PC-3000 Forum

Hello guys!
Here I will describe how to perform head map editing in ram with seagate f3.
So let's take for example Seagate F3 ST3500320AS, 500Gb, SD1A.
It has 4 heads. Let's suppose that last head is bad.
When I connect drive to PC-3000 and turn power on it just clicks and then spins down.
I need to disable last head in ROM.
Actually I can not know which head is bad, so I will just leave enabled first two heads and will disable rest other.
In such condition of HDD I can not work with ROM. So at this stage I should desolder ROM chip and read it via external programmer. Then I connect any drive to PC-3000 and run Seagate F3 utility. Go to "Work with flash ROM image file"

Select ROM image "File"

After that I will see dump of the patient's ROM

My goal now is to disable all heads except first two. They are system heads and should be enabled.
At the right side we can see two buttons: PHYS and LOG. By using these buttons I can run head map editing in ROM.
Button LOG runs logical head map editing, button PHYS runs physical head map editing. The difference between these head maps is next: in case of Seagates drives, if drive does not have heads in the middle of HSA, button LOG will show us head map as 00 01 04 05, so we can see actual head map inside drive. Button PHYS will show head map as 00 01 02 03. It is not so important for us how head map will be shown. These two buttons show us the same head map, but different presentation. The analogy - in WD utility we can see head map of the drive as 02 03 04 05 06 07, in DE we will see 00 01 02 03 04 05.
Button LOG shows us head map as heads are located inside disk, button PHYS shows just sequence of heads. So we suggest to use button LOG at first. The problem that numbers of FWs does not support this ability to see such head map. For example in my case I can not use this button, it I press it I get message

So i have to use button PHYS

=The rule: at first try to use button LOG, if it will not work, use button PHYS=

When I press on it I get such window

It is possible head maps for my drive. ROM has set of head maps that drive can use. Proper head map is selected during initialization of HDD, but we do not know which head map is actual for this drive. So I should change all head maps by one rule.
In our example it will look like on the picture below

so if we have several head maps like
00 01 02 03
02 03 04 05
03 04 05 06
We should set new head maps by one rule like
00 01 01 01
02 03 03 03
03 04 04 04
Just first two heads are still enabled and rest other are replaced by second head
I press OK. Changes are saved. Then I write via programmer this modified dump to ROM chip and solder it to patient PCB.
Now drive will work just with first 2 heads when I turn power on.
I can now run utility, ID is shown and I can read first sectors. But heads 02 and 03 are still disabled and I can not read the data from it.
My goal now is to detect bad head (at this stage I do not know which head is bad) and enable good heads.
There is 3 options to do it:
"RAM Logical head map changing"
"RAM head map editing"
"RAM head maps editing"

"RAM Logical head map changing" is the same like button LOG, but works with RAM
"RAM head maps editing" is the same like button PHYS, but works with RAM
"RAM head map editing" shows us actual head map from set that was shown us by button PHYS.
So our recommendation is
at first try to use "RAM Logical head map changing", if it will not be possible with FW of your patient drive, try to use "RAM head map editing" and then (if "RAM head map editing" will not work too) "RAM head maps editing".
In my case "RAM Logical head map changing" does not work so I used "RAM head maps editing"

Original head map is 00 01 01 01 like I set in ROM
Now I set 00 01 02 01.
At first I enable head 02, press OK, if drive continues to work so head is ok, then by the same way I set head map 00 01 02 03.
Drive stops to work, so now I know that head 03 is bad. I restart power set head map 00 01 02 01, run DE, create head map in DE, disable last head and start copying.
Maybe this procedure looks pretty difficult, but actually it's easy. Your main steps are:
1. Unsolder and read rom chip
2. Edit head map in ROM (at first try to use button LOG, then PHYS (change all head maps by one rule))
3. Write modified dump to rom chip and solder it to patient pcb
4. Run utility and edit head map in RAM. At first try to use RAM logical head map editing, RAM then head map editing, RAM then head maps editing
5. Enable heads by one.
If something is not clear, write please here your questions.

Thanks for the instructions.
Now I just need a rom reader.

do you have a suggestion for a rom reader?

There are lots.
They range from - to expensive.
I want one thats capable of reading other kinds of common data recovery roms.

a nand read too would be nice..

Can you suggest a minimal model or features I should look for

which one do you guys use?

Thanks for the write up Igor! Very helpful!

drdoc wrote:Thanks for the instructions.
Now I just need a rom reader.

do you have a suggestion for a rom reader?

There are lots.
They range from - to expensive.
I want one thats capable of reading other kinds of common data recovery roms.

a nand read too would be nice..

Can you suggest a minimal model or features I should look for

which one do you guys use?

I can say that all modern readers support most of modern chips. I know that you can buy basic station and then buy necessary adapters for chips that you need to read. So I can not suggest one certain reader "that is the best", all of then not bad. If you want to know what we do use - it's some xeltek.

Hi

Really a Great achievement.

Vikas

Did not work for me on my first attempt with a drive I think has bad heads. Perhaps the bad head is H0 or H1, and that is why this method did not work?

Originally, it got ready after clicking + spin down. After re-writing modified ROM to drive, it was staying busy + clicking + seeking. I could never try RAM Head Map Editing - kept timing out, "Drive is not ready" - with clicking/seeking sounds.

0 for 5 on this technique so far. Every time I change heads to 00 01 01 01 01 01 and the drive keeps clicking after writing the rom back. Same clicking sounds, same spin down after clicking. Is it just likely that all 5 I've tried so far have bad heads 00 or 01 (or bad pre-amp?)?

Can you disable the first head instead. Is there any reason you disable heads in pairs?

Worked a treat for me on a 1.5Tb 7200.11

H7 was bad

Now I have cloned H0-6 I'm a lot happier in proceeding with the heads swap to get the remaining

I've still had no luck with this procedure. I've tried probably 50 times, especially since it's now easier to write ROM with the latest update.

I just tried editing head map on fully a working 7200.12 drive. After writing back 00 01 01 01 heap map to ROM, the drive just clicks. I can't even try editing heap map in RAM (terminal timeout). The drive didn't click before editing ROM, so I'm wondering if this technique works on 7200.12? Does it only work for 7200.11?

Can anyone post about a model this technique DID work on (besides the 1 drive PCImage got it to work on, which was 7200.11)?

I didn't try as many times as you, but my few trials have failed either...

Dear friends
hi

I have a 2TB drive which suffers from a very very thin circular scratch on the top platter , now
does this method work if I disable the head which is related to the platter ???

regards
Moji

Dear friends
hi
I did the job you mentioned , but unfortunately was not successful .

maybe i should swap the HDA after that i try to do that .

best regards

Hai to All

I used to face problems related to head. most of the cases are, HDD are come to the DRD&DSC status.But after that its get Spin Down. Normally , these type of problems are defined as HEAD problems.So what I what to ask, In this problems, can we solve with help of Head map eding in RAM ?

Anybody have experince , please tell me..
Betty
Crystal

First up all thanks to Mr.IGOR ,ACE Lab and Developers, those who are paying efforts to bring these technology to us

I have success in one hdd 1 tb seagate baracuda.
I have not success in another one 1 tb seagate baracuda 7200.11

Is the Head 0 is have compulsory OK . Suppose head 0 is bad, then Can we apply these method for this hdd.

betty
crystal