Seagate 320 GB HDD not detected by bios

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Sudarshan Govindaraghavan

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Jun 10, 2014
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I have a seagate 320 GB 7200.12 HDD.
It started showing imminent failure SMART messages recently and now the drive is not being detected at the bios itself.
The SMART parameter Reallocated sector count was high.
I could not create a full backup and i would like to repair the drive.Also the hdd activity light is always on and on connecting to pc the bios freezes sometimes.
I can sense the drive spinning up though.What could be the reasons for drive failure and how can i repair it ?
 
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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Too bad you didn't make a backup of it whilst it was working okay instead of leaving it until you start getting errors.

Drive failure can be caused by one or more of several things and it's not possible to pinpoint exactly what it is.
It could be failure of the PCB, failure of the read/write heads mechanism etc., both of which are not repairable by the end-user.

To get data off the drive you'll need to pay a specialist data recovery service.
 
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Sudarshan Govindaraghavan

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Since the drive is spinning and i do not hear any abnormal mechanical sounds, i think failure of read/write mechanism might not be the issue,PCB I am not sure about that,but it does not seem damaged in any way...

The bios or hiren's boot cd was not able to recognize the drive,it always shows up as busy.
The hdd activity led is always on and the drive freezes the bios for 10-15 seconds when i connect it..:??:

Could it be the BSY bug ? My drive is ST3320418AS running on CC49 firmware...Is there any way of fixing the drive..? So far the drive could not be detected on any dos tool..Including Seatools.
Should i try connecting serially ?

Thanks..
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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It's not the 7200.11 BSY bug. Most probably your drive's G-list (grown defect list) has overflowed, or it is staying busy becaue it it trying to reallocate bad sectors. The solution is to connect to the drive's serial diagnostic port and disable read retries and reallocation. Also clear the G-list. Then use a tool such as ddrescue to clone the drive, sector by sector.

More information at the HDD Oracle forum ...
 
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Sudarshan Govindaraghavan

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Will clearing the G-list result in a data loss ?
Also if i clear the g-list and smart data will i have the drive functioning normally again, will there be any reduction in usable capacity due the bad sectors..?
Its okay to have loss in capacity by a few GBs but i would like the drive to be functioning again somehow ...
Are you sure about this diagnosis ?,Can you provide me the link where you find this info about the g-list clearance ?
One more thing when the drive was reporting imminent failure and the smart attribute reallocated sector count was too high,i did a surface test of the whole disk and surprisingly there were no bad sectors on the drive,so i thought it might be a false positive...

Thanks a lot...

 
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fzabkar

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Clearing the G-list will result in the loss of data in those sectors, but if you don't clear this list, the drive won't come ready.

That said, if the drive is remaining busy because it is trying to reallocate bad sectors, then perhaps you don't need to clear the G-list. You may just need to disable retries and reallocation.

See http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?t=557

You will also need to connect to the drive's serial console using an appropriate adapter (< US$10).

http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?t=193

http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=192
 
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Sudarshan Govindaraghavan

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I looked upon the links you gave...
You want me to disable the retries and reallocation correct..? ,But i cant clearly figure out which commands to execute.
Can you provide me the exact commands to execute on the terminal...I dont want to mess up the drive...
The drive is ST3320418AS running on CC49 firmware...
Will this adapter do the job ..?
http://www.ebay.in/itm/CP2102-USB-2-0-to-TTL-RS232-UART-SERIAL-CONVERTER-MODULE-ADAPTER-JUMPER-WIRES-/271505526378?_trksid=p2054897.l5658

and one more thing..I could not find F3 tools or STCOMTools for seagate...can you provide me with a link...?

I am also attaching a smartctl log i took when the drive was failing...perhaps it will help you diagnose the drive better,let me know if you find anything...
Thanks a lot fzabkar...

smartctl log : http://pastebin.com/ZnmrJ8cr

EDIT:
I got F3 T>,got a list of commands by typing F ,
executed F"RWRecoveryFlags",00,22
F"ReadRetries",00,22
but no change in drive status,Its still not detected by bios.
and Hdd passes spin up spin down operation..
What else should i try ? Is there a way to diagnose the problem with the terminal ?
 
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Sudarshan Govindaraghavan

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I checked the logs by using /L and then I commands at terminal.
The drive reports 0x00008000 which happens to be prime seek mode enabled as mentioned in F3 manual i found on hdd oracle forum,not idea about what is prime seek mode...
I did not see any immediate diagnostic messages when i got the terminal :(.
I checked the sign on message using control L and there were no read write errors.
The firmware information was also correct.
The only message was highpowermode message when i spin up/down the drive.

I have created a thread there at hdd oracle (Seagate 7200.12 not detected by bios) but it has to be verified by the admin before it becomes visible.
Thanks a lot..

UPDATE:I tried resetting the firmware on the drive using CONTROL C command. and then i tried
Self healing tests as specified in this thread
http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=664
B10,B11 and B12 went fine..
B13 failed and i did not proceed with the test.
And right now I am facing difficulty getting F3 T>
The drive is not responding serially.
When i disconnect and reconnect the power.It shows

Rst 0x10M
Servo Processor Is Reset.

RW: Disc Ctlr Initialization Completed.


ExecuteSpinRequest


(P) SATA Reset

but remains stuck at this.no effect of pressing CTRL Z.
Please help..
Thanks.
 
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