hard drive firmware

rickster70 · 04-12-2007, 10:24 AM

I'm working with a Seagate 300GB SATA Barricuda 7200.8 hard drive. I believe that a virus has corrupted the firmware on the drive. All diagnostic utillities I have tried, including Seatools, have found no bad sectors or surface errors. I have tried several utilities, including Boot & Nuke, to wipe or zero fill the drive and it blue screen errors every time. At first it was only the "an error has occured...shutting down to prevent damage." Then I got the, "Page fault in nonpaged area" blue screen. I checked the ram and swapped it out for new and got the same error. That is leading me to believe that the cache on the drive is corrupted. If I'm on the wrong track or my logic is flawed, please let me know. Anyway I was going to try flashing the firmware for the drive, but I can't find a source for it. Model # for this drive is ST3300831AS. I would appreciate any help with this matter.

Thanks

P.S. I suspect viral activity because the problem started when the person this machine belongs to opened a stored AIM conversation they found.

geek73 · 04-12-2007, 11:50 AM

Howdy Rickster..

Have you tried using nuke em from a floppy? Or from inside windows.. You can use your segate tools to fill the drive to 0's befor windows even boots up. Or fix the boot sector of the drive.. As thier are boot sector viruses out there..

rickster70 · 04-12-2007, 12:22 PM

Yes, I've been booting from floppy and I've tried the zero fill and several of the wipe options. None of them will complete. I even tried installing the drive into another computer and booting from floppy in case the problem was the board or another component and it made no difference.

geek73 · 04-12-2007, 12:25 PM

Downlooad the Ultimate Boot cd, and use thier zero fill and boot sector fixes. It has always worked for me. You have to burn it as an ISO..

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

ceri sheeran · 04-12-2007, 12:28 PM

Hi,

It is possible that malware on your machine is also making zero filling th edrive hard work.

Try using a bootable floppy disk with DBAN on it and disconnect all other hard drives to ensure they are unaffected by the zero fill.

hth

Ceri

rickster70 · 04-12-2007, 12:43 PM

I actually have tried that, in two different machines.

Quagmire66 · 12-21-2007, 06:13 AM

Hi Rickster,

Did you ever figure out what the problem was? The reason I wask is that I am having the same problem. I've swapped out the RAM now and I still get the PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA error.

04-12-2007, 10:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
rickster70 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Michigan Posts: 43 OS: XP Home SP3 My System	hard drive firmware? BSOD when performing LLF. I'm working with a Seagate 300GB SATA Barricuda 7200.8 hard drive. I believe that a virus has corrupted the firmware on the drive. All diagnostic utillities I have tried, including Seatools, have found no bad sectors or surface errors. I have tried several utilities, including Boot & Nuke, to wipe or zero fill the drive and it blue screen errors every time. At first it was only the "an error has occured...shutting down to prevent damage." Then I got the, "Page fault in nonpaged area" blue screen. I checked the ram and swapped it out for new and got the same error. That is leading me to believe that the cache on the drive is corrupted. If I'm on the wrong track or my logic is flawed, please let me know. Anyway I was going to try flashing the firmware for the drive, but I can't find a source for it. Model # for this drive is ST3300831AS. I would appreciate any help with this matter. Thanks P.S. I suspect viral activity because the problem started when the person this machine belongs to opened a stored AIM conversation they found. Last edited by rickster70; 04-12-2007 at 10:40 AM.

04-12-2007, 11:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
geek73 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 694 OS: SuSe Linux My System	Re: hard drive firmware Howdy Rickster.. Have you tried using nuke em from a floppy? Or from inside windows.. You can use your segate tools to fill the drive to 0's befor windows even boots up. Or fix the boot sector of the drive.. As thier are boot sector viruses out there.. __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

04-12-2007, 12:22 PM	#3 (permalink)
rickster70 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Michigan Posts: 43 OS: XP Home SP3 My System	Re: hard drive firmware Yes, I've been booting from floppy and I've tried the zero fill and several of the wipe options. None of them will complete. I even tried installing the drive into another computer and booting from floppy in case the problem was the board or another component and it made no difference.

04-12-2007, 12:25 PM	#4 (permalink)
geek73 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 694 OS: SuSe Linux My System	Re: hard drive firmware Downlooad the Ultimate Boot cd, and use thier zero fill and boot sector fixes. It has always worked for me. You have to burn it as an ISO.. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

04-12-2007, 12:28 PM	#5 (permalink)
ceri sheeran Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 285 OS: WINXP	Re: hard drive firmware Hi, It is possible that malware on your machine is also making zero filling th edrive hard work. Try using a bootable floppy disk with DBAN on it and disconnect all other hard drives to ensure they are unaffected by the zero fill. hth Ceri

04-12-2007, 12:43 PM	#6 (permalink)
rickster70 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Michigan Posts: 43 OS: XP Home SP3 My System	Re: hard drive firmware I actually have tried that, in two different machines.

12-21-2007, 06:13 AM	#7 (permalink)
Quagmire66 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 1 OS: xp	Re: hard drive firmware Hi Rickster, Did you ever figure out what the problem was? The reason I wask is that I am having the same problem. I've swapped out the RAM now and I still get the PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA error.