[pchelpers] Re: DISASTER!!! Computer NERD required (Long post)
- From: "Tim H." <tekphobia@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: pchelpers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 14:11:15 -0800
Hi John Samperi,
I researched this UDMAUPDT utility. It appears it's smart enough to tell
which drives it'll work with. Out of curiosity, have you tried going
back to Mode 4? (udmaupdt /dma:4)
IMHO, I don't think the update utility foobar'd your Seagate.
As for the board swap. It sounds like a viable solution in that I think
the udmaupdt program most likely sets a few "bits" on the Maxtor which
is then stored to flash memory. If you think it's EEPROM, check out the
seagate and look for chips that have 8-pins. Their part #s will either
be 24Cxx or 93Cxx (where xx is a two digit #). If, on the other hand,
you find chips that are labeld 25Fxxxx and are much larger than 8-pin
chips, it's most likely parallel flash. I like your idea though. If it's
a simple serial EEPROM, then we can find someone with an identical drive
to dump the EEPROM's contents from.
Also. On some drives, there are solder pads on the PCB for a header.
There will be labels like "Tx Rx GND +5V" if they're there. This is a
diagnostic port. Depending on the drive, you can do lots of things! Of
course, some of it requires a Phd in HD Technology. You can connect it
to your serial port (if you're handy with a soldering iron). On one of
my drives, its serial port runs at 9600-8-N-1. If you find this on your
Seagate, and want to give it a shot, drop me a line and I'll give you
the nitty gritty details.
So, in conclusion...(dangit, this isn't a speech! <G>) If the drive is
in fact unfixable by the methods mentioned above, I think a PCB
transplant would be the next best option.
Regards,
Tim Hamel
John Samperi wrote:
>
> Hello all
>
> As mentioned before, I have had a bit of a disaster. The subject
> line calls for a Nice Educated Resourceful Dude (N.E.R.D.) who
> can delve deeply into a PC's hardware.
> The following was posted to a few lists last week:
> **********
> Disaster #1.
> I replaced my HDD with a Maxtor 40 Gb disk. Unfortunately
> it was too good for my computer and it would hang on restart
> as it is well documented on Maxtor's web site.
> After much head scracthing I managed to get it up and running, the
> hang problem still there. A last look at their website and a "FIX"
> utility was recommended, UDMAUPDT.EXE that was supposed
> to slow down the hard disk to UDMA 33 (mode 2).
> Needless to say it didn't work and it killed my old HDD that was
> hooked up as a slave. If anyone happens to know if and how
> I can revert whatever the fix utility changed in my old SEAGATE
> ST3421a I would be extremely grateful. All my data would be
> restored. YES I KNOW, Backup! I have quite a lot of backups
> on CD and old disks but it is very tedious to bring it all back
> together.
> *****************
>
> I have received a few suggestions, one of which is to purchase
> an identical HDD and replace the driver PCB with my old one.
> This would work if the HDD has some EEPROM memory
> which the above utility modified and the data on the platters
> has not been destroyed, but I will try this as a last resort.
>
> The disk is now installed in an old Pentium 75 machine and
> I can safely try anything. The disk is not recognised by BIOS.
> I have downloaded Seagate's Seatools but they don't work because
> BIOS doesn't see the disk no matter what I try. The disk is still
> spinning and tries to perform some BIOS commands, but in a Tower
> of Babel fashion, they don't know what the other is trying to say!
>
> I guess I need something that bypasses BIOS and can communicate
> with the disk even though is set as NONE in BIOS. With the disk
> set to any size, (Seagate recommends setting it as a 20MB HDD for
> testing purposes) the computer hangs on startup and will take a very long
> time to get to the A drive to load up DOS or any other utility.
>
> I hope someone has an answer. On a brighter note most of my data
> has been recovered from various backups but I just know that the day
> I will need something in a hurry it will not be there.
>
> Amore Fraterno (Brotherly Love)
>
> John Samperi
> Baulkham Hills Congregation
> Sydney Australia
> http://home.primus.com.au/samperi/jps.htm
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