I have a ST9750420AS 2.5" 2 platter that had contamination on all heads and metal flakes on all platters and all over the inside of the drive.
I removed the platters and discovered that H2 (3rd platter surface up) has excessive media damage and top platter was barely beginning to develop media damage.
Most important data is documents so I thought there would be a chance at partial recovery if I could get 2 platters imaged then try to image as much of the top platter as I can.
I cleaned all the metal particulate and contamination from all platter surfaces and inside of drive. While cleaning heads and sliders, noticed that H2 was visibly damaged so obtained donor.
Cut top 2 heads from donor head stack. Created adaptive ROM, edited head map in ROM to init with H0 and H1.
Drive initialized and imaging was sporadic but I was able to image most of the data area of the bottom 2 platters. At a point, I started getting Abort errors on the DDI. When I investigated, the drive still becomes ready but DDI reports 0LBA.
Terminal log:
EarlySpinup Enabled
Rst 0x10M
ExecuteSpinRequest
[PORFAIL:MC.disabled]
The last line with Porfail is new since this problem started.
I'm using DFL tools. Drive becomes ready, initializes and ID's but reports 0LBA. I can read all firmware modules, can access terminal, can execute Ctrl + L and Ctrl + A.
When I execute ANY other terminal commands I get
LED:000000BC FAddr:00004264 repeated until I power off the drive.
Exact same symptoms with another donor head stack with top 2 heads cut, original or adaptive ROM, original heads map in ROM or modified to init with H0 and H1, OR with only H0, or only H1.
Have inspected the heads/sliders several times on the first and second donor and since the initial platter cleaning there has not been any new contamination.
Have tried multiple controller PCBs.
Have removed platters a second time and re-inspected both sides of bottom platter and it is still spotless since initial cleaning.
Have programmed ROM onto new IC with EEPROM programmer.
Any new ideas would be much appreciated!
Sam
I removed the platters and discovered that H2 (3rd platter surface up) has excessive media damage and top platter was barely beginning to develop media damage.
Most important data is documents so I thought there would be a chance at partial recovery if I could get 2 platters imaged then try to image as much of the top platter as I can.
I cleaned all the metal particulate and contamination from all platter surfaces and inside of drive. While cleaning heads and sliders, noticed that H2 was visibly damaged so obtained donor.
Cut top 2 heads from donor head stack. Created adaptive ROM, edited head map in ROM to init with H0 and H1.
Drive initialized and imaging was sporadic but I was able to image most of the data area of the bottom 2 platters. At a point, I started getting Abort errors on the DDI. When I investigated, the drive still becomes ready but DDI reports 0LBA.
Terminal log:
EarlySpinup Enabled
Rst 0x10M
ExecuteSpinRequest
[PORFAIL:MC.disabled]
The last line with Porfail is new since this problem started.
I'm using DFL tools. Drive becomes ready, initializes and ID's but reports 0LBA. I can read all firmware modules, can access terminal, can execute Ctrl + L and Ctrl + A.
When I execute ANY other terminal commands I get
LED:000000BC FAddr:00004264 repeated until I power off the drive.
Exact same symptoms with another donor head stack with top 2 heads cut, original or adaptive ROM, original heads map in ROM or modified to init with H0 and H1, OR with only H0, or only H1.
Have inspected the heads/sliders several times on the first and second donor and since the initial platter cleaning there has not been any new contamination.
Have tried multiple controller PCBs.
Have removed platters a second time and re-inspected both sides of bottom platter and it is still spotless since initial cleaning.
Have programmed ROM onto new IC with EEPROM programmer.
Any new ideas would be much appreciated!
Sam