Solved Failed HDD: Can this drive be reclaimed??

[zapp22]

I need some direction on this one. In the past, if I had cases of failed HDD, if I could get it to spin up at all I typically could use some tools to get the valuable data off before deciding whether to trash the drive or not. In this case I have a failed WD IDE/ATA hard drive that spins up but so far cannot be recognize by anything, almost. BIOS simply reports it as "Unknown", Win7 disk management crashes/hangs [I'd like to know more about that one], Winxp disk management runs but does not id the device. The only flicker of recognition I have at all is a Win7 system event Error: "Drive E: file system corrupt. Run chkdsk". Chkdsk can't deal with it.

I downloaded and ran WD's diags utility. Simply does not see a device there. I've tried mounting the drive via USB adapter and sitting on the IDE bus. No difference in results.

Can someone suggest a utility, a boot disc or some other way to try to access?

many thanks
z

 

[Golden]

Hi Zapp,

Try Partition Wizard here:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

If you have a functioning C drive, simply install it to that and run it from within Windows - no need to boot from the ISO.

If you do want to make a bootable ISO, try this:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

Regards,
Golden

 

[zapp22]

OK. we"ll give it a shot

 

[writhziden]

PartedMagic also has some nice utilities, including TestDisk (which has a step by step instruction page). You can find out more about PartedMagic at the PartedMagic homepage and obtain it by clicking the Downloads link on the left of the page.

 

[Nigsy]

Try running ubuntu live CD and see if you can access the disc from there?

 

[zapp22]

great minds

after the fail of Partition Wizard I pulled UBCD out of my stack and ran partedmagic [a very impressive package]. it had no problem finding the drive and id'ing it correctly, and amazingly, its SMART status is a Pass! so good news there. the bad news is the
GSmart Control app detailed the issue: NTFS file system inconsistencies, with a reco to run chkdsk /f followed by 2 reboots.

question: how to boot something from optical drive that has chkdsk...., and the thing is, neither win7 nor win xp pro could even identify a drive on the bus! chkdsk is only going to run on a 'drive'.

keep me going here guys... what to try now?

 

[writhziden]

after the fail of Partition Wizard I pulled UBCD out of my stack and ran partedmagic [a very impressive package]. it had no problem finding the drive and id'ing it correctly, and amazingly, its SMART status is a Pass! so good news there. the bad news is the
GSmart Control app detailed the issue: NTFS file system inconsistencies, with a reco to run chkdsk /f followed by 2 reboots.

question: how to boot something from optical drive that has chkdsk...., and the thing is, neither win7 nor win xp pro could even identify a drive on the bus! chkdsk is only going to run on a 'drive'.

keep me going here guys... what to try now?

Try running through the TestDisk step by step I provided in my post. If you get stuck, ask questions. I just helped someone with this yesterday, so I have a pretty good grasp of how to proceed with TestDisk.

Edit: You want to get the partition back to a previous NTFS system so Windows will see it. Restoring a deleted NTFS partition will sometimes allow this to happen.

 

[apollodominion]

is the HDD beeping when its got power? If so thump it on table that got mine working long enough to get 90% of the Data its a common prob with Samsung 1TB Sata2 drives also in the buffalo USB HHDs

 

[writhziden]

is the HDD beeping when its got power? If so thump it on table that got mine working long enough to get 90% of the Data its a common prob with Samsung 1TB Sata2 drives also in the buffalo USB HHDs

Thumping the drive on the table could physically damage it. Recommend this as a last resort.

There is a method that can retrieve your data without having to get your drive back to NTFS for Windows to see it. See Photo Recovery (A photo and file recovery tool that ignores the file system, this way it works even if the file system is severely damaged). Photorec can be found in PartedMagic.

 

[zapp22]

Where does PMagic stash Testdisk? Looked at the screenshots, not there, rummaged around the package, can't find...

is the HDD beeping when its got power? If so thump it on table that got mine working long enough to get 90% of the Data its a common prob with Samsung 1TB Sata2 drives also in the buffalo USB HHDs

Thumping the drive on the table could physically damage it. Recommend this as a last resort.

There is a method that can retrieve your data without having to get your drive back to NTFS for Windows to see it. See Photo Recovery (A photo and file recovery tool that ignores the file system, this way it works even if the file system is severely damaged). Photorec can be found in PartedMagic.

