Hey folks, I thoughts I'd post something different and would love to hear from others.

So, in a nutshell, it is almost impossible to know how long a computer has been powered on.

There is no timer anywhere in Windows I am aware of, or the bios..etc

However, it does seem that the hard drives do have (well some) a record. 

Running HDtune, will show a figure .. like this.

Conveniently, this drive was fitted to my HTPC shortly after it was commissioned.

It stands as my only record of the amount of time the system has been running. Not 24/7... it gets shutdown fully every night., but is on again first thing every day. So About 18/7.

It works out to be about almost 7years , which is roughly the age of the system.

I guess I am amazed that the drive has lasted this long, considering its in a demanding environment for vibration from the enormous speakers that flank the system.

Thoughts?

Hello,

I have made a HDD upgrade from a classic IDE 44pin to a SSD in mSATA in 2.5"" drive enclosure with 44 pin IDE.Installation & running WinXP was okay,sometimes happen that after shutdown and startup that the registry was corrupted for a unknown reason.Besides that I have noticed that the SSD is running only on UDMA2 mode due to the 44pin ribbon cable.

I have checked the manual, the Intel 845GV is capable of UltraATA100, but in the manual,the 44 IDE connector layout shown the 34 pin PDIAG not used.The only way was to test it.I made a test cable with 80 ribbon cable and run a hdd diag utility under DOS.There I was able to see,that the UDMA5 was now active,so the 34 pin is connected,but not documented.

I tried to start WinXP in this mod,but they got stuck during bootup.I though that this could be caused by the cable.Next round was to get a 44IDE to SATA bridge (JMICRON chipset) and a 2.5" SATA to mSATA enclosure.Now I went to reinstall the WinXP completely,because the previous installation didn't start at all.In first attempt I got in the installer a BSOD with Page fault in nonpaged area,which I guess is related to a memory problem, in next phase a succeed to send phase of the installer where the system was installing the drivers and I got a BSOD with no specific error message.Now the question is, is this problem is reffered to a memory issue or this UDMA5 mode? Maybe the shutdown problem with corrupted registry already indicated some issue,but Im not sure if this is related to these IDE to SSD bridges & WinXP.

Any hints please?

link to POC-174 manual:

http://downloadt.advantech.com/download/downloadsr.aspx?File_Id=1-JU6RT

I have a 2TB Seagate "GoFlex Desk" with the "locked busy" problem however the internal drive is ST32000542AS (not ST2000xxx series).  The label on the drive says it's firmware CC95.  (I don't see CC95 mentioned ANYWHERE on the web).

I THINK the ST32000542AS is a 7200.12 series, but I'm not sure.  What method is suggested for fixing THIS locked drive?

Symptoms:

1) when powered on I hear drive spin up and heads sound like they're reading something - then it stops

2) drive shows up in device manager but not disk manager
3) when connected to a Win8 laptop Task Manager shows the drive is at constant 100% usage (locked busy)

4) when drive is removed from USB dock and connected directly to motherboard as drive "D" BIOS says "Hard drive failure imminent..." Windows starts but then locks up on splash screen (in other words simply having this drive connected jams up EVERYTHING).  Disconnecting the drive from either USB or mainboard Windows resumes normally.

I hope this drive can be "fixed" using one of the known methods ("7200.11 fix", etc.) or perhaps shorting the pads on the PCB (the "LP" fix)?

I don't need a long-term fix - just enough time to get the files moved somewhere else!

Any assistance appreciated.

Hello you all...

It was well known - but worth mentioning - that nearly all Sandisk Flash Cards sold on eBay are fake. Up to now, I had gotten only legitimate Transcend Compact Flash, but recently I received my first fake.

I bought an SLC one, the 300x 8GB, because it's much faster on small files, hence better for user data when not photos, better also if installing an OS or its paging file on it, or the temporary files from an Internet navigator, and so on. SLC is also more reliable; never lost data on an SLC CF card, while I know many destroyed MLC USB keys, with the data lost.

The received part looks very well: same shape precisely, well printed cover... but the speed differs! It doesn't offer the SLC's snappy access to small files, especially to write. More surprisingly, this part is faster on big files... Here are measures of a legitimate 300x and the fake, by Atto, through an almost sufficient noname Sata-to-CF adapter, on an ICH10R.

