Seagate Customer Support Not Playing Fair With My Bricked 7200.11

[Twitch29]

Update

I have 2 items of news:

1) Fixed the drive myself early hours of this morning. I occurred to me that maybe you could stick the PCB on a working drive to update the firmware. One of the drives I have an RMA code for is an identical drive. Same label info (date code was one month out), couldn't find any differences between the PCB's, Seagate serial checker pointed me to the same firmware update ISO. So I went for it. Removed PCB from bricked drive and fitted it to the functional drive. Updated firmware. Moved PCB back over to bricked drive. Drive detected in BIOS! Booted into windows and there was all my lovely data!!!

If someone had videoed me at that moment I'd be number 1 on YouTube.

I immediately dumped the data over to another drive and am running Seatools on it as I type. No SMART errors so it's looking good.

I'm so happy!!!

2) I can confirm that Seagate are definitely giving FREE data recovery to people with bricked SD15 drives.

Decided to follow up on it even though I had fixed it myself. Just would have bugged me otherwise. Spoke to someone at Seagate that knew what they were talking about earlier today. The trick is to phone tech support not customer support. Gave him my serial number, he confirmed it was a bad drive and immediately offered free data recovery. They even pay all postage costs.

I'll say it again. Anyone with a bricked 7200.11 SD15 can get FREE data recovery direct from Seagate. Just phone your nearest Tech Support.

 

[Old Hippie]

Update
I have 2 items of news........

Very Cool!

 

[exar333]

Glad to hear you got your data OP. Besides making sure to backup data, don't back down from the customer service reps. They probably just wanted you off the phone, and the trick is to never give up, especially when you have the information you did on how Seagate managed this drive issue.

In the end, things worked out!

 

[Arsynic]

There is actually a DIY fix for this

https://sites.google.com/site/seagatefix/
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds

but

1. Voids warranty. Not really an issue, data is more important.
2. I'd be unsure about what I was doing. Could very easily make a mistake and wipe out the data.

Okay, that's pure bullshit. I wouldn't even click on that link unless I had something worth millions of dollars on the disk and lived in the middle of no where. I stopped reading at "soldering tools".

 

[Elixer]

Update

I have 2 items of news:

1) Fixed the drive myself early hours of this morning. I occurred to me that maybe you could stick the PCB on a working drive to update the firmware. One of the drives I have an RMA code for is an identical drive. Same label info (date code was one month out), couldn't find any differences between the PCB's, Seagate serial checker pointed me to the same firmware update ISO. So I went for it. Removed PCB from bricked drive and fitted it to the functional drive. Updated firmware. Moved PCB back over to bricked drive. Drive detected in BIOS! Booted into windows and there was all my lovely data!!!

Hmm... just occurred to you ?

You might also be able to swap circuit boards with a *identical* drive, that means made in the same datecode as your drive, only flashed with the 'fixed' firmware.

:biggrin:

If someone had videoed me at that moment I'd be number 1 on YouTube.

I immediately dumped the data over to another drive and am running Seatools on it as I type. No SMART errors so it's looking good.

I'm so happy!!!

2) I can confirm that Seagate are definitely giving FREE data recovery to people with bricked SD15 drives.

Decided to follow up on it even though I had fixed it myself. Just would have bugged me otherwise. Spoke to someone at Seagate that knew what they were talking about earlier today. The trick is to phone tech support not customer support. Gave him my serial number, he confirmed it was a bad drive and immediately offered free data recovery. They even pay all postage costs.

I'll say it again. Anyone with a bricked 7200.11 SD15 can get FREE data recovery direct from Seagate. Just phone your nearest Tech Support.

Well, it looks like at the end of the day, Seagate was willing to do what you wanted, even though the right hand don't know what the left hand is doing. Guess you can change the title to the thread now ?

 

[ss284]

Okay, that's pure bullshit. I wouldn't even click on that link unless I had something worth millions of dollars on the disk and lived in the middle of no where. I stopped reading at "soldering tools".

Advertises certifications yet is scared of soldering.

 

[Twitch29]

Okay, that's pure bullshit

It's a well documented working fix, even over on the Seagate forums. Some people have had no option other than to use this. I would have used it myself as a last resort.

Hmm... just occurred to you ?

LOL Yes it occurred to me! Just doing a straight swap of the boards didn't work. I think because of the individual calibration drives now have on-chip. Actuator arms were going nuts banging from side-to-side. As they did when I applied my fix. If the drive I was using hadn't been knackered anyway I may have lost my bottle.

Thanks for your input though. I may not have come up with the fix without it ;-)

Guess you can change the title to the thread now

Title still stands. Their customer support hasn't changed. They still fobbed me off with lies. I've emailed a complaint. Two in fact...

 

[Twitch29]

Advertises certifications yet is scared of soldering.

I noticed that also

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well perhaps you'll back up your data to optical storage so you'll have it for later just in case another hd fails.

 

[Rifter]

Okay, that's pure bullshit. I wouldn't even click on that link unless I had something worth millions of dollars on the disk and lived in the middle of no where. I stopped reading at "soldering tools".

Why? i read the page and would feel confident swapping them out with the info provided.

 

[Twitch29]

Well perhaps you'll back up your data to optical storage so you'll have it for later just in case another hd fails.

