HELP! - Seagate 7200.11 Firmware Problem

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nuyork

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I am desperate for help on this topic.

I've got a Seagate 7200.11 500GB hard drive that I use for my boot drive. Last night when booting my drive it decided to not be detected in the BIOS any more.

I've read up and I believe this is a common problem with these batch of Seagate 7200.11 drives. I've got the - BSY error: it happens when your HDD enter on a halt state, or BuSY state. In this condition, your HDD will not be recognized by BIOS at POST moment.

There is a fix for this problem, and if I remember correctly someone in South Africa on one of the forums managed to do it the exact way that was explained in this tutorial. As he had a Seagate 7200.11 drive which also failed after a few months or so. I know when the guy did it, he show his whole process similar to what this guy did with pictures attached in a local forum somewhere, but I cannot remember what forum. It could have been Prophecy, PC Format or NAG. (I hope he reads this)

http://www.msfn.org/board/solution-seagate-7200-11-hdds-t128807.html

I've had my drive for over a year now and this only happens now!! :(

So I'm trying to find someone who has had experience with this issue or knows how to perform this procedure, to please contact me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! Please I'm desperate! Please PM me!!! There is about 500GB of data on this drive (that I need) and I know if this is performed that the drive will work again just like normal and the data is all intact and still there.

All this happens NOW.....when the next day I'm about to go buy a brand new 2TB hard drive and transfer all the data off this drive to the 2TB, and take this 500GB out my system and use it as an older backup drive. I cannot believe it!! Typical, cause just about 2 weeks ago, I installed SeaTools and it detected this drive and told me that there is a firmware update for my 7200.11 drive. I should have updated it then, but I was going to be getting the 2TB in a few weeks anyway. DAMN!!!
 
I have the same problem....to be honest Im in a little bit of a pannic:o
I have 2 x 500GB Seagate drives and one of them have just packed up....not even 6months old. The one that has packed up has close to 460Gb of HD footage of a Transnet video I had just finished....eish!

OUPA, went to the site you suggested and downloaded the drive detector. It only picks up the working drive (a twin of the other one - same model) but says no firmware updates available.

Working drive

picture.php


Broken drive

picture.php
 
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Leftfoot said:
OUPA, went to the site you suggested and downloaded the drive detector. It only picks up the working drive (a twin of the other one - same model) but says no firmware updates available.
Click to expand...

That site is pretty clear, upgrade your drives to SD1A firmware, well the working one anyway.

You have ST3500320AS drives with SD81 firmware (from your pics) which is affected so you have to upgrade.
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/downloads/firmware/ms-sd1a.exe
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/downloads/firmware/MooseDT-SD1A-2D-8-16-32MB.ISO


HTC_guy on these forums can get your data back, http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php?u=55667
I could probably do it as well but have not tried it yet.


Related threads:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=154381
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=196728
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=163284
 
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I've messaged you back DarkWhisperer. THANKS!!

Thanks for the replies.

I've phoned 2 data recovery places and both are familiar with this Seagate 7200.11 firmware problem. They quoted me between R5000 and R6000 to recover 500GB of data off the drive, even through the drive is perfectly fine, just the firmware is buggered. They said when they are totally able to get the drive working again, but they said they have had problems that if they disconnect the drive once they have it working that once connected again to another computer it might not work. So they said, once they have it running they prefer doing a complete backup of the drive, before they disconnect it.

It all boils down to how important that information really is then. Well honestly it is not worth R6000. I would prefer the fix that is suggested in the tutorial, which seems a whole lot cheaper. So if anyone out there knows how to do the fix via the tutorial, I would be most grateful and even pay you something for helping me out (not R5000). Someone preferably in the JHB/PTA area. I am going to Cape Town this Friday for a week, so I could also organise then.

I even checked now on Seagate's website - https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk/ - and when putting in my serial number - 6QM0J3QT - it still says that my hard drive is not affected and no updates are available. My firmware is SD81, which is the listed firmware that has the problem.

I'm thinking of going to Seagate South Africa (are they still around here in Witkoppen?), and see if they can fix it free of charge and backup my data free as stated in some article I wrote, but that was back in 2008, not sure if that option is still open.

In the end, I'm still desperate for someone online who has done the procedure who can help me out and try it on my hard drive. As I said, I'm willing to pay them if necessary.
 
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Did you bother reading the post above yours? Obviously not, contact HTC_guy, he is in CT I think but either way a Speed Services would suffice.

Screw Seagates website, it contradicts itself.

You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink, therefore it must suffer ;)
 
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Thanks! I'll organise with HTC_guy when I'm in CPT.
 
Seagate sucks!!! Lost 6 of the 4x 500gb Seagates i have. And i think another two are failing again. Luckely i have no important data on them anymore. They are getting to be expensive doorstops.
I'm switching to samsungs....
 
When these brick, do Seagate replace them? I have had other drive replaced (via Rectron) as they were with their warranty. Old, fat 250GB lasted 4.5yrs, died and was replace with a newer, slimmer 250GB. Still sealed in package :)
 
So I managed to contact HTC_guy and he was able to help me out while I was in Cape Town for the week. He managed to save all my data and update the firmware of the drive so that I can still use it. Thanks a million HTC_guy!!
 
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