Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drive Problems - Right Solution For Stays "Busy" - Being Detected With 0 in LBA

Seagate has recently discovered that Barracuda 7200.11 family hard drive has a random, unexplained freezing problem that was usually most apparent with hard drive stays BUSY, being detected with 0 in LBA.

There is so much talk about this major problem, some say that if the hard drive powers up, it will be recognized in the system for a few seconds, and soon it shows as "BUSY" "Drive Not Ready", or LBA is detected as 0.

Technically speaking, Seagate 7200.11 family has a big capacity up to 1.5 TB of storage. Bearing GMR recording heads technology can provide drives with increased recording density; in this case, an error-correction algorithm was made to maintain the read correction and data storage. SalvationDATA experts verify that hard drive will sequently read the data in P-list and G-list, when perform on a detective list. Otherwise, as soon as the read command failed; the hard drive will promptly get into a state of self-protection, so the data stored on the disk will not be destroyed by other operation errors of any time. The reason that can cause read failures is the mess of data in G-list and P-list, and that's the problem where hard drive are going "BUSY" soon after powered up.

However, there are many solutions out there claim to resolve these problems like hard disk drive stays "BUSY" and "Drive Not Ready", or being detected with 0 in LBA, for example. In fact, they are simply dealing with the "BUSY" issue. Here are the options:

1. First you need to remove PCB from HDA case and connect it to the console box.

2. Turn to CMD mode, command "Ctrl+Z"; "F3 T>" will be output.

3. Command "/2", turn to Level 2.

4. Input command "Z" and press Enter to stop spindle motor.

5. Then mount PCB to HDA case; do not power off during mounting.

6. In CMD mode, input command "U" and press "Enter" to start spindle motor.

7. Input command "/1" and press "Enter" to Level 1.

8. Input command N1and press "Enter".

9. Switch power off and on, then the drive should reach readiness.

10. Then use Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive utility of automatic reallocation to restore LBA 0 GB issue.

The other problem that LBA is detected as 0 is a typical failure for Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive. Such drives can be detected normally but the data area is inaccessible with LBA 0 GB.

G-list is related with SMART-list. SalvationDATA technicians have recently discovered that when Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives deal with bad sectors, SMART list will read/write on every sector, to check if there are real bad sectors existing, soon will add those bad sectors to G-list. These operations will be noted on SMART Log then. In most cases, If drives are being powered on/off too often when drives are engaged on reading data, as a result, hard drive will get hung a lot and then SMART list will be destroyed, and also impact on G-list, so the hard drive will be detected with LBA 0 GB.

Thus, a new release version of HD Doctor Utility for Seagate 7200.11 hard drive also claims to fix the problem without damaging the data, actually works for data recovery. It will be the unique feature which is only available in HD Doctor Utility; no other similar tool is capable for solution before this time; otherwise, you can send back to Seagate technology support in case they could work it out, but be noted that only the drive, not the data.

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Zoe Chou is a freelancer for SalvationDATA doing research in data recovery solutions, and specializing in data recovery equipment and firmware repair tools.