I've kept proper hard drive backups of anything important ever since this happened. That's why I have to have so many bloody drives. Only the computer industry can get away with selling products that don't do what they're supposed to do ie. store our data safely.

Optical storage would be totally impractical for me. Probably is for most people nowadays. DVD+-R not enough capacity, DL unreliable, BD-R still too expensive. Plus all optical discs degrade with time.

 

[MrTeal]

Advertises certifications yet is scared of soldering.

It's not even soldering onto the hard drive, it's just for the RS232 to TTL convertor. Buy a port powered one like this
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Port-Powered...404?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6a0457d4
and you could do it without even breaking out the soldering iron.

 

[heymrdj]

It's not even soldering onto the hard drive, it's just for the RS232 to TTL convertor. Buy a port powered one like this
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Port-Powered...404?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6a0457d4
and you could do it without even breaking out the soldering iron.

You got me at "High efficiency serial port electricity stealing technology, need no external power supply" :wub:

 

[piasabird]

Maybe they should be barred from doing business in the USA.

 

[tommo123]

I've kept proper hard drive backups of anything important ever since this happened. That's why I have to have so many bloody drives. Only the computer industry can get away with selling products that don't do what they're supposed to do ie. store our data safely.

Optical storage would be totally impractical for me. Probably is for most people nowadays. DVD+-R not enough capacity, DL unreliable, BD-R still too expensive. Plus all optical discs degrade with time.

agreed. even blu ray 50GB disks are tiny in comparison to TBs of data. i have over 10TB of data. would be insane to back all that up

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well when one decides to generate lots of data and then doesn't back it up then he/she shouldn't complain when it goes bye bye. BD storage is better than no storage and yeah I use it along with a portable hd plus dvd's. I have redundancy so if one back up fails another will still be good.

 

[bryanW1995]

Update

I have 2 items of news:

1) Fixed the drive myself early hours of this morning. I occurred to me that maybe you could stick the PCB on a working drive to update the firmware. One of the drives I have an RMA code for is an identical drive. Same label info (date code was one month out), couldn't find any differences between the PCB's, Seagate serial checker pointed me to the same firmware update ISO. So I went for it. Removed PCB from bricked drive and fitted it to the functional drive. Updated firmware. Moved PCB back over to bricked drive. Drive detected in BIOS! Booted into windows and there was all my lovely data!!!

If someone had videoed me at that moment I'd be number 1 on YouTube.

I immediately dumped the data over to another drive and am running Seatools on it as I type. No SMART errors so it's looking good.

I'm so happy!!!

2) I can confirm that Seagate are definitely giving FREE data recovery to people with bricked SD15 drives.

Decided to follow up on it even though I had fixed it myself. Just would have bugged me otherwise. Spoke to someone at Seagate that knew what they were talking about earlier today. The trick is to phone tech support not customer support. Gave him my serial number, he confirmed it was a bad drive and immediately offered free data recovery. They even pay all postage costs.

I'll say it again. Anyone with a bricked 7200.11 SD15 can get FREE data recovery direct from Seagate. Just phone your nearest Tech Support.

That's very impressive. You should update your title and the OP to reflect this new info, that could end up helping some fellow ATers in the future.

I've kept proper hard drive backups of anything important ever since this happened. That's why I have to have so many bloody drives. Only the computer industry can get away with selling products that don't do what they're supposed to do ie. store our data safely.

Optical storage would be totally impractical for me. Probably is for most people nowadays. DVD+-R not enough capacity, DL unreliable, BD-R still too expensive. Plus all optical discs degrade with time.

1. Car sales ads
2. Microcenter
3. Bestbuy
4. Class action lawsuits that pay each "victim" $37 and pay the lawyers $4 billion
5. etc etc etc

Why do you have such a hardon to complain about seagate? It took some hassle, but you were able to fix the issue yourself PLUS their tech support offered to fix it for you just in case you couldn't to it (or you were afraid of a soldering iron..). Don't get me wrong, I generally favor WD, but your incessant whining comes across as petulant/immature. That's too bad, b/c if you were to update the title/OP, you really could help some future users get through their issue. Instead, you're just inviting whiners to come here and complain in the future.

 

[Zap]

Update

I have 2 items of news:

Indeed, very cool!

 

[bryanl]

I haven't seen any company offer recovery services for free.

Quantum did, back when their hard drives had only 2 year warranties instead of the then industry standard 3 years.

It's important to stay current.

 

[MustangSVT]

omg... i will have to see if my 500gb seagate can be revived!

 

[Shmee]

Glad to hear everything was resolved!

 

[deveraux]

Just chiming in to say that this happened to my 7200.11 2 days ago. Contacted Seagate support and they are sending over a courier to pick up the drive, update the firmware then send it back to me.

So just confirming that yes, they do indeed fix these drives.

Also, just to say. They don't actually provide data recovery for this problem. It's just that the data on your drive is untouched. So updating the firmware just gives you control of your drive back.

The letter that they gave me even specifically states that if the problem is something other than firmware, no data recovery will be provided.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I've got several 7200.11 drives myself and when that firmware first came out I flashed my drive before it failed.

 

[Zap]

Also, just to say. They don't actually provide data recovery for this problem. It's just that the data on your drive is untouched. So updating the firmware just gives you control of your drive back.

Interesting. I guess that makes sense. Just costs them some shipping fees and a few minutes of a tech's time, instead of hundreds of dollars for a real data recovery.