Hdd not detected in bios

hiheyho

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Jan 5, 2008
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Hello,

I have a Seagate 1tb sata drive, that was working perfectly in the afternoon. I disconnected my computer to move to another location, I discovered that my drive is no longer detected when I powered on. It is not detected in Bios, and if I leave it plugged in, it would freeze the computer at the Windows loading bar. The drive still recieves power and I can hear the disk moving.
My primary sata drive with OS on it, still works, I am not sure what is causing this.

Is there any chance of recovering the data on the drive?

Please save me :(
 

hiheyho

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hopefully that's very true, so my drive is safe.
But can the cable just go out like that?
Going to check if the main drive can be detected using the cable in question.

meanwhile, are there any other possibilities?
 

Winly

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try to switch cables and see if with the other cable you can see it in the BIOS, if that work you know that the cable is damage, or try to use a different SATA port
 

hiheyho

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actually I've tried all 3 sata ports before with no luck, will definately try switching cables in the morning.
 

Paperdoc

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If you're lucky, it may not even be a bad cable. Just by moving it you might have loosened a cable connection. So for a first stab at it, just unplug and re-connect the SATA data cable (both ends) and the drive's power connector. Then try, without swapping cables. If that fails, go with the cable swap as the next troubleshooting step. Then the different SATA ports.
 

hiheyho

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I've just swapped cables, and the cable in question works with my main drive. :(
So I think the cable is fine, it maybe the drive itself.
 

Winly

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it could be that the drive that just die. never know. one thing that you can do is to only connect the damage one where the main drive is and try to boot and get into the BIOS and see if you can see it there. if that works probably some SATA ports are damage. if not, well then is your drive that just die
 

technogeek_60

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Dec 20, 2008
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Hi Hiheyho!

I'm in exactly the same position as you and - sadly - so are several thousand of other Seagate users around the world.

Here's the situation as I see it - but I'm no disc expert.....

3 days ago my Seagate 1Tb Barracuda was working absolutely fine. I powered down for the night and following day neither of my Seagate Barracudas (1Tb and 750Gb) were recognised by my bios! Let me add that my new tower is less than 3 months old here! I thought along the same lines as you originally - that it might be a cable problem since I'd done absolutely nothing to change any of my bios settings - but I frigged and sodded about with different SATA holes, changed cables etc... none of which solved any of the problems so I switched off and left it for a few hours. When I had another crack at it that afternoon, the 750Gb disc with the OS on it came alive but the 1Tb one is still dead. I did some Internet research and found - literally - thousands upon thousands of cases where Seagate Barracudas just 'die' for no apparent reason at all. The fault always seems to be with the onboard firmware that just gets corrupted and - whilst the electronics may still be functional - it no longer looks like a disc drive to the bios.

Now! There's 1 ray of hope here.... I rang Overclockers today and arranged an RMA (which they gave me) but meanwhile, I - like you - need to get to my precious data to back it up. The techie suggested mounting the drive in a USB 'caddy' as this negates the need for the bios to recognise the actual disc itself since the caddy does the ident at boot time.

It means, of course, that your OS has to be able to support an external USB drive but this MAY (and I stress MAY) just work. For your info, I've been looking at the following caddy from a company called USB Now.co.uk and it looks like being the chaepest option in case the work-around doesn't!

http://www.usbnow.co.uk/External_Hard_Drives_&_Cases-3.5%22_Hard_Drive_Cases/c10_25/p1365/Probox_SATA_HDD_to_USB_2.0_Interface/product_info.html

Take a look at this one and see what you think. Like I said, I'm no expert but we are not alone with this problem. I just hope someone from Seagate takes a look at the number of people afflicted by the same problem and bangs a desk somewhere 'cos it seems to be a 'known problem' for which there is no local repair and if you can't back up your data you just have to grin and bear it! Wish you luck mate! I'm waiting for a response from USB Now to see if they agree with my proposed solution....
Cheers and merry christmas!
 

technogeek_60

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Dec 20, 2008
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Hi Hiheyho!

