WANTED - Seagate Barracuda - 500GB

[MartinD]

I'm after a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB drive but with a twist...

I actually only need the controller but would obviously buy the whole drive. It must be identical though so I need a drive with the following:

Model: ST3500320AS

P/N: 9BX154-568

Firmware: SD81

Long shot I know.. but worth a try

 

[NodePacket]

Well, I have a SAS 500GB Drive, but that doesn't help you. Good luck. I would check internet, craigslist, and ebay (if applicable).

 

[pcan]

The SD81 firmware on that drive model is affected by the infamous bug that bricks the drive after 320 logged events on a internal firmware table. Details and the fix are here:  http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds/

If the drive has failed by this bug, swapping the controller board will not revive it.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the rs232-ttl cable is avalable from RS components with part number 767-6200. That cable was unavailable when I followed the procedure, but the schematic is basically the same of the ttl converter I used. 

 

[dcdan]

I have checked our boxes with old drives, no Seagates unfortunately. I would do a search for "donor drives" - you should be able to get what you want no problem. Also make sure you transfer the original ROM to the new board (otherwise it won't work) - some places that sell pcbs will do that for you for a little extra.

EDIT:

BTW, Can you tell us what is wrong with the drive?

 

[qps]

I don't think I have one with that firmware since we updated all of our drives with this model number, but I can probably come up with one that has the SD1A firmware loaded.

 

[qps]

Confirmed, I have one spare one available, but I believe it has the SD1A firmware.  I can probably come up with more than one if needed, but we'll have to swap out some customer drives.

 

[dcdan]

I must say that the firmware revision does not really matter in this case, you would still have to swap the ROM chip.