Dropped my 2TB data storage HDD

[Golden]

Golden, I'm confused here. Will this peppermint thing work on a DATA-storage-only HDD. its reads like its a repair for a faulty OS HDD?

Hi,

It can read any connected hard drive - not only a system/OS HDD. What I'm proposing is to see if Linux can see the drive. Perhaps it can't but you have nothing to lose.

You install Peppermint 3 to a separate USB flash drive, then boot from that (make sure the faulty 2TB drive is connected to the computer). Then open the Peppermint 3 file browser and see if you can see the 2TB drive and its contents.

Regards,
Golden

 

[jumanji]

Hi AaLF,

You said you were able to see your Western Digital 2TB drive in the Disk Management on another Windows 7 PC as "Unknown device, not initialised " ( At this moment, I don't know why your PC doesn't show anything while another PC can see something but I would brush it under the carpet now, and go by what is seen. That means henceforth you will stick to that PC or any other PC on which it appears so, for any actions you take on that HDD.)

1. Do take a screen capture on how it is seen in the Disk Management and post it. (Please make sure that all other external HDDs/pen drives are unplugged so that there will be no confusion.) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html
Then perhaps you will get suggestions on how to try and make it a known device. (It so happens that I may not know even simple things.)

2. Perform this small test just to see whether the HDD can be read. Download MBR Backup v2.0 MBR Backup 2.0 Released | TrojanHunter Blog Run it and see whether it could read the first sector of the drive.(Physical drive 0 will be the system drive, and Physical drive 1 will be your Western Digital internal drive - assuming that that PC has only one other internal system drive and your HDD is the second one) If you can see the first sector, save it.

3. Try to access the drive with the live Linux pen drive as suggested by many above and follow Golden's tutorial. That is always the first step in data recovery. With Golden's permission, I would suggest that you use Rufus - http://rufus.akeo.ie/ to create the bootable pen drive with the downloaded ISO, if you are comfortable with Windows GUI rather than LILO.

 

[kbronski]

A SATA/IDE to USB cable (with power to run the devices) is under $25 USD, and handy.... I suggest you get one, this is a scenario I see you using it! 8)

Less than that, even. I picked up mine on Amazon a couple years ago for $5 from a Hong Kong vendor and it still works.

Here's one for $7.05. Worth a try?
USB 2.0 to IDE / SATA Converter Cable

AaLF, when you plug in the drive, does it make any unusual sounds?

 

[AaLF]

Here is the MBR attached.

 

[jumanji]

1. You haven't uploaded the Disk Management screen capture.

2. I didn't want you to upload the .bin file. ( You were asked to save it, so that you can restore it later, if necessary.) I just wanted to know whether your HDD could be read. If MBR Backup could read it, you should have seen the first sector like in the following screenshot.



And I would have appreciated if you had taken this screenshot and uploaded it rather than the file. Anyway, if you had seen something like what was in the above screenshot, it confirms that your HDD could still be read.

3. That gives us a ray of hope that there is a distinct possibility of it being read by a live Linux pen drive. You have not indicated whether you have tried it or even contemplating to try it.

 

[Golden]

Aalf - please respond to the questions asked and indicate whether you have tried the suggestions, and the outcomes. You will find that the more detail you provide, the more willing others will be to help.

Regards,
Golden

 

[AaLF]

Hi all. Thanks for sticking with me. Note - the MBRBackup only offers the Cdrive disk (physical drive 0 in the scroll menu at top.

 

[Golden]

:sarc:

Have you tried reading the disk with Linux? Yes or No?

 

[AaLF]

No. The USB flash drive failed. Need to go & buy one today.

 

[Golden]

I suggest you do NOT do anything further until you have tried to read it with a Linux distro, as recommended by several people now.

 

[AaLF]

Golden, I am embarrassed to say I do not know where to locate the peppermint ISO. I have installed LiLi only so far.

 

[jumanji]

Hi AaLF,

MBR backup could not see and read physical drive 1. ( I was misled by your earlier post.)

The screenshot in the Disk Management is not encouraging.

Both pointers to physical damage.

IMO, only a professional setup, reconstructing the physically damaged drive can retrieve the data. But that is going to cost a bomb.

Yep, try recovery with live Linux CD. Let us do what we can before giving up.

If it fails to read the drive, abort this attempt.

Then go back to Disk Management, right click on the area you had circled in the Disk Management and check whether you are able to perform any of the operations like bringing it online or initialsing it. Do whatever you can.

If most of the Menu is greyed out, that would bring the curtain down on this thread. Sorry for that.

 

[AaLF]

I am downloading linux now. When installed & we try it won't this be harmful to initialize it?? Wont that wipe the data?

After that, right click on the area you had circled in the Disk Management and check whether you are able to perform any of the operations like bringing it online or initialsing it. Do whatever you can.

 

[jumanji]

No, you are not initialising it or doing any write operation. You are merely trying to read the drive and copy the contents elsewhere.

Note: I have edited my previous post for more clarity. Read it again.

 

[smarteyeball]

Have you tried swearing at it OP? That in conjunction with the above methods can sometimes work wonders.

 

[AaLF]

I have peppermint3 linux open. Where do i go to view system hard drives??

 

[Golden]

Have you read the tutorial? Step C

 

[AaLF]

Thanks 4 all you help you guys. took it to one of those Data places. they said the 'stacks?' were stuffed. All is lost.