My best guess is that the hardware is an MLC 400x from Transcend (or equivalent), with fake covers from an SLC 300x, because the 300x sells for much more money. The identity read by Crystal Disk Info is also unexpected, as FTS8GCF300, unknown on the Internet. The added "F" must stand for "Fake"...

Transcend has already confirmed that they have produced no MLC variant of the 300x. (Not even the 16GB? I'm less than sure).

An other surprise: this CF of unknown identity gives its best performance with a Fat32 starting at 1MiB, which is the default formatting by Vista+, but doesn't align the clusters on the Flash lines and pages - probably a trick in beween by the card's microcode of 2010, which doesn't exist on the 300x CF. Related topic:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/151798-does-fat32-align-its-clusters/

I have "inherited" several 1 TB drives that "lived" in an old video server.  Every one I have tried to format comes up saying the drive is password protected and I need to enter the password (which I don't have).  I tried 3 different pcs, and all display the same message.  All I want to do is reformat the drives for use in other pcs.   Does anyone have any ideas???  I'm runnin' out of things to try.

Jim E.

Drives are Seagate ST3400633AS BARRACUDA 7200 rpm or equiv.

Hi,

Does there are any solutions for this problem.

I have no idea whether this is now known here, but it seems that during February and March, many ST2000DL003 (Seagate Barracuda LP Green 2000GB) drives have failed for users all over the world. Mine died a few days ago (2 days after purchase), so I tried connecting to its monitor to see what happens (and maybe try the N1/m0,2,2... fix), so here's what I've found out:

The dead drive is:

ST2000DL003

P/N: 9VT166-301

F/W: CC32 (NOTE: I've seen reports of this failure w/ CC31, too)

DATE: 11311

SITE: SU

Kind of failure: Without a previous hint of problem, the drive suddenly ceases to talk to the controller (i. e., it cannot be detected by the BIOS when the machine is starting up). The sound of the spinning up is perfectly all right.

I managed to connect to the disk's serial interface, and this is the diagnostic output it gives upon power-up. Hopefully someone qualified can step up and tell us what it actually is that the ST2000DL003s are choking on.

(P) SATA Reset

SIM Error 1009

RW Error 00000080

User Data Base 00990DE8

MCMainPOR: Start:

Check MCMT Version: Current

MCMainPOR: Non-Init Case

MC Seg Disc and Cache Nodes: 4011982C 4011793C

Seg Write Preamble VBM start: 000010A7 end: 000010CE

Footer - start: 000010D0 end: 000010F7

Seg Read Preamble VBM - start: 000010F9 end: 00001120

Footer - start: 00001122 end: 00001149

Reconstruction: MCMT Reconstruction Start

Max number of MC segments 22E0

Nonvolatile MCMT sequence number 000070B0

[RSRS] 0EBA

Reconstruction: EXCEPTION: Segment Overall Sequence Number Mismatch

00004221 00000000 A

Recon Last Chance Header ID FFFFFFFF SeqNum FFFFFFFF Current

Segment, Head

Rst 0x40M

MC Internal LPC Process

LED:000000BD FAddr:00005652

Apparently the firmware is running into an assertion failure based on something it reads from the platters when starting up.

The bad news is there's no way to fix this using the "seagate fix" described all over the various Internet boards (that is, issuing commands N1 to reset the SMART log and m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 to re-format the user partition), because one never gets to the monitors prompt (ctrl-z won't work after the firmware has stumbled upon the exception). Insulating the contacts to either the motor or the heads (or both) doesn't help in this regard, because Seagate, as it seems, has crippled the electronics on these new drives by making the monitor (and presumably everything else) dependent on something that first has to be read from the platters. In other words, while older disks would communicate on the serial monitor even with the PCB totally disconnected from the motor and the heads, these new drives don't even start to log anything into the monitor until after they've spinned up and read a couple sectors from the platters. I tried taking the electronics off from several drives I have lying around (7200.9, 7200.10, 7200.11 and also one 2.5-inch drive), and this new drive is the only one that needs to read something from the platters before starting the serial monitor. I can't resist commenting on this observation... It simply seems that Seagate has made a pretty bad [cost cutting?] decision here.

