First time poster (please have mercy), just looking for some help.

So I was sent a Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB HDD that is no longer operable in hopes of possible data recovery. This thing is probably 6-8 years old, was in a 20-year-old's Dell laptop during that time, and rarely backed up. The circumstances of the failure are unknown (I believe "it just stopped working" is the best we're going to get).

Here's what I do know: it does not have any of the tell-tale signs of a head-crash or major physical damage. That's literally all I can tell you.
I am using a SATA to USB adapter to connect this to a few laptops I have lying around to poke around the drive (I know, probably a bad idea).
Every time I have plugged this thing in, it is unable to interact with host system. Windows Explorer crashes, anything attempting to read hard drives (Acronis, EaseUS, OnTrack, about a dozen others) all hang and crash when this drive is plugged in, or they do not start at all if I attempt to launch the utilities with the drive connected.

I have a bootable USB drive with linux, DOS, and Windows-based utilities and for these types of occasions, and it has been equally stumped. Nothing can interact with this drive; I can't clone it, I can't scan it, I can't check it. Again, it spools up just fine and seems to be humming along the whole time, but my bag of tricks has come up short.

Some things I tried:
- Disabled automount in Windows to see if that was interfering (it wasn't; diskpart still froze)
- Every disk and data utility I could get my hands on, in Windows, DOS, and linux

Things I still want to try:
- Connecting it to another laptop to replicate the results.
- Connecting it via SATA to compare performance.

If anyone has ideas on where I could start with this, I would greatly appreciate the insight. I'd at least like to be sure that there's no hope before throwing in the towel. Thank you for any help!

Most likely weak head/s and/or slow response.
Unfortunately, in both cases the drive will not working again. If data is important seek for the nearest DR firm near you.
good luck

sorry I cant, you're playing with data that doesn't belong to you


send it to a DR firm/PRO


thats right, bad idea!



bad idea too, if data is important stop hammering the drive or else you'll kill it for good



wrong, those tools is for minor problems like bad sectors Etc.


send it to a PRO

I would like to clearly state for the record that the drive does not belong to a customer. I apologize for not being clear in this regard. The person who sent this to me is a friend; they already looked into professional services and decided that the data was not important enough to them to justify the cost. They also know that I enjoy a tech-related challenge, and asked me to give it a shot.

My friend already has a new laptop, and they didn't even send the drive until several months after it failed. In other words, this data is "important" insofar as it is a point of personal pride for me to try everything I can (even if there is some risk involved). I appreciate the ethical issue at play; if this was truly crucial data, or if I was pretending to be a professional and charging someone for this, it wouldn't be right. As it stands, they just want to see if I can get some of their photos off the drive, at best, and I like a good learning opportunity.

Thank you for your response.

Thank you for the reply! Is there another term for "slow response" that I could look up? Like a technical term or anything else you would describe it as?

I'll do some reading and see if this seems consistent with what I'm seeing. Thanks again.

I cant understand why are you ignoring the first and hanging on the second


if its weak head you might kill the heads while trying to do anything, which will make it more pricey for the client
you also might cause bad sectors in the SA while trying to fix that (IF ITS slow response) slow response

I already posted something about this but it is still awaiting mod approval. I want to clarify some things I did not make clear in my initial post:
1. This is not for a customer or client. There is no professional relationship. It's my girlfriend's little sister's hard drive.
2. I am not taking work from a professional. The owner of the drive works at an office supply store with a tech support desk, she consulted with them. The tech there plugged it in, the drive wouldn't show up, and they told her to send it off to a data specialist. She obtained several quotes and determined that the data does not justify the cost.
3. She already has a new laptop, the drive hasn't been used in months, its basically a write-off at this point.
4. She and I both know that proceeding can and likely will cause further damage to the drive. Understood.
5. More than anything, this is an exploratory exercise with little expectation of positive results. If I can find a couple of pictures or some music files, great. There is not important work on the drive, or at least anything that is worth the fees of a data specialist.

I understand that most of you are data professionals and so are protective of your industry. I am not trying to poach work off of you. I am not a discount craigslist tech support vendor.

I like troubleshooting challenges, I consider them valuable learning opportunities. That is my interest in this project. Thank you for your replies.

I've replied to you. Twice. The forum has my posts hanging in limbo as they need approval.

Applying a fix without proper diagnosis will make things worse.