 

[zapp22]

just one more quicky... this really surprised me - threw in a windows xp pro install disc, and it found the drive, ready to install... i don't want to go there though - but it gives hope. an install wouldn't necessarily delete [really] the files but would damage a lot of them in all likelihood

 

[writhziden]

Where does PMagic stash Testdisk? Looked at the screenshots, not there, rummaged around the package, can't find...

is the HDD beeping when its got power? If so thump it on table that got mine working long enough to get 90% of the Data its a common prob with Samsung 1TB Sata2 drives also in the buffalo USB HHDs

Thumping the drive on the table could physically damage it. Recommend this as a last resort.

There is a method that can retrieve your data without having to get your drive back to NTFS for Windows to see it. See Photo Recovery (A photo and file recovery tool that ignores the file system, this way it works even if the file system is severely damaged). Photorec can be found in PartedMagic.

See my post #10 in that thread.

 

[writhziden]

just one more quicky... this really surprised me - threw in a windows xp pro install disc, and it found the drive, ready to install... i don't want to go there though - but it gives hope. an install wouldn't necessarily delete [really] the files but would damage a lot of them in all likelihood

Yes, do not do any writing to the drive until you are able to recover your data. If you go through my screenshot step-by-step on PartedMagic, you'll also see photorec just four programs above TestDisk.

Edit: In my experience, XP is better at handling somewhat damaged hard drives than Windows 7. 7 seems to have a built in "this drive is hard to read, so I won't put forth the effort" program.

 

[zapp22]

ok, writh, I'm in there now. found the partition ok. the '0' partition, HPFS - NTFS is correctly marked as the * bootable. how to proceed to repair or recover?

 

[writhziden]

ok, writh, I'm in there now. found the partition ok. the '0' partition, HPFS - NTFS is correctly marked as the * bootable. how to proceed to repair or recover?

Does the size look right? If you hit the P key, is your files list intact? You can navigate through folders using the arrow keys after hitting the P key. If everything checks out, hit q to get back to the original window (if you had hit P to check files), then make sure the partition is still set as * (if not, use the right arrow key to change it to *). Press enter, click write, press enter again, press Y, press enter to reboot.

For a full guide, see: Regain lost drive using TestDisk

 

[zapp22]

the size looked right but I never saw anything that looked like files -
maybe didn't hit right keys.
I went through everything in the link you cited, writing the partition table. rebooted. drive still not reconizable [bios - old dell optiplex mule].

so I'm restarting testdisk again. if you have something else for me to try pls post.
I thought I would do a reply to that other thread perhaps the OP has a tip or two

ok, writh, I'm in there now. found the partition ok. the '0' partition, HPFS - NTFS is correctly marked as the * bootable. how to proceed to repair or recover?

Does the size look right? If you hit the P key, is your files list intact? You can navigate through folders using the arrow keys after hitting the P key. If everything checks out, hit q to get back to the original window (if you had hit P to check files), then make sure the partition is still set as * (if not, use the right arrow key to change it to *). Press enter, click write, press enter again, press Y, press enter to reboot.

For a full guide, see: Regain lost drive using TestDisk

 

[writhziden]

the size looked right but I never saw anything that looked like files -
maybe didn't hit right keys.
I went through everything in the link you cited, writing the partition table. rebooted. drive still not reconizable [bios - old dell optiplex mule].

so I'm restarting testdisk again. if you have something else for me to try pls post.
I thought I would do a reply to that other thread perhaps the OP has a tip or two

You may have to do a deep scan to find more partitions instead of a quick scan.

 

[zapp22]

some operations give me back "disk I/O error". I take it that is not a good sign

 

[writhziden]

some operations give me back "disk I/O error". I take it that is not a good sign

Depends on what you are doing. Which operations give this message? Can you be more specific?

 

[zapp22]

i should have made note. I think the last one I saw was trying the backup command - or copy - it was something that had promise of writing out a copy of the partition/contents. it basically went non-linear and kept repeating the error msg over and over ad infinitum so I had to kill the process.
I'm doing the deep search now and at least it is able to interrogate the cylinders. but I would be very surprised if there is another partition. its the files I'm after...

is there a way to write a new table or something to the zero track so that it might be recognizable under windows?

some operations give me back "disk I/O error". I take it that is not a good sign

Depends on what you are doing. Which operations give this message? Can you be more specific?