Also, if you want to try to connect to a dead ST2000DL003's monitor yourself, note that:

- this new drive needs 5V to send/receive on the TX/RX lines (as opposed to 3.3V with all the older drives),

- while some older drives would communicate at 9600 bps, the ST2000DL003 communicates at 38400 bps,

- using a PCB from another, completely healthy disk doesn't help, because although the PCB will be able to spin up the drive, it won't then be able to read the initial couple of sectors (perhaps because of some platters-specific calibration data stored in the 512K Winbond flash?) and thus start the monitor.

Hope this helps someone eventually.

During the XP years I built a desktop for a friend. For various reasons he
couldn't use it. I was about to tear it down for parts, when I decided to
keep it as a very secure file bin. It has NEVER been connected to any
network.

There are two eSATA drives. eSATA died a quick death, as soon as USB 3.0
came along.

The system is XP Pro_SP3. Both external drives are listed normally in Device
Manager. Drivers fully functional, etc. For some reason, one of the eSATA
drives no longer appears in Explorer or My Computer.

Both eSATA drives are equipped with USB ports. I tried a USB cable. It didn't
help. This external drive is visible and accessible when plugged into other
computers.

The hardware is fine. How do I make this drive visible again?

Here:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-for-q2-2015/

The way the data is represented makes IMHO not much sense, but the "general trends" are nonetheless clear.

jaclaz

Hi,

I was attempting to write an .img file (akin to .iso image) to my SD card using Win32diskimager (found here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/?source=navbar)

By mistake I wrote the image to my external HDD (Seagate BackupPlus 3TB). BTW, as you can read from SourceForge page, many others have made same mistake.

The HDD was not modified and had the factory setting; that is, it had one partition and was NTFS file.

The content of IMG file were no more than 73MB, but it created a FAT32 partition of 500MB.

My Linux and Win8 machines both see (but don't mount) the 500MB partition and show the rest as "unallocated" or "raw".

Windows wants to reformat this space.

I have access to another drive that is just like this (I bought two orginally) - that is, I have another spare 3TB Seagate BackupPlus that is empty.

Using CloneZilla I have copied (bit-for-bit, or sector by sector) a clone of the 'damaged' drive to the 'spare' drive. I will be using this clone for all recovery purposes and will leave the 'damaged' disk in a safe place.

TestDisk doesn't find any partitions (both quick and deep scan).

My understanding is that NTFS writes a copy of partition at the end of the sector (or was it copy of MBR to the end?).

Considering that TestDisk is not finding this partition (or for that matter vloume/FS); how can I recreate a partition?

Also, I think the files might be 'carved' or 'recovered', but this would imply I lose both the original file names as well as the directory structure.

If the partition recovery is a lost cause, is there a way to recover the files and directories with their original intact names?

Thanks in advance....I do know that I have done something really stupid and blame is all on me.

One of my disks is showing a caution. Should I be replacing this disk or just keep an eye on it?

Hi, all.

I've faced a problem with my 7200.12, looks like a "0 LBA" shown here. After power up it sounds "t-r-r-r-r" 4-5 times and stops.

But the main problem is that I can not receive any answer from hdd to terminal 0x1A command (hex Ctrl+z command, isn't it? I'm using very simple "Terminal" with hexadecimal transmitted codes).

RS232 - TTL adapter connected correctly (sure by a huge number of forums and oscilloscope - I'm electronic engineer).

My hdd do not respond me in any condition of PCB and the brick:

Fully connected - failed,

Motor disconnected (by isolator) - failed,

heads disconnected (by isolator) - failed.

hdd "no reply" state is confirmed with oscilloscope (no changes on sygnal).

port settings : 38400, 8 data, 1 stop, no parity, no handshaking.

hdd: SN: 6VPEDKLG

        model:ST31000524AS

        firmware: JC4B

        PCB 100574451 rev.B

Could anybody help me? May be I need to short something? disconnect something? Send other command?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Hi,

I am running into a hard disk issue that I am running out of clue to how to proceed.  I searched for hints online but have yet to come across something that works.

