Help: Hard Disk Failure

[epoch]

Signed onto my PC last night and found out that my 2nd drive (my data drive) wasn't showing in Windows.

Rebooted - checked BIOS - not listed.

The drive is a Maxtor Diamond Max 22 (model STM31000340AS), 1TB 32MB cache, SATA.

The drive has all of my personal data on it: photos, music, and most importantly to me, over 10 year's worth of emails! As an IT professional with over 2 decades of experience, naturally my data is ... not backed up.

I'm fairly certain it's a drive firmware corruption (apparently quite common on this particular model of drive), so I'm confident the data's undamaged.

I'm hoping that if I can get another of this exact model I can simply swap the controller board, fire up the disk, and get my data off (and then onto a non-Maxtor disk!).

I looked online, but can't find any stores selling this model now (it's about a year old).

So, I'm hoping that if any of you guys have this model, perhaps I could purchase you a brand new replacement, and I could have yours.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[ganja420]

is this the one epoch?
Maxtor 1000 GB STM31000334AS | På lager | Billig

Ive found it in several stores in denmark, for around 50£

[epoch]

It's similar mate, but not an exact match unfortunately. I'd be reluctant to risk getting that if there was a chance it's not compatible with the hardware inside my model (STM31000340AS).

Thanks for your reply though. Definitely something to consider if I can't get what I'm looking for.

[ganja420]

yea i saw there was a 0 missin in the model number, just thought it might had been a typo from you. hope you find it somewhere, know how much it hurts to crash your disk, especially your most loved one.. you could always try sending it to a recovery company though, i crashed one of my disk last year, and it only costed me around 100£ to recover it plus the cost of a new harddrive which they put all the files into. Of course depends on how damaged the disk is, but for me it was just the motor spinning the disk that stopped working. This was actually done by a local computer company, so might be worth checking around your home town. gl anyway

[SocketMan]

STM31000340AS disappears from computer - Seagate Community Forums


There might be a problem with one of the versions of the firmware:

quote:


Re: STM31000340AS disappears from computer
Options
02-07-2010 12:54 PM

MX15 firmware is affected by the BSY bug.

Here are repair procedures for Seagate 7200.11 drives:

Fixing a Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive (Fixing a Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive)

The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs - MSFN Forums

Tutorial with photos:

Seagate Bricked Firmware Drive Fix (With Pics) - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

Pinout of Nokia CA-42 cable's Pop-port connector (use pins 6,7, :

Nokia Pop-port pinout and wiring @ pinouts.ru

See the following technical bulletin:

http://atulchitnis.net/files/seagate.pdf

It appears that the procedure for a Maxtor model may be the same:

Tutorial: resolve 0 LBA,SEAGATE 7200.11 BIOS don't recognize : Hard Disk Drives: data recovery and repair

Hard Disk Drives: data recovery and repair

Seagate were at one time offering free data recovery services to those customers whose drives were affected by the bug. This may still be the case.

[epoch]

Cheers mate. Will take a look through them and will try Seagate Support first.

(Why's this sticky btw?)

[SocketMan]

epoch;1354836']Cheers mate. Will take a look through them and will try Seagate Support first.

(Why's this sticky btw?)

We did not have any before,so

Try booting a (live) Linux CD (ubuntu should be good) to see if it can mount the drive,and
get the files transfered over a network, or to an USB stick.

[epoch]

They were the first things I tried (using my ever-trusty Knoppix DVD). Also tried sticking the disk in a USB caddy.

I'm pretty certain it's the dodgy firmware problem, which explains why the BIOS can't see the drive.

I'm going to try thisand hope for the best.

[boilerrat]

If nothing else works put the HDD in a plastic bag into your freezer.

It will retract the actuator arm if there is physical damage and you might be able to have it recognize.

[epoch]

Resolved.

With the help of this page, I managed to cobble together some bits and pieces, which allowed me to bring the disk back to life and my data was there waiting for me!

Thanks to all who posted, in particular to SocketMan who pointed me in the right direction.

Very very much appreciated.

Backing up now!

[fausto412]

epoch;1358256']Resolved.

With the help of this page, I managed to cobble together some bits and pieces, which allowed me to bring the disk back to life and my data was there waiting for me!

Thanks to all who posted, in particular to SocketMan who pointed me in the right direction.

Very very much appreciated.

Backing up now!

Man i have the exact same issue. i don't have all the tools to try what you did. sending it to i365 (seagate's service) to see if they can fix it for me.

how long did your drive work ok before acting out? did you try having seagate do it or did you skip that?

did your drive make a weird noise when it quit being seen by the bios...not a click...more like trying to do something and stopping.

i await your response.

[epoch]

Hey, that's bad news.

My drive was happy for one year before going AWOL on me.

I didn't try Seagate. That would have been my last resort had the fix I tried not proven successful.

Regarding noises, I could hear the drive spin up, and then it seemed to either stop, or at least settle down and become quiet (possibly the heads sitting doing nothing).

I hope you get it fixed!

Suggestion to the [R-COM]s. Perhaps a sticky post regarding this problem with Seagate and Maxtor drives. Not this thread, but a new one detailing the problem, and what can be done to fix it. I've seen several posts from people who have been offline "due to hard disk crash" and I wonder how many people have been hit by this firmware issue without knowing that it can be fixed.

[fausto412]

well, i shipped it...the prepaid label is for overnight. with any luck i'll know in the next 5 days if they can fix it by upgrading the firmware. i figure they have to do what you do before attempting a firmware update. hopefull it works. crossing my fingers here

[fausto412]

getting my drive back tomorrow. seagate's i365 service fixed it....for free. wooo!awesome.