My office computer has a Seagate 7200.11 500G HDD. One day morning when I powered on the machine, I got this:
The HDD disappered in BIOS, so I got a Seagate brick… and I lost 500G data.
If I send this brick to Seagate, I can sure I’ll lost my data forever, so I decide repair it myself.
First, I bought a Nokia CA-42 Cable, cost about 0.7$, and jointing it with minimal plug head:
Second, plug a thin plastic strip between the HDD motor and PCB:
OK, all ready.
Plug the CA-42 Cable in to an bootable computer and install cable driver, launch terminal, get into HDD factory mode, type commands to repair(reset) it. 10 minutes later, all data is back.
Then, I update this HDD firmware from SD15 to SD1A, prevent it damage again.