Marvell 88i-1017 data sheet / G4311A

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Mike - USBRecovery.co.uk

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Aug 25, 2025, 5:25:38 PM (11 days ago) Aug 25
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Anyone seen a data sheet for the controller ? 

Im struggling to disable write preparing a board for a headswap on an MQ04 which is right on the edge and I don't want it to take any chances with the SA. I'd have thought the information was old enough to be in the public domain by now but it doesn't appear to be.


pbzcbf...@gmail.com

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Aug 25, 2025, 9:10:31 PM (11 days ago) Aug 25
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I suspect that these MCUs are perpetually under an NDA. I believe that each is a custom design for a particular client. They appear to be assembled from a library of modules. For example, I have seen Samsung tech manuals that refer to a particular Marvel read channel inside the MCU.

Mike - USBRecovery.co.uk

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Aug 26, 2025, 3:50:03 AM (11 days ago) Aug 26
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I found the post from a few years back that you'd made for Tim when he was doing the same with a link to a patent which had a pinout in, but cutting or pulling to ground what I believe to be the write gate just give me no spin / bsy. 

I can't imagine everyone else is just risking it with these SMR drives or perhaps support for them has improved in the more recent versions of PC3000.

t...@desertdatarecovery.com

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Aug 26, 2025, 10:47:47 AM (11 days ago) Aug 26
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I never found the correct way to block the write channel and no one would share it with me. As a group (DRP) we have done probably 100s of these between us and we have never had an issue with the SA becoming corrupt. I am not saying it will never happen, but stats show its few and far between.

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Mike - USBRecovery.co.uk

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Aug 26, 2025, 11:50:23 AM (10 days ago) Aug 26
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Interesting to hear that Tim,  I've only had half a dozen of these in and only 1 which needed heads so not a common drive for me at all.  This is also a refurb unit so Im treating it somewhat like a UXB . I've sent a couple of emails out but those who know aren't telling. 

Working on a spare drive, I've found the write channels and also an associated additional line which when all are grounded out the drive IDs reports the correct passport info but I can hear it still trying to write and it eventually repowers - not sure if leaving them floating rather than grounding them would be a better idea.  

You can bet that if the odds of it causing a problem are 1/100  Im going to have that 1 drive :)
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