repairing Seagate disk ST3750330AS

[zalekbloon]

My Seagate disk ST3750330AS failed. It was unrecognized by Win or Linux, even by special Seagate diagnostic software. By touching the drive I knew that plates are turning. After some reaserch on the Web and youtube I come toconclusion that the problem is PCB. I emailed
http://www.onepcbsolution.com
with description of the problem. I got an answer that the problem probably is not PCB but a firmware and they recommended:
http://www.hdd-parts.com/seonelithseb.html.
I checked the site. The video looked scary, but I decided to try it - what a heck - I can lose $50 and gain my pictures which were worth to me more than $50.
So I tried - AND IT WORKED!!!
The disk was repaired and I got all my pictures!
Some details - first attempted failed, somehow the terminal got stuck and refused receive any key entry. I don't want to mention what kind of curses Ithrough on the company owners - now I am ashamed what kind of cruel death I wished they will die. After a cooling period and one beer I repeated the procedure - the 2nd try was much better, but although did not receive all response which the video showed I should get, but anyway I continued. After completion the procedure with my hands shaking I connected the drive - and voile - PC recognized it! I checked the folder with pictures - they were there!
So if your disk crushes - maybe it is not end of the world...

 

[Paul]

My Seagate disk ST3750330AS failed. It was unrecognized by Win or Linux, even by special Seagate diagnostic software. By touching the drive I knew that plates are turning. After some reaserch on the Web and youtube I come to conclusion that the problem is PCB. I emailed
http://www.onepcbsolution.com
with description of the problem. I got an answer that the problem probably is not PCB but a firmware and they recommended:
http://www.hdd-parts.com/seonelithseb.html.
I checked the site. The video looked scary, but I decided to try it - what a heck - I can lose $50 and gain my pictures which were worth to me more than $50.
So I tried - AND IT WORKED!!!
The disk was repaired and I got all my pictures!
Some details - first attempted failed, somehow the terminal got stuck and refused receive any key entry. I don't want to mention what kind of curses I through on the company owners - now I am ashamed what kind of cruel death I wished they will die. After a cooling period and one beer I repeated the procedure - the 2nd try was much better, but although did not receive all response which the video showed I should get, but anyway I continued. After completion the procedure with my hands shaking I connected the drive - and voile - PC recognized it! I checked the folder with pictures - they were there!
So if your disk crushes - maybe it is not end of the world...

Seagate has had the odd problem, along the way.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1098793&cid=26542735

As I understand it, the controller board has a bootstrap
firmware. Whereas more of the code is stored on the platter.
So changing the controller board, does not "fix" all the code.
A way is needed, to update the firmware on "track -1". I
don't think an ATA standard firmware update command,
does anything to firmware on the controller board itself,
which is just a bootstrap loader.

The bootstrap loader, and the track -1 code, have to agree
on data structures, where things are located, and so on.
Which is why, if you had an actual hardware failure on the
controller board itself, and swapped it out, there would
need to be some match between controller board and HDA.
If you look at the main chip on the controller, it has a
long long part number, implying there are many chips with
different mask ROM firmware loads.

By the way, I don't see a video link in your posting...
So I don't actually know what you did. Changing the controller
board is not likely to fix this particular issue, as near as
I can determine.

And due to the controller refusing to entertain commands
if the platter firmware doesn't load, at that point you
might need the TTL serial port interface trick, to issue
some kind of command to do a repair.

Just be careful you don't spend $50 for nothing. And also
check with Seagate tech support, to see if the model and
serial number, qualifies for free data recovery.

Paul