful of HD's...

:cool:

forget spinrite, thats a crap. Seriously.

Try MHDD for diagnostics...
For recovery try to CLONE bad drive to GOOD drive first with prosoft mediatools, copyr.dma or other sector-by-sector copy tool, then recover on good drive.

[Randyman...]

forget spinrite, thats a crap. Seriously.

Try MHDD for diagnostics...
For recovery try to CLONE bad drive to GOOD drive first with prosoft mediatools, copyr.dma or other sector-by-sector copy tool, then recover on good drive.

LOL - Spinrite is FAR from crap, my friend. To each his/her own I guess :screwy: Steve Gibson is no chump :p I'd agree cloning might be a good idea before you run any intensive recovery tools...

[thideras]

A direct PCB swap on Barracuda 7200.11 series is not possible.This is going no where. I gave my suggestions and you can take them how you want. I was simply saying if he had another drive that he could try (keyword = TRY) to swap it since that worked for me.

[vlaszlo]

This is going no where. I gave my suggestions and you can take them how you want. I was simply saying if he had another drive that he could try (keyword = TRY) to swap it since that worked for me.

Yep, i agre with you on that dont want to argue, just i see 5% chance for succes.
IF the data is important, dont play with the drive. (since OP talked about recovery)

[abitavenger]

I cannot see the drive in the bios. I checked the sata settings and I still cannot see it. I think we have come to the conclusion that I am no longer a Seagate fan boy anymore...

As far as recovery I have file scavenger but since I cant see it in the bios it doesn't help. If seagate is going to do recovery for free then they can do that I really don't care. It was just a 1TB storage drive with a bunch of junk. So basically if it wasn't recovered then it would just cost me a bunch of time but its nothing that isn't recoverable elsewhere.

[>HyperlogiK<]

This happened to my USB HDD and one of the drives in my server (being an idiot I bought a number of 7200.11s when they first came out). There isn't just a firmware problem, a fair number of drives also have some kind of electrical issue with the PCB.

Seagate was actually offering free data recovery [as well as replacement] on some affected drives, but the b******* seem to have stopped doing it recently, even though the problems still exists.

If it is the firmware problem then this might help:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&st=0&start=0