I'm in exactly the same position as you and - sadly - so are several thousand of other Seagate users around the world.

Here's the situation as I see it - but I'm no disc expert.....

3 days ago my Seagate 1Tb Barracuda was working absolutely fine. I powered down for the night and following day neither of my Seagate Barracudas (1Tb and 750Gb) were recognised by my bios! Let me add that my new tower is less than 3 months old here! I thought along the same lines as you originally - that it might be a cable problem since I'd done absolutely nothing to change any of my bios settings - but I frigged and sodded about with different SATA holes, changed cables etc... none of which solved any of the problems so I switched off and left it for a few hours. When I had another crack at it that afternoon, the 750Gb disc with the OS on it came alive but the 1Tb one is still dead. I did some Internet research and found - literally - thousands upon thousands of cases where Seagate Barracudas just 'die' for no apparent reason at all. The fault always seems to be with the onboard firmware that just gets corrupted and - whilst the electronics may still be functional - it no longer looks like a disc drive to the bios.

Now! There's 1 ray of hope here.... I rang Overclockers today and arranged an RMA (which they gave me) but meanwhile, I - like you - need to get to my precious data to back it up. The techie suggested mounting the drive in a USB 'caddy' as this negates the need for the bios to recognise the actual disc itself since the caddy does the ident at boot time.

It means, of course, that your OS has to be able to support an external USB drive but this MAY (and I stress MAY) just work. For your info, I've been looking at the following caddy from a company called USB Now.co.uk and it looks like being the chaepest option in case the work-around doesn't!

http://www.usbnow.co.uk/External_Hard_Drives_&_Cases-3.5%22_Hard_Drive_Cases/c10_25/p1365/Probox_SATA_HDD_to_USB_2.0_Interface/product_info.html

Take a look at this one and see what you think. Like I said, I'm no expert but we are not alone with this problem. I just hope someone from Seagate takes a look at the number of people afflicted by the same problem and bangs a desk somewhere 'cos it seems to be a 'known problem' for which there is no local repair and if you can't back up your data you just have to grin and bear it! Wish you luck mate! I'm waiting for a response from USB Now to see if they agree with my proposed solution....
Cheers and merry christmas!
 

Styleman

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Dec 30, 2008
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I'm in the same boat as well - my 2 month old 1TB Seagate just died the other day.

I can still hear it spin up (sounds normal to me) so I know the motor functions are working.

I tried different cables, different computers, but nothing works. I also tried an external USB enclosure and it did not recognise the drive either.

My poor data...is it possible to swap out controller boards on a HD easily?

 

technogeek_60

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Dec 20, 2008
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Hi Styleman!
Here's an update and I'm afraid you're probably not going to want to read it............
Swapping the logic boards on a Seagate 1Tb SATA drive is not difficult at all - no, BUT before doing it satisfy yourself of exactly what noises your HDD is making before you start. If you can hear it spin up and stay silent - except for the motor then swapping the board MIGHT work. However, if you hear a continuous clicking noise like a kind of chk-tsh, chk-tsh, chk-tsh sort of sound you will probably be wasting your time. After swapping the boards and trying a USB caddy and the freezer trick AND a hairdryer trick as well (don't ask!) my HDD is verified as utterly screwed with the above-mentioned clicks. The sound you are hearing is the head stack resetting to the landing ramp but failing to find the zero meridian on the disc. This usually denotes a disc platter fault which the new technology Seagates are - apparently - prone to!!! (But they don't tell you that do they!). If you do NOT hear the above-mentioned fault then you will need to do the following;-
1) Obtain a number T6 Torx screwdriver - do not use a Torx wrench set as these are way too brutal! You need a handled driver with a T6 head on it.
2) Undo all the screws holding the logic board to the drive (Ithink there were 7 in total) not forgetting the one in the middle of the connector stand-off which is to one side of the board in its own little enclosure.
3) Lift the board vertically off of the drive - sliding it may damage the point connectors going to the head stack.
4) Ditto for your good/swapout drive.
5) Swap the boards over replacing all the screws.
6) Try again!
7) Pull your hair out, kick the cat and scream..... (if you want my routine precisely!).
You will not invalidate any warrantees IF you are careful and replace the screws to approximately the same tightness that you found them, not over-tight. Do not attempt to remove the opposite side of the clamshell as this is the journey to the platter stack and will blow any warrantees into orbit.

