Question Is PCB replacement going to work if the drive is detected?

[gregory112]

I wan to check if it's possible to fix my drive by replacing the PCB. It's a Seagate ST1000LM035 and it's actually an external harddrive (Seagate Expansion). When I plug it in to my Linux Laptop, using USB, it says like this in dmesg

[16433.285102] usb 2-2: new high-speed USB device number 14 using xhci_hcd
[16433.466365] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0bc2, idProduct=231a, bcdDevice= 7.10
[16433.466370] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[16433.466374] usb 2-2: Product: Expansion
[16433.466376] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: Seagate
[16433.466379] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 2HC015KJ
[16433.471154] scsi host7: uas
[16433.472071] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access Seagate Expansion 0710 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[16436.815466] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:01:00): 8, pid=1480, Channel 00000012
[16440.680337] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] 1953525167 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/932 GiB)
[16440.680340] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] 4096-byte physical blocks
[16440.680497] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
[16440.680499] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
[16440.680809] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[16440.681076] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Optimal transfer size 33553920 bytes not a multiple of physical block size (4096 bytes)
[16440.951730] scsi_io_completion_action: 4 callbacks suppressed
[16440.951742] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] tag#1 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[16440.951750] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] tag#1 Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
[16440.951756] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] tag#1 Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[16440.951762] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] tag#1 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00
[16440.951764] print_req_error: 4 callbacks suppressed
[16440.951769] blk_update_request: critical medium error, dev sdd, sector 0 op 0x0READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 8 prio class 0
[16440.951778] buffer_io_error: 86 callbacks suppressed
[16440.951781] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 0, async page read
[16440.951787] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 1, async page read
[16440.951792] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 2, async page read
[16440.951795] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 3, async page read
[16440.951800] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 4, async page read
[16440.951806] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 5, async page read
[16440.951811] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 6, async page read
[16440.951814] Buffer I/O error on dev sdd, logical block 7, async page read

Seems that it can detect information about the drive, but cannot read. The information about Seagate Expansion comes from the USB chip, yes? And not the PCB that sticks on the drive?
When I disassemble it and plug the internal drive into a docking station, the drive is not even detected, and it is not even spinning, or maybe it spins very slowly, I can't feel it. The drive is quite new and I wonder if buying a new PCB is worth it because my PCB number is 100835923 REV A, and it's quite rare (fortunately with separate BIOS chip). Thank you in advance!

Seagate expansion has a little light on it, and it is not even on when the disk is plugged in.

Edit: after leaving it on the docking station for a while, the whole harddisk gets warm, but I don't feel any hotspots in the PCB chip.

 

[fzabkar]

What does your OS or HDD tool detect if you connect the Expansion enclosure on its own?

Can you hear any sound, even if it is very faint? If so, then there could be a stiction fault (heads stuck to platters).

Can you retrieve a SMART report with smartctl?

 

[gregory112]

You mean without the HDD? It does not detect anything, and the LED just flashes.
Oh yes I can feel it spinning and I hear a clicking sound once.
The only way this to be detected is to use the enclosure that comes with Seagate Expansion itself. And when I do use the enclosure the OS does detect a device but cannot even find the partition table, and so it does not show up in fdisk -l, but dmesg says it's /dev/sdd. Doing smartctl -a /dev/sdd gave me

Read Device Identity failed: scsi error unsupported field in scsi command
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.

And doing smartcl -a -T permissive /dev/sdd gave me

Read Device Identity failed: scsi error unsupported field in scsi command

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: [No Information Found]
Serial Number: [No Information Found]
Firmware Version: [No Information Found]
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: [No Information Found]
Local Time is: Thu Sep 24 10:57:19 2020 WIB
SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 82-83 don't show if SMART supported.
SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 85-87 don't show if SMART is enabled.
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.

 

[gregory112]

I just tested the HDD using another USB 3.0 enclosure and yes, it does detect a USB 3.0 device but throw some read errors like before.

The USB 3.0 enclosure from Seagate Expansion seems to work though, I use another working HDD and it can write and read successfully.

Is SMART data stored in the PCB or in the the disk?

 

[fzabkar]

SMART data are stored in the reserved System Area on the platters.

The symptoms would suggest that the drive has an internal problem (heads/media).

 

[gregory112]

Is that stored in the first few sectors?
The dmesg says

critical medium error, dev sdd, sector 0 op 0x0READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 1 prio class 0

So, bad sector in sector 0?

 

[fzabkar]

The System Area (SA) is not accessible with standard ATA commands. For that you need Vendor Specific Commands (VSCs). Instead your error is telling you that sector 0 in the user area is inaccessible. Basically a drive needs to load its firmware from the SA before it can initialise itself and come ready. Your drive cannot access the SA, so it remains busy.

Maybe this tutorial will explain it:

The hard drive -- a computer-within-a-computer:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2600

 

[gregory112]

Thanks, I have read that, is there anything that I can do to save the data? Because it's just three month of use and I hope the data inside are still intact.