All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 7th, 2021, 11:49 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
I have a 2013 Toshiba MQ01ABD075 750GB drive with SMART values showing 624 pending sectors and 8 reallocated sectors (See image). The drive has now been unused for 3 months and contains almost all of my saved data, so it already performs a specific function as a third backup copy.

Some forum user suggested to overwrite it entirely three times with a special software to try to recover the sectors waiting to be written and then format it to exclude the damaged area.

Is it worth trying to recover it, or do I risk making it totally unusable by losing its function as a data container ?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 7th, 2021, 14:10 
Offline

Joined: December 13th, 2020, 18:47
Posts: 53
Location: recoverland
glhd wrote:
I have a 2013 Toshiba MQ01ABD075 750GB drive with SMART values showing 624 pending sectors and 8 reallocated sectors (See image). The drive has now been unused for 3 months and contains almost all of my saved data, so it already performs a specific function as a third backup copy.

Some forum user suggested to overwrite it entirely three times with a special software to try to recover the sectors waiting to be written and then format it to exclude the damaged area.

Is it worth trying to recover it, or do I risk making it totally unusable by losing its function as a data container ?


Your posting is incomprehensible and contradictory.
You never recover anything by overwriting.

Is there data to be recovered or not - as you are telling that this a "third backup copy"?

This drive is dying. Continue using it and the assembled data recovery companies will be more than happily trying to recover your stuff for an adequate amount of money once it is so damaged that amateurs means will not be sufficient anymore.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 7th, 2021, 16:32 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
rec wrote:
Your posting is incomprehensible and contradictory ...

I try to explain better and apologize for not being clear:

1) I don't need to recover the data on the disk because I already copied it as soon as the disk showed signs of failure. The disk is currently unused.

2) I would like to try to recover the read write functionality of the sectors marked as pending, not their actual content, because I was told in this forum that "pending without reallocated means that you can restore them, and that they are maybe logical errors", see this old post. Possibly I would also like to format the disk to exclude the damaged part on the disk surface.

3) I know that the disk is and will remain unreliable, so I want to use it as a third backup copy.

I hope I have clarified.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 7th, 2021, 18:30 
Offline

Joined: December 13th, 2020, 18:47
Posts: 53
Location: recoverland
glhd wrote:
rec wrote:
Your posting is incomprehensible and contradictory ...


2) I would like to try to recover the read write functionality of the sectors marked as pending, not their actual content, because I was told in this forum that "pending without reallocated means that you can restore them, and that they are maybe logical errors", see this old post. Possibly I would also like to format the disk to exclude the damaged part on the disk surface.

I hope I have clarified.


Of course, you did now!

Your pending sectors are not readible. Once they receive a write command they will be overwritten successfully (don't know) or mapped to spare sectors.
If they will be overwritten (maybe?) the pending sector count will be decreased.
If they will be remapped the pending sector count will be decreased and the "reallocated sector count" will increase.

As long as there are spares available writing files will cure your problems.
But failure is likely to show up if you need your backups and start reading them. Most likely new sectors will exhibit reading problems.

As for your plans, the pending sectors are not necessarily densely concentrated in one area.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 9th, 2021, 4:40 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
rec wrote:
Your pending sectors are not readible. Once they receive a write command they will be overwritten successfully (don't know) or mapped to spare sectors.
If they will be overwritten (maybe?) the pending sector count will be decreased.
If they will be remapped the pending sector count will be decreased and the "reallocated sector count" will increase.

I want to do some tests: should I overwrite it with software like Victoria, Dban or the Secure Erase feature built into the firmware ?

I seem to have read somewhere that Secure Erase has the ability to overwrite sectors of the disk not accessible to software and should also be faster.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 9th, 2021, 15:24 
Offline

Joined: December 13th, 2020, 18:47
Posts: 53
Location: recoverland
The implementation of the "secure erase" feature may vary in many dimensions.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 9th, 2021, 17:34 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 15461
Location: Australia
glhd wrote:
I seem to have read somewhere that Secure Erase has the ability to overwrite sectors of the disk not accessible to software and should also be faster.

That's what an enhanced secure erase does. The reason that a secure erase (or enhanced secure erase) is faster than a regular write is that no data are transported over the SATA interface.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Damaged disk: is it worth trying to recover it?
PostPosted: April 10th, 2021, 6:02 
Offline

Joined: December 13th, 2020, 18:47
Posts: 53
Location: recoverland
fzabkar wrote:
glhd wrote:
I seem to have read somewhere that Secure Erase has the ability to overwrite sectors of the disk not accessible to software and should also be faster.

That's what an enhanced secure erase does.


Does it really? It may encrypt sectors permanently without the user asking for it and then simply delete the key.
I would rather assume it pretends forgetting the key.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: suricate.ch and 69 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group