Fix for Bricked 500GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 - ST3500320NS BSY Bug

 * * * UNDER CONSTRUCTION * * * 

Just successfully fixed the BSY bug on my 500GB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (ST3500320NS ) drive and thought I'd share my experience.

Firstly I would like to thank everyone else that has written guides, made videos and commented on their own trials and tribulations with this issue. Seagates response has been an absolute joke and I will never buy a Seagate product again.

There is a lot of info already out there about this topic, however, most of it relates to the 7200.11 models (ST*******AS). The solution I used is based on this post (READ IT !)

The fix for the ES.2 (ST*******NS) drives is a little different:
 - You do NOT have to remove or loosen the PCB or insert a card between the PCB and the drive
 - You DO have to short the read channel
 - You need to unlock the drive terminal before you will be able to issue the commands

Items that DID WORK for me:
 - SATA power connectors with all 5 wires i.e. MUST HAVE ORANGE (3 VOLT) WIRE
 - USB to RS232 Adapter ($1.94 AUD on ebay including postage)
 - MAX232 RS232 To TTL Adapt​er ($6.99 AUD on ebay including postage)
 - 3 Volt battery from old motherboard

     

Items that DID NOT WORK for me:
 - SATA power connectors with only 4 wires. i.e. missing the orange wire (3 Volts)
 - USB to serial adapter PL2303 TTL. Loopback succeeded, but got no response from the drive

There are 2 difficult parts to this whole process:

1. Successfully connecting HyperTerminal to the hard drive

2. Unlocking the terminal

The Process

1. Connections

Some guides are specific about the order in which you connect things but I found it didn't matter.
LEAVE SATA POWER SUPPLY OFF
Connect everything up.
2. Open HyperTerminal connection to the correct COM port
I will use the following fonts and colours to distinguish:
 - Output from the hard drive
 - Commands you enter
 - Keystrokes

3. Turn on SATA power supply and hope that the following line appears in HyperTerminal every few seconds

LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A7E5

If NOT you can try:

 - Switch TX and RX connections

 - Try alternative power supplies and adapters

 - Seek professional help

If you DO see the LED:000000CC message, Congratulations! You have overcome the first hurdle, now you just need to get timing right for the next stage.

4. Unlock the Terminal

You have about 1 second to perform ALL of these steps:

 *****************************************************

 * As soon as the next LED:000000CC message is sent from the hard drive to HyperTerminal...

 * Hit CTRL+z

 * See the following line

 * F3 T>

 * Short the read channel (KEEP IT SHORTED)

 *****************************************************

If you successful, the LED:000000CC message will NOT reappear

If if you failed, 

IMPORTANT
Before issuing the command m0,2,2,0,0,0,0,22 you MUST power down the hard drive for at least 10 seconds. Some people say to disconnect the SATA power connector, however I didn't want to risk bumping my connections etc so I did this by switching of the PSU at the wall.

There are varying reports as to how long the command takes to complete, from 1 minute up to 20 minutes, and that you should NOT power down the drive until the command completes. I made the mistake of not power cycling the drive before issuing the command - the result was the command running for an hour before I eventually switched off the power. When I powered it back on, I had no trouble running the command to completion in under a minute


I tried many combinations of power supplies, adapters
Connecting the Drive
It took a lot of trial and error to get this right.
I used:
 - Laptop (64 bit Windows 7, no serial ports - only USB)
 - HyperTerminal (copied files from XP)
 - Spare PSU (SATA power connector with all 5 wires i.e. includes orange 3V wire)
 - 3V battery (removed from an old motherboard)
 - Clothes peg (used to hold wires to )
 - Electrical tape (used to mask parts of the )
 - Small piece of aluminium foil (placed on fingertip to short the read channel)

Optional Extras:

 - Multimeter (used to confirm PSU and battery voltages were good)

 - PSU testing unit (Verified PSU was good, but mainly just as a means of turning on the PSU)

I had no luck with a USB to TTL lead. The loopback test worked, but could not get any response from the harddrive (regardless of TX/RX orientation)

Shorting The Read Channel
After hitting CTRL+z in HyperTerm to get the prompt, you have about 1 second to short the read channel, and need to keep it shorted for quite a while. The holes in the PCB are tiny so finding something that fits nicely and being able to short it quickly and reliably proved challenging. My solution was to use electrical tape to mask all around the read channel, then use a piece of aluminium foil on my fingertip to press down at the right time. Only took 2 attempts to get it right.

References
Sunshine Coast Computer Repairs
Johnmar's post on MSFN.org