Wish you luck Styleman! If you get yours working - well done. If this does not solve the problem, you are probably in the same boat as me with a knackered platter stack and - hate to say it but - it's godbye to all your data! I've just lost over 3 years of theatre work, a stonkload of mp3's and a library of some 40 movies from the 50's, 60's and 70's!
My cat now sings soprano!
Cheers!
Ian
 

piltaf

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Dec 31, 2008
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Hey all,

There are tons of people having this problem. I would suggestion check out the Seagate Forum at:
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=3283&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

I think it's time for "Tom" to get on them and get an answer.

There are three solutions:
1: Pay a datarecovery company through the nose (at least $600) to unlock the drive from a BSY state
2: Figure out how to unlock the drive yourself through an RS-232 connection to the drive
3: Or Seagate's solution, RMA the drive back and lose your data

There are a bunch of us on the forum screaming at Seagate for a solution. They refuse to acknowledge it as a problem, and they refuse to do anything with our online support cases. The users refuse to RMA the drives because they know they will lose their data.

The more technical failure is this:
Somehow there is command being sent to the Firmware, which is on the platters, which is why a PCB board swap will not work. The command sets the drive in and SATA port in a Permanent "BUSY" status, therefore the BIOS cannot detect the drive. It can be fixed with the two big vendors of Hard drive recovery (PC-3000 and SalvationData). In fact they have both released specific updates for their software to fix this issue. If that doesn't point to a problem, I don't know what does!!!!!


COME ON TOM! GET ON SEAGATE ABOUT THIS!
 

technogeek_60

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Dec 20, 2008
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Hey all!

There MIGHT be a light at the end of the tunnel! Take a look at the SalvationDATA site which is here:

http://www.salvationdata.com/data-recovery-company/news0811.htm

They have just announced software you should be able to buy that will fix the above-mentioned problems. I've sent them an email and I'm waiting on their response.

If I get any update info in the near future I'll post it here.
For the meanwhile - unless your warrantees are nearing expiry - I would recommend *NOT* RMA-ing your duff drives yet!!! If I afford the kit, I'll get it and see how it works.
Likewise, if anyone else gets there before me - let us know if you have any joy.

It's pretty much certain that Seagate DO know this is an issue and are simply not admitting to it! This is the last *****ing Seagate or MaxStore drive I'll ever buy and I build loads of PC towers!

Cheers!
Ian
 

technogeek_60

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Dec 20, 2008
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Update to Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 problem:

Hi All!
Finally got a reply from a person called Selina Zhang at SalvationDATA - URL as above.
The cost of their HD Doctor Suite is about $500 US - which puts it a long way out of my proce range for 1 drive! It's about the same as a 'standard' HDD data recovery company would charge for 1 disc. So it looks like the RMA will have to be my forward solution - which sticks in my gut 'cos I know that my data is still OK on the drive and SalvationDATA have admitted in their email that - and I quote;

"Same with your feel and opinion, many customers are constantly writing to us to express their problem. The Seagate 7200.11 is really the nightmare to people in all fields."

As you can see the English is slightly non-standard but not bad considering she's probably from an African country. It also smarts that the procedure for rectifying the 7200.11 drive busy problem - outlined in the PDF she sent me with her email - takes about 60 seconds to execute!!!

Like I said before, I'm NOT ever buying another Seagate Barracuda drive again. Id rather spend £20 - £30 more on a more robust machine than have to go through this pile of c**p with 3 years worth of work out the window!

Good luck to the rest of you! Looks like you'll need it!
I'm off now to kill something slowly!
Cheers!
Ian