how do I recover data from a non responsive hard drive?

ICIT2LOL · 23 Jun 2014

jumanji said:

@Icit2, I thought I had already answered this question in my post #113.

"If our suspicion that the HDD is developing bad sectors is true, some of the files copied either with TestDisk or live Linux will be corrupt even if we succeed in copying.

ddrescue while cloning the drive tries to repeatedly read the bad sectors and extract the data in it, which conventional cloning software like Macrium Reflect will not do.The algorithm used in ddrescue is different with focus on bad sector recovery as it clones. First pass clones all good sectors. Subsequent passes - as many as you can order - will target only the bad sectors as logged in its logfile - and try to extract the feeble data in it."

Normally 3 passes is considered sufficient to extract data from a bad sector the assumption being if in three passes a bad sector cannot be recovered, more number of passes may not do anything better except increasing the recovery time..That bad sector is considered irrecoverable and naturally some files recovered will remain corrupted. But the best has been done to recover bad sectors.

I am only interested in seeing how many passes Anshad is going to recommend based on his personal experience.

Yep I was too busy concentrating on something else - sorry

mjf · 23 Jun 2014

Slartybart said:

Anshad, et al: CrystalDiskInfo can affect Smart values. This might improve disk access time and also buy a bit more time before SMART flags he disk.

CrystalDiskInfo is a reporting tool. This is how you might use it to monitor the ongoing health of your drive.
Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T capability - benefits / risks ??
If you continue to get reallocated sector count increases it's time to dump the drive.

Slartybart · 23 Jun 2014

mjf said:

Slartybart said:

Anshad, et al: CrystalDiskInfo can affect Smart values. This might improve disk access time and also buy a bit more time before SMART flags he disk.

CrystalDiskInfo is a reporting tool. This is how you might use it to monitor the ongoing health of your drive.
Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T capability - benefits / risks ??
If you continue to get reallocated sector count increases it's time to dump the drive.

That's what I thought too - reporting tool, but was convinced otherwise. Now, I'm not sure.

If I read your post on the thread you pointed to, it sounds more as though the sliders affect CrystalDisk reporting health status (good, bad, etc). That makes sense to me.

I'll have to play with it again - move the sliders in CrystalDisk and check SMART with another utility (I thought I did that over a year ago, but..... I'll do it soon for my own satisfaction)

Thanks for the correction, someone has to keep me honest

Bill

Canuck67 · 30 Jun 2014

Hey hey... remember me? I am now the proud owner of a new 2TB hard drive.

So I'm ready to do the data recovery from my old drive.

I would like to make this my boot drive... so how do I do that? and do I do it before, or after we attempt the data recovery?

Thanks again guys.

Anshad Edavana · 30 Jun 2014

Anshad, et al: CrystalDiskInfo can affect Smart values. This might improve disk access time and also buy a bit more time before SMART flags he disk.

One member reportedly used it on a failing drive and the drive has been fine for 5 years. SMART isn't all that smart sometimes. I recently applied this method to a troublesome ext WD drive - the results are inconclusive, but the symptoms were completely different.

Actually SMART is only a log of the HDD activities and if you know what each attributes are meant and which one of them are important, you will be able to develop an idea about the health condition of a disk in question. The number one rule when reading SMART is to not use a tool which predicts disks health based on SMART attribute's values. For example there is "HDD Sentinal" which predicts approximately how many days a disk will work which is not reliable at all. In fact SMART never give us an estimate about the remaining life of a disk but by analysing the attributes, we will can build a fairly good idea. For example, if SMART shows too may head seek failures, that clearly indicates that internals of the disk are not in a good condition and the head may got completely stuck on some day so make sure to take backup of important data.

Among all other attributes, i will always pay special attention to "Current Pending Sector" as that attribute will give us an idea about the disk's surface condition. On an ideal disk it should be zero. If it is a non zero value, it means either there are no more spare sectors to remap ( G-List is full )or the sectors are so defective and hence the disk can't read the data stored on them before marking them as bad.

When we run HD manufacturer's diagnostic tool or use "Crystal DiskInfo" to reset the counter, SMART chip will actually ignore the data stored on the bad sectors and will remap them forcefully. With the bad sectors "disappeared", the disk will be usable again but it's reliability will be compromised. Some works for months and some may last long for years. My general recommendation is to not use the disk for storing critically important data.

Perhaps, Anshad is learning a bit from our input as well.

In fact a lot

. I learned a lot from various tech support forums including "Sevenforums". The quality of support people get here always amazed me but i never had the courage to post in here mainly because i know my English sucks.

Anshad Edavana · 30 Jun 2014

@Canuck67

Using the new 2TB disk as a boot drive is not possible at this time. Our first goal should be is to rescue data from the failing disk to the new one using "DDrescue". Once the data is safely extracted to the new 2 TB disk, you can copy all data to the free partition of your main OS disk and then re-partition the new 2 TB and install Windows to it.

It is midnight in my place- retire for now. I will post detailed instructions about the cloning process tomorrow.

Canuck67 · 30 Jun 2014

Anshad Edavana said:

@Canuck67

Using the new 2TB disk as a boot drive is not possible at this time. Our first goal should be is to rescue data from the failing disk to the new one using "DDrescue". Once the data is safely extracted to the new 2 TB disk, you can copy all data to the free partition of your main OS disk and then re-partition the new 2 TB and install Windows to it.

It is midnight in my place- retire for now. I will post detailed instructions about the cloning process tomorrow.

nice. thank you. sleep well.

Layback Bear · 30 Jun 2014

I have one major rule about a hard drive.
If I have doubts about it I will try to get the information off of it within reason and then take a hammer to it. Done.
If you don't have a backup well you have also learned a lesson.

mjf · 30 Jun 2014

Sector count changes over time is what really matters. CrystalDiskInfo is a monitoring/reporting tool that allows you reset the warning thresholds. Resetting the thresholds will cause the warning lights to disappear but you need to carefully monitor the drive. If the thresholds are exceeded again in say 6 months then the drive should probably be discarded.

how do I recover data from a non responsive hard drive?-capture.jpg

Anshad Edavana · 30 Jun 2014

Sector count changes over time is what really matters. CrystalDiskInfo is a monitoring/reporting tool that allows you reset the warning thresholds. Resetting the thresholds will cause the warning lights to disappear but you need to carefully monitor the drive.

I don't use "CrystalDiskInfo" so never played with the counter resetting tricks. The firm i am working for undertakes "Annual Maintenance Contracts". I have to deal with failing hard drives almost every day. If the number of bad sectors exceeds 10, i will dump the drive and replace it with a new one. If it is around 10, i would run manufacturer's diagnostic tool to repair the defects. "Seagate Seatool" , "WD Data lifeguard Diagnostic" and "Hitachi Drive Fitness Test" supports repairing bad sectors by remapping them. One can also use "Victoria" , "MHDD" or "Vivard" to do the same job. If the total number of bad sectors are less than 10, usually the repaired drive will work some more time - some disks i fixed 3-4 years ago still works. If "CrystolDiskInfo" only resets the "Threshold" without actually remapping the pending sectors, the disk won't last longer. I should check whether it performs remapping the next time i get a failing disk.