Problem with WD Marvel Demo

[gpsparth]

is there any chance to load modules manually to RAM if it is not automatically loaded due to corruption.

Since i have one drive in that both copies of some necessary modules corrupted ie. not readable and writable but had copies of them which had already taken

There are options to read and write to static files in ram but no possibility to add files to RAM.

my question: is it possible to add modules such as 28, 30, 31, 33 etc to add manually to RAM.

Note: In my experience(Not an expert) i had one case in that when we connect the hdd, it was detected as XYZ but at the same time when hot plugged after loading LDR through WDMarvel the hdd detected normally and user datas copied without any problem

Thanks in advance

[Vlad]

If you have copies of modules, you need remove defects from SA and write modules back

[Severence]

No idea whats happened here, i ran the demo version of WD marvel as i wanted to do a check for bad sectors, i thought it might be similar to the way victoria works, i kept getting drive is not ready errors in the defect area, so i hit "detect" and oddly it kept coming back to me with nonsensical model and LBA numbers. i closed the program and went to access the disk, windows hung for a bit and gave me an IO error - i had something similar happen the first time i used the program but a reboot of the computer solved it, unfortunately no luck this time... upon reboot the hard drive is no longer present - upon booting up the bios seems to identify that there is a device present but no model number is present.

I ran HDAT2 and MHDD and they both identify the HDD as PCI device 0MB with LBA 0.

Does anybody have any idea whats happened here? i get the feeling the firmware or rom or something has got a bit messed up - i did "read ROM" prior to all this happening so i'm hoping someone can help me out - all my data was accesable before this and now it isn't

Cheers,

[Spildit]

Ok.

WDMarvel DEMO should not WRITE anything to the drive. So unless you have done something that changed RAM and later got saved to SA by the drive I can't see how the DEMO could damage the drive.

What is the full model of the drive ? Is it a WD MARVELL drive (either ROYL or not) ? Because if the drive is not a WD MARVELL maybe the VSC on WDMarvel did something that they shouldn't to the drive.

Are you connecting the drive by SATA/IDE directly or are you using a USB adaptor ?

Are you applying power to te drive when the computer is already running and attempting to detect the drive in PIO ?

Do you have any data on the drive that you need to save/recover ?

Can you post a screen capture of WDMarvel detecting the drive ?

Have a happy new year.

[Spildit]

And goes without saying ... you shouldn't be testing firmware tools on drives that you care for. If you don't have experience with firmware tools just don't use them on drives with data !!!! One mistake and bye-bye data.
Things like self-scan, ARCO, formating SA, deleting wrong modules on SA/ROM (unique to the drive), writting bogus ROM/modules, etc ... might kill your drive for good taking the data with it.

Some operations are not reversible (like self-scan), once you run that the data will be erased and no-one will get it back.

If you add defects to P-LIST with your firmware tool you will have translator shifts and bye-bye data once again ....

So if you want to "repair" or "refurb" a drive with bad sectors ..... MAKE SURE YOU COPY ALL THE DATA OUT FIRST !!!!

[Severence]

Hi Spildit, thanks for the reply.

To answer your questions.

The drive is a WD Cav Green 2TB and WD-Marvel reported it was a ROYL (when it was properly detecting the model, LBA and serial etc)

Drive is connected direct via sata. with standard power - applied at boot.

Yeah, the drive is pretty much full with data which i needed. I know... i should have backed up the data. unfortunately this is one of those series of unfortunate event situations i actually had a replacment Hitachi 4TB ready to and backup all the data but it turned up DOA so had to go back. i thought as the demo didn't perform write operations and because i had "safe mode" checked i was relatively safe.... bad times.

WDMarvel no longer detects the drive ufortunately, the only programs i have tried which manage to detect something albeit with no model, serial or LBA info is HDAT2 and MHDD via DOS. i do have some logs from HDAT2 which i saved - which i could provide.

When your reffering to the Rom, this is the same as the 8-pin winbond rom chip or is this an internal rom on the MCU? only ask because i did manage to read the rom with WDMarvel before the above issues occured and i could just desolder and re-program the 8-pin chip if neccesary if you think that would resolve it?

[Spildit]

Hi again.

I would say that somehow the drive got firmware damaged.

That "Safe Mode" option on WDMarvel doesn't prevent you from writing to the drive (if you have a full version) and cause damage to it.

I don't see how reading defect tables can cause an issue but if the problem was indeed caused by WDMarvel you should still be able to detect the drive with it, even if it doesn't report capacity and model.

Try to plug a known good drive to that SATA port and power on the system. Detect the drive with WDMarvel on the correct port. When you are sure to have the correct port remove that drive (don't power pown the system) and plug the damaged drive to the SATA/Power. Can you detect the drive now even if just with FW version ? Can you read S/A ?

ROM code can be on a ROM chip or embeded on MCU. If you have a ROM chip on the PCB then the code will be located there and it's the same you dumped with WDMarvel but .... THIS MOST LIKELY IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM.

If you did get some firmware damage then the damage will be on the modules saved on the platters and NOT on the ROM CHIP.

Unless you have done something like block S/A access and that changed ROM MODULES. Same for disable heads.

Do the following, save the ROM image on a SAFE PLACE (not on WDMarvel folder) and when you get the drive detected do read ROM again. Compare the files. If they are equal then your problem is not with ROM/ROM modules.

If you really need the data then you might consider as well the use of a data recovery firm ...

[Spildit]

Can i take a look to the drive by TeamViewer ?
PM me the ID/Pass if interested.

[Severence]

Hi, thanks again Spildit i appreciate the help.

so i did as you requested and switched the sata cable from a working and in use drive (which for clarity is currently drive D: and is also a WD Green 2TB but a different model) and applied power and sata connection to my problem drive (Drive E: for clarity) at the same time.

In WD marvel i have my good drive (drive D:) currently selected (but as previously mentioned is physically disconnected) and i hit "detect" it detects the drive (which should be my problem Drive E), albeit as shown in the attached image. bear in mind the IDE/Sata controller selection is still displaying my good working drives model info and is not showing my bad E: drive.

I was able to read the Rom a few times succesfully.

Hope all that makes sense, getting confused myself just typing that

Edit:

So i compared the roms side by side with winmerge and it reports that the files are identical. so i'm at a bit of a loss now and also a bit confused as to why windows is unable to detect the drive ordinarily

[Spildit]

Ok ...

First of all you don't want to be working in Windows API mode. You should switch to PIO (IDE/compatible) mode and select the correct channel/port where you have the dribve plugged to. You might need to change BIOS setting to IDE compatible mode for the mentioned port.

At any rate i would try to go to S/A operations and check if you can see any modules at all. Probably you will not see a thing and you will get an error message.

Did you compare the 2 rom files ? Initial one and this latest one you retrieved ? Are they exactly the same ?

Does the drive clicks or makes strange noises ? Does it spin down ?

Also can you go to other and check S.M.A.R.T. ? Can you see S.M.A.R.T. values ? Can you post a screen shot ?

If you go to module operations on S/A and if you can see a list of modules are you able to read them ?

Also check regions and head map.

Check Heads - Head Map in ID0A and post a screen capture and S/A operations - S/A regions operations and post a capture.