Originally I have a 4TB hard disk that I was using as backup, and it went into RAW mode from NTFS.  It started when I plug it into USB bay.  Tried some partition scan software, but it cannot clone the files/folder out properly.

Is there a way to reverse the RAW mode so I can read the hard disk again?

While trying to backup my home server hard disk, same thing happened.  I suppose I cannot rely on USB bay (lessons learned). 

So now, I have 2 hard disk in RAW (a 4TB and a 2TB), please help!  Losing my mind on hard disk =(

Sorry for the trouble!

Hi MagicAndre,

Thank you for your guide! I have the same problem with the process "System" keeping the CPU constantly at 10-20%. Actually I have a vaio with "stamina-speed" switch. When I select "stamina" the CPU is constantly at 10%. When I select "speed" the CPU is at 20%. I followed your instructions and I think the responsible threads are ACPI and HAL. I tried to find a new BIOS but it seems that I have the latest one. I installed all the windows updates but nothing changed (I have windows 8.1). I changed my power saving setting but nothing improved. Please can you have a look at my DPC_Interrupt.etl because I don't know what else to do and this problem is eating my battery!

Here is my DPC_Interrupt.etl:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/105145405/DPC_Interrupt.zip

Thank you so much

Konstantinos

Apologies if this is in the wrong section but it seemed as good as any.

Ok, so I've just upgraded my NAS unit and disks.  All seemed good until I discovered that some folders had mysteriously disappeared.  No fear, I thought, as I still have the 2 drives I swapped out with the original folders still on them.  I plug one in to my rig and the BIOS happily acknowledges it's existence.  Windows 10 however seems less sure of itself.  Disk Management shows it with all it's partitions, volumes, etc, but the drive just isn't explorable.

The unit was a Synology DS212J and the drives are WD20EARX.

So, is this a Windows 10 issue, some kind of proprietary software that Synology used when in the unit or something else I've overlooked?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

James

I'm making this a separate thread. Here is the situation:

User has a Windows OS on a hard drive formatted NTFS. There is either a power failure or a hard shutdown is performed. Upon reboot Windows does not work. Troubleshooting with Diskpart reveals that the file system on the drive is now listed as RAW.

So here are the questions:

1. Is it possible to fix the file system to make the drive bootable again?

2. What programs can be used to recover data off a RAW volume?

This issue happened here:

But since this is a general question, I can post it here if it helps others.

This is about some pictures and video from a racquetball tournament that I took recently with a brand new GoPro Hero 4 silver camera and brand new sandisc 32gb SD card. I finished recording all the clips I needed at the tournament but somehow there was some kind of an error with the SD card and none of the files could be seen or accessed once I got the error and only got SD card error message. I checked and I even played some back before the error after I recorded just to make sure I recorded since it was a new camera and card. I tried and tried several methods like removing and trying to get the files from a computer with the SD card but still had the error message and my only option was to format the card which would erase it.

After finding out the prices of data recovery, I went ahead and did some research and tried it myself with a data recovery software but now I have RAW files which won't play on any device. I tried laptop and phone but it seems the Shockwave Flash File will still not play on the recommended Flash player that the data recover suggested or the updated flash player or another kind that a search suggested or by means of copy and pasting it as recommended to a blank page to see if it would play and it proceeds like its wants to but just stays loading.

I tried one of the converters to try to convert from shockwave flash file to MP4 or another type that I thought might fit for laptop windows media player or movie maker so I can upload it to youtube or even just be able to view on a laptop but that appeared to want to take days for just a 2 minute clip. I checked the files and I was able to view the still images with no problem so that tells me I was able to recover all the files from the data recovery software that I chose but just can't play the videos. Any suggestions how I am to resolve this?

I asked someone on a board that I frequent and they suggested I upload the files so they can take a look at them so I sent them a link so they can see them on onedrive (which took 4 days to upload) and they said this:

The reason the Flash files do not play is because they aren't Flash files. I do not know how they got the .SWF extension. They do not have file headers. HyperRipper can't find any media files in the two I tested (001 and 015). Well actually it found a BIK file in 015 but RAD reports it has a bad header.

They suggested maybe the SD card was fake but the SD card and GoPro were both bought at a big dept store so chances are they are not fake. Any suggestions are appreciated

Well Folks every guy who has Seagate 7200.11 & having problem must have read the very ultra famouse Gradius post and yes thats the right one which solves the issue ...

