Data Recovery from Seagate Hard Disks with Firmware Problems
Major problems with firmware found on Seagate 7200.11 drives. Seagate hard disks failing because of a problem in the programming of the hard disks. The problems manifests itself by either reporting as 0 LBA or the drive is just not recognised at all.
MjM Data Recovery were one of the first companies in the UK able to fix these drives. What happened next was almost unbelievable. Once Seagate became aware of the problems they released a firmware update in order to prevent the problem occurring in drives that had not yet failed.
There was (at least) one model of drive that if the firmware update was applied, it stopped the drive from working - completely 'bricked'. As you can imagine, this caused disquiet and uproar on the Seagate forums and Seagate had to cave in, admit the problem and issue another fix, they withdrew the firmware update and replaced it with another and offered a free data recovery service for those that had suffered this problem with the firmware update. It became more confusing though because people did not know if their drives with the original problem would also come under the free recovery option.
The way we fixed the problems was that we found a command that can be sent to the drive that listed all the available commands, and from this we ascertained how to fix this. Along with some help and joint research from the members of the Global Data Recovery Alliance team we were able to fix these drives long before anyone else.
Soon after this, a fix became available on the web so that with a terminal adapter the problems could be fixed - this was not easy to do for anyone that does not know what they are doing but the solution did work for the majority of the problems. Rumours abounded in the trade about who and why the release of the method of recovery and some even thought it was Seagate themselves that had given the information out so as to thwart the mountain of requests for data recovery.
More Seagate Firmware Problems
In some rare cases, the fix actually caused a bigger problem than it one it attempted to resolve. It was found that in some cases one of the commands corrupted another - seldom used - module, the symptoms of this were that after the original firmware fix, the drive would seem to be working as normal but it would only read data up to a specific point on the drive beyond this point no more data could be read. We found a way to fix drives that had the firmware fix applied and then suffered with the new problem - this was not easy! With the support again of all team members of the Global Data Recovery Alliance we also found a way around fixing the drives with the original problem using a different method than that published on the web.We also found a method of fixing drives with this specific problem.
The Saga Continues
The problems did not go away and soon manifested themselves on the Laptop series of drives that use the same 'F3' technology. Similarly, many of the problems with these drives can not be fixed with the standard terminal commands and as before in some cases it can make a simple problem worse.In some cases gaining terminal access to the drive is not seemingly possible.
We found a solution to these that involves making temporary changes to the firmware and MjM are currently working on a software application that will be distributed to GDRA members that will help in diagnosis and repair of these problems.
Date: 24th August 2012
Major problems with firmware found on Seagate 7200.11 drives. Seagate hard disks failing because of a problem in the programming of the hard disks. The problems manifests itself by either reporting as 0 LBA or the drive is just not recognised at all.
MjM Data Recovery were one of the first companies in the UK able to fix these drives. What happened next was almost unbelievable. Once Seagate became aware of the problems they released a firmware update in order to prevent the problem occurring in drives that had not yet failed.
There was (at least) one model of drive that if the firmware update was applied, it stopped the drive from working - completely 'bricked'. As you can imagine, this caused disquiet and uproar on the Seagate forums and Seagate had to cave in, admit the problem and issue another fix, they withdrew the firmware update and replaced it with another and offered a free data recovery service for those that had suffered this problem with the firmware update. It became more confusing though because people did not know if their drives with the original problem would also come under the free recovery option.
The way we fixed the problems was that we found a command that can be sent to the drive that listed all the available commands, and from this we ascertained how to fix this. Along with some help and joint research from the members of the Global Data Recovery Alliance team we were able to fix these drives long before anyone else.
Soon after this, a fix became available on the web so that with a terminal adapter the problems could be fixed - this was not easy to do for anyone that does not know what they are doing but the solution did work for the majority of the problems. Rumours abounded in the trade about who and why the release of the method of recovery and some even thought it was Seagate themselves that had given the information out so as to thwart the mountain of requests for data recovery.
More Seagate Firmware Problems
In some rare cases, the fix actually caused a bigger problem than it one it attempted to resolve. It was found that in some cases one of the commands corrupted another - seldom used - module, the symptoms of this were that after the original firmware fix, the drive would seem to be working as normal but it would only read data up to a specific point on the drive beyond this point no more data could be read. We found a way to fix drives that had the firmware fix applied and then suffered with the new problem - this was not easy! With the support again of all team members of the Global Data Recovery Alliance we also found a way around fixing the drives with the original problem using a different method than that published on the web.We also found a method of fixing drives with this specific problem.
The Saga Continues
The problems did not go away and soon manifested themselves on the Laptop series of drives that use the same 'F3' technology. Similarly, many of the problems with these drives can not be fixed with the standard terminal commands and as before in some cases it can make a simple problem worse.In some cases gaining terminal access to the drive is not seemingly possible.
We found a solution to these that involves making temporary changes to the firmware and MjM are currently working on a software application that will be distributed to GDRA members that will help in diagnosis and repair of these problems.
Date: 24th August 2012
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