Reload Deskstar firmware without recognising drive

[David Gould]

My GXP180 sounds like the scrambled NV-RAM on this page:

http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/ibm-deskstar-hard-disk-drive-data-loss.htm

Unfortunately DataClinic quoted me £800 to fix it. They said that
it's caused by a component failure and that the fix would only last
until powering down.

I'm not convinced but even then I can quite happily restore my own
data if I could only upload the firmware.

The Hitachi tech support have kindly sent me a copy of the firmware
but have only provided me with the Drive Fitness Test program which
will only upload it if it can recognise the drive.

Unfortunately, neither my BIOS nor DFT have recognised the drive since
the problem started.

I haven't tried a second machine & I haven't tried setting the drive
params manually in BIOS.

FWIW, the problem started very suddenly whilst I was out of the room.
The drive was the Secondary Master and somehow my Master Boot Record
on the Primary Master also got scrambled. Running Win2k SP4. The GXP
has serial #: G3C0A61G.

Appreciate any help that costs < £150 ($250)

Dave, http://www.deep-trance.com
Guaranteed life changes in Bristol, UK

No2ID "more sinister" than government snooping - Baroness Gibson
http://www.no2id.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=1417#1417

 

[David Gould]

A company called iDriveRepair want to charge $295 for trying to fix it
remotely. It occurs to me that if I get a 2nd 180GXP, I can either
fake out DFT by switching the IDE cable, or simply reap the working
PCB.

Comments/suggestions?

Dave, http://www.deep-trance.com