But there are lot of people ( WolfDie, mrkimrkonja, jackcaver)within the same post who tried Gradius solution and still had the error "Error 1009 DETSEC 00006008"

Even I had the same error but I saw something else on some other posts and finally came to conclusion that to solve the issue it requires more than cleaning the contact ... yes cleaning the contact is the real solution but how to clean those contacts

I mean it CLEANING THE CONTACT IS THE REAL SOLUTION But how to do that ( Ithink pichi or somebody else tried to CRY out that cleaning the contact is the real solution and it was )..

1. You must have ur sister's or girlfriend's nail polish thinner and a needle..

Deep the cotton bud generously in the thinner and then apply it on the head contacts on HDD circuit board so that there is thin layer of thinner. Keep this for abt minute before the thinner gets evaporated apply another layer of thinner continue this 3-4 times and then using the needle gently scratch the contacts you should see the NEW SHINING in the contact post scracthing them...Rub off all the thinner and apply the thinner again and brush it gently using the cotton bud ...

Post this apply thinnner for the head contacts on HDD .. but out here u need to just brush it .. take care that the thinner doesnt enters the spring gaps on head contact on HDD

Dry the ciruit and HDD for 1/2 n hour and try the entire GRADIUS solution again () it should work,

Even if this doesnt works then u shld the check the connectivity on the ciruit board to nearest circuit element (capacitor, resistor etc.)

SPECS: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB HDD from an Iomega External Hdd Shell.

Heres my story:

My 1TB 7200.12 external hdd fell of a high table !!! Its a hdd with ALL family pics, vids, and software. This is the ONLY hdd with this data.

After it fell, I connected it to a slow laptop but was able to browse it. Soon after I connnected it to my desktop to further test it.

To my horror, no response, only a blinking activity light and fast spinning felt.

Removed Hdd from shell, connected via SATA,....no response from windows or bios much less. Was in some deeeeep ....

Finally came across this guide from GRADIUS2, thinking I had the BSY error that it explained about.

Luckily, stashed away, I had a RS232 to TTL

I wired up everything, Had to revive an old dell with COM port 1st.

I pulled 5v and ground from the molex for the RS232. ( I know there was some debate on 5V but still it worked)

I just used old audio connectors to utilize the clip connectors.

Removed board, covered connectors(data ones not motor). If I didnt cover the data contacts, it would keep spinning very fast from power on

Fired up everything, no response in hyperterminal. , Switched RX and TX, but later found out that 5V was loose (RS232 board had a led)

Tried 1st BSY guide and immediately I realized what situation I was in: I had a 7200.12 !!!! not 7200.11 because:

Instead of replying with 'spinup/down complete', it said 'highpowermode....spin up/down complete'

(and also reviewed the label)

I googled if the guide will work for 7200.12 and it was a hit and miss with replies.

I reached the N1 command but with no response. Exited terminal, rebooted hdd. And tried again, nothing...now I didnt know what to do

Instead, I immediately went to the m0,1,,,,2 .... command skipping everything except spin up/down commands and, no response....I took a chance and rebooted everything at the most dangerous command...

To my suprise when I hooked it back to sata, it was found !!! but then it was 0mb and asked for format, HELL NO

I tried again, this time, using the lba0 guide: Done every step until m0,1,0,0,0...command and it worked !!!! The user partition format results slip showed successful

Hooked up to old dell, no response. Hooked up to new laptop, IT APPEARED !!!!

I immediately copied most of the files off to other hdd's. BUT Some files were unavailable, not sure why, maybe due to the drop ?? But most were there

Just thought I'd sign up and post this to give 7200.12 owners a relief

Again, many thanks to Gradius2 and his guide for the 7200.11 Fix

I have seagate baraccuda 7200.11 hardisk. First i had bsy bug, and i tried to resolve it with steps i found herehttps://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/ , but when it comes to command "U" to spin up, it gives me error 1009. I cleaned piplines on PCB and all the rest. I noticed it have weird sound so i take video of head's working : https://youtu.be/aJ9-_036dAc What you think about simptoms?