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HD Failed


Sharlikran

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Well the hd failed. I can buy 4000 dollar piece of hardware and recover the data after transplanting the heads from a drive of the same model assuming the internal components are simular enough because of the complexity involved in reading the magnetic media after transplanting parts. I can also spend 700  dollars for the hd manufacturer to recover the data.

Either way I have no way to get files I want like family pictures without spending way too much money. In addition to that I want the files I collected over the years from the nexus because some can't be downloaded anymore.

My wife works on a farm so I could get one of the suits they use because its it's like a clean suit and wear gloves. Open the drive in the cleanest environment I can create to attempt in returning the heads to the staging area or unpark the heads and if it worked for a few hours copy the files to a new drive.

No matter what I do I'm out of luck for now as it was my only drive. I have older 250gb drives I might have in an old computer but nothing like I had and its mostly the family pictures I want. The nexus files too but I'm the end of i loose that it isn't the end of the world.

Any good disk imaging software you know of anyone? @WrinklyNinja @zilav @Jon that can read a drive? I don't think the drive platters are damaged beyond use. They could be slightly abused and there could be bad sectors if the heads were failing and not operatimg properly. Even a slight vibration could cause a bad sector as the heads were on their last legs before they decided to fail.

If I can move them and use the drive for a few hours I need something to just copy files. It can't be reading bad sectors trying to recover from and error. I'm not going to mark the bad sectors and files on a 2tb drive because doing that might lead to another failure I can't recover from a second time.

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No I mean failed as in it clicks. So I am assuming the heads could not move on or off the platters correctly and are now stuck.

So no the bios won't recognize it and the computer won't post and go into the bios if the sata cable is connected to the drive.

Different power lead and sata cable causes the same situation.

That is why I am hoping I get lucky and can move the heads and get it working long enough to copy the files to a new drive. At the moment I am broke and can't buy a new drive. So for now I'm not going to touch it. Once I have a new drive I will make one attempt to move the heads and copy files before just storing it until I can pay to have the data recovered.

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Many people with what was considered a completely dead HD have managed to recover data off the platters after using Steve Gibsons Spinrite

https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Its also good for making your HD last longer before the inevitable. Even if you think your HD doesnt need it, I always run spinrite on any new HDs to work its magic and give us a few more years longevity out of the drive.

A lot of small computer repair shops have a copy of this in the workshop, it helps them perform minor miracles recovering peoples dead machines.

Heads up - The operation can take days, or a few hours, depends, but not giving up on it often proves worth the wait.

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Another vote for Spinrite. Hopefully that fixes it. 

If not, there are a few dead-drive recovery companies of varying levels of cost and guarantee.

The most famous of these is Kroll Ontrack but there are a few others out there that may be better now.

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3 hours ago, Sharlikran said:

Well the hd failed. I can buy 4000 dollar piece of hardware and recover the data after transplanting the heads from a drive of the same model assuming the internal components are simular enough because of the complexity involved in reading the magnetic media after transplanting parts. I can also spend 700  dollars for the hd manufacturer to recover the data.

Either way I have no way to get files I want like family pictures without spending way too much money. In addition to that I want the files I collected over the years from the nexus because some can't be downloaded anymore.

My wife works on a farm so I could get one of the suits they use because its it's like a clean suit and wear gloves. Open the drive in the cleanest environment I can create to attempt in returning the heads to the staging area or unpark the heads and if it worked for a few hours copy the files to a new drive.

No matter what I do I'm out of luck for now as it was my only drive. I have older 250gb drives I might have in an old computer but nothing like I had and its mostly the family pictures I want. The nexus files too but I'm the end of i loose that it isn't the end of the world.

Any good disk imaging software you know of anyone? @WrinklyNinja @zilav @Jon that can read a drive? I don't think the drive platters are damaged beyond use. They could be slightly abused and there could be bad sectors if the heads were failing and not operatimg properly. Even a slight vibration could cause a bad sector as the heads were on their last legs before they decided to fail.

If I can move them and use the drive for a few hours I need something to just copy files. It can't be reading bad sectors trying to recover from and error. I'm not going to mark the bad sectors and files on a 2tb drive because doing that might lead to another failure I can't recover from a second time.

Hm - in my experience, this is a serious problem.

The reason, that your disk is no longer visible in the BIOS, can be, that it is truly shot and if that is the case, data recovery is in doubt too, even from a manufacturer. Maybe they can restore some from platters, but they need to extract them and put them in some sort of 'reader', which will be not cheap. I think you will find, that they do not and cannot guarantee anything...

But it also could be, that you are unlucky enough that just one sector failed fatally, could no longer be read and therefore not remapped, namely the boot sector or some disk formatting block after it. In this case BIOS also refuses the disk. You cannot start from it. (If this is not the disk you boot from, forget this).

So - what I would do: I assume this is a SATA disk? Nearly every disk today is. Put it into an external enclosure, an USB disk enclosure. If you do this, maybe it can be read, because you do not need to boot from it. I was lucky enough to have such a case (years before with a problem disk), the disk had several non recoverable read errors, but most of the files were still there and I could back them up.

