SATA drives MIA

**PlanK** · 17-01-2009, 07:36 AM

I have two SATA II drives. One disappered, gone completely not even showing in BIOS. I started swapping out cables, drives and power connectors to find the fault and now neither are showing in the BIOS. I did an update of the SATA link controller drivers, and the BIOS is the latest version.

Can't think of what else to do?

Help!

**PlanK** · 17-01-2009, 07:38 AM

I should add I don't have another computer to test the drives on. One is only a few months old, and I don't think both would fail in the same day. They do get power(humming) at POST but don't show in the BIOS.

**mrsquirrel** · 17-01-2009, 08:25 AM

Buy a cheap Sata controller card - ~500B - try an get one with the VIA chipset to be most reliable.

**baldrick** · 17-01-2009, 09:27 AM

or a cheap external case

**mrsquirrel** · 17-01-2009, 10:01 AM

^ doesn't really solve his problem that his SATA controller is on the blink.

He can plug it into USB and try booting off USB, but it's slow. May as wel whack in a SATA card and run from that.

**baldrick** · 17-01-2009, 10:26 AM

might be very bad news if they are seagate 1 TB barracudas

The issue lies with faulty microcode in firmware version SD15, found on drives manufactured in Thailand. Generally, the drive will operate normally until the time of failure and at some point will lock up and prevent detection by the BIOS, rendering it completely unusable.

Official st31000340as 1TB barracuda epic fail thread. - Internal (ATA and Serial ATA) drives - Seagate Community Forums

**PlanK** · 17-01-2009, 10:44 AM

^ Oh dear!

One of them is.

**PlanK** · 17-01-2009, 10:51 AM

P/N: 98x158-303
Firmware: SD15
Date: 09086
Site: KRATSG

Exact same drive as in the link.

**baldrick** · 17-01-2009, 12:20 PM

more reading here where they are discussing it on /.
Slashdot | Seagate Hard Drive Fiasco Grows

might be some useful links for you

**baldrick** · 17-01-2009, 02:40 PM

some info that might help you

The SD15 issue results in the drive reporting BSY continuously (seems to be kind of NCQ-related bug in the firmware) , which prevents the computer's BIOS from being able to see it on power up, which does effectively brick the drive. The problem only shows itself on power-up (the drives don't die while the machine is running), and the only way to bring the drive back to life once it's in that state is to connect to it via the drive's on-board serial port, and reset the BSY signal manually via the terminal interface. Once that's been done, the drive can then be flashed with the new firmware without data loss, but otherwise it's a paperweight unless you happen to have the little external RS-232 interface board needed for this adventure along with a bit of courage.

**baldrick** · 19-01-2009, 04:16 PM

some links to contact numbers in this register article

Seagate isolates 'potential' Barracuda flaw • The Register

**PlanK** · 11-07-2009, 09:46 AM

Story thus far...

Sent emails to Seagate helpdesk, after a bit of back & forth they told me what I already knew and gave me a link to the Seagate site, that I already had. So I rang their helpdesk in Singapore and got a much better result. They sent shipping documents to my e:mail addy and I took them to the nearest UPS outlet and 2 weeks later I had my working drive returned with 950 Gb of data goodness still intact. .

Since then a storm broke the power lines to my house and we had reduced voltage for a day. Just happened to have my computer on at the time and lost another Seagate IDE drive.

Looking for a new IDE drive to replace it. Can't find any, do they still make them? Should I not bother and just get another SATAII drive?

**Butterfly** · 11-07-2009, 10:34 AM

you need to buy a UPS, not having one here is madness, will save you a lot of money and time at the end

a good UPS is 2000 THB

**PlanK** · 11-07-2009, 10:40 AM

^
I had one when I was in Thailand, now I'm in a first world country.

**Bobcock** · 11-07-2009, 10:49 AM

I have several SATA drives, but the only time I get a clean bill of health on my PC is when all but one are unplugged

**Marmite the Dog** · 11-07-2009, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by Plan B

now I'm in a first world country.

Your IP address shows you to be in NZ.

**PlanK** · 11-07-2009, 11:00 AM

Yes, my luttle joke, eh.

Bro.

**baldrick** · 11-07-2009, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by Butterfly

a good UPS is 2000 THB

swapped one of my APC UPSs last month for a refurb at the thai distributor ( right at the end of the 3year warranty )- the tech asked me what I had running on it and I told him my LCD television - oh no he said , you can't do that too much power - I said to him it was just a surge protector , for this job - oh no he said , it is not a surge protector - I said , well surge protection is written on the unit - oh no he said , it is not a surge protector - I said , thanks for the refurb unit , bye.

when DD gets his GPS places subforum up I will drop the co-ords of the bangkok outlet and a google earth screeen grab for the shop

DaffyDuck · 11-07-2009, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by Bobcock

I have several SATA drives, but the only time I get a clean bill of health on my PC is when all but one are unplugged

Looks like your PC doesn't have a clean bill of health - suggest either replacing your SATA controller, or your PC.

Looking for a new IDE drive to replace it. Can't find any, do they still make them? Should I not bother and just get another SATAII drive?

Get a SATA drive - don't bother with IDE anymore.

**Bobcock** · 11-07-2009, 02:51 PM

Actually, I have had the same problem on 2 different motherboards

DaffyDuck · 12-07-2009, 12:14 AM

Originally Posted by Bobcock

Actually, I have had the same problem on 2 different motherboards

What type of drives are those? Are they Seagate?

**Bobcock** · 12-07-2009, 09:01 AM

All Seagate Barracudas, eventually they seem to die, I have 3 on my desk at the moment.

After this thread I plugged the 500GB drive that was sitting disconnected inside the machine back on yesterday, it'll probably work well for a few weeks and then one day the machine won't boot. Disconnect the drive and all will be well again.

I use it as a back up drive for my photographs and then disconnect it.

DaffyDuck · 12-07-2009, 02:16 PM

Seagate Barracudas are well-known (at this point) to be failure prone due to faulty firmware causing the drives to lock up. Either way, if your drives are acting that unreliably, DO NOT use them as backup.

Pick yourself up some Western Digital, Samsung or Hitachi drives -- or best, just some of the external USB drives (I assume you have no Firewire on any of your systems, albeit that would be even faster) - also make sure the internal mechanisms are NOT Seagate.

a) Seagate has been fraught with firmware issues for the past year. For some of these issues, Seagate has released, or makes available (if you contact them) firmware updaters.

b) Seagate has been steadily shrinking their staff, recently firing / laying off an additional 4,000 -- mostly in Quality Control and development (yes, the same groups tasked in developing fixes for their screwed up firmware).

c) I've had too many similar failures over the past 6 months. No failure out of the WD or Samsung drives, ever.

d) On the good side, their tech support on the phone is very responsive. On the bad side, it can take up to an hour to get through to them.

You can pick up iOmega 500gb pocket drives at 500GB capacities for around $150 in the US, probably similar prices in LOS.

**Bobcock** · 12-07-2009, 11:07 PM

I have 3 dead seagate drives, i'd like them replaced, who do i call?

**Tao** · 13-07-2009, 02:24 AM

Originally Posted by Bobcock

After this thread I plugged the 500GB drive that was sitting disconnected inside the machine back on yesterday, it'll probably work well for a few weeks and then one day the machine won't boot

Got the same problem at work with a Barracuda 500Gb.

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