I am quite sure, that opening the disk and trying to 'reposition' the head mounts will destroy the disk. You would need a lot of experience and a clean room. Dust in any (clean home) room is more than enough to lead to a head crash nearly immediately. I would not try this. It also could be, that it will not help to move the heads to their parking position manually. The clicking sound can also mean, that one of the heads came lose and hangs. Or the disk cannot read its own formatting data.

If you can access your disk in the external enclosure, data can be saved.

Do not forget: Disk imaging software reads at OS level, it cannot access the disk at low level usually, because it would not work on Windows. Special software needs to boot from a low level OS like MSDOS, so it can access the disk directly. I do not know such software, but it may exist. Ideally the software knows about SATA and maybe it can use SATA test & recovery functions. I would not put too much hope in such things. If a manufacturer can ask $ 700 for a recovery task, which is several times the price of a new disk, it has to be complicated...

And *cough*

I am using this software

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

on a regular basis. It is completely free (they will ask you from time to time to buy it, but the free version is legal and free, and not a test version). It is quite fast, it has a limited functionality, but does all you need. I have recovered single files and used it to transport an entire disk image to a new disk of different size. I admit, it won't help you with your problem, but will avoid similar catastrophes in the future...

 

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5 hours ago, alt3rn1ty said:

Many people with what was considered a completely dead HD have managed to recover data off the platters after using Steve Gibsons Spinrite

https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

LOL, that's where I linked him to in the WB thread. Maybe you and Beermotor will get through where my credibility doesn't.

 

6 hours ago, Sharlikran said:

So no the bios won't recognize it and the computer won't post and go into the bios if the sata cable is connected to the drive.

If it can't POST or get to BIOS with the SATA cable connected (which is weird), then an external enclosure (or cheap/simple SATA dock) plugged into another computer may be your only option. 

DEFT has all the tools I've ever needed for digital forensics work. If you fear use of the drive might cause further damage, you might start with this before Spinrite and see if you can get either a full image or use one of the tools that can recover specified files/formats. Nice thing is some of the tools can extract data while ignoring the filesystem. Check out the tools & definitely RTFM before using.

Of course, if the head, arm, etc. is too physically damaged to work, then you're stuck with a physical option. :( Haven't read anything that leads me to think you're at that point yet with any certainty. Good luck.

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The guy on this page reckons the clicking is definitely a job for the pros.

Sertdata think they can provide a good deal- read the blurb. There's more info from them viz bad heads.

This is an user_experience article on not what to do with a head crash.

Edit: Not much help here but Sieber has an amazing set of tools, some of which are a little out dated unfortunately.

 

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You know, this reminds me about a journalist in Sweden who was writing on his computer when suddenly it stop working and after a while he realized that the HDD was dead at least what he thought.

Anyway, out of his frustation he throw the HDD into the wall.  Later, he picked up the pieces from the floor and out of curiousity he tried to boot his computer and now it worked.

 

Freshdevices.com has a lot of tools.

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Somehow I don't think throwing it against the wall will help, but you could try thumping the top of the drive with something. Not very hard, but I've actually heard it can help if the heads are mechanically stuck.

So can grabbing it by the middle and twisting your wrist so the drive is rotating back and forth in your hand. Supposedly that will help if one of the motor bearings is frozen in place.

Neither one of these techniques is a solution to rely on for more than getting the data back though so if it does start, copy quickly.

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Agreed, I'd work under the assumption that if you get it going, you'll have one shot to get the data off. Once that's done, maybe Spinrite or something else can get it going for longer term.

Leo: I take it that was a joke, but it flew right over my head. (Like so many other things..) :P

BTW, Arthmoor, love the hat on your avatar! Can we call you Uncle Sweetshare? :D

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3 hours ago, RavenMind said:

I take it that was a joke

That was not a joke since it happen in RL.  The journalist mentioned it in a Swedish computer magazin.

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I once had a drive that I thought had completely died like that (clicking and not booting). I booted up a Linux live cd and was able to copy the files off it through usb. (USB 1.0 it took a whole day to copy 20GB :X Fun memories.) I can't remember if it was seen by the bios, though, as is happening in your case. At any rate, it's something cheap you could try before resorting to the more expensive options.

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I don't think I've ever had to do data recovery from a drive that wouldn't be seen by the BIOS, but I have had drives seem to fail, making clicking noises and not being seen by the BIOS, then later working long enough to get data off them, so maybe there's still hope. The worst case I've had was corruption on a drive containing about 1 TB of family photos and videos, some of it was unrecoverable (and it was long ago enough that I've forgotten what software I used), but since then I've always made sure to have a good automated offsite backup (currently have a CrashPlan subscription, though they're shuttering their service).

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Cloud or some kind of off-site backup is definitely the way to go. 1. Drive in my computer, 2. Backup drive in (fire/water poof) safe. 3. Backup off-site. Then you don't ever have to worry about it. :)

I had CrashPlan too, till they shafted the home users. The pricing to continue with them is ridiculous! Then they sold all my info to Carbonite & claimed to give us a good deal. When going to Carbonite's site, all they're offering is a very expensive business type plan, rather than the one mentioned in all the CrashPlan e-mails. :angry:

F. them both! Went with IDrive & couldn't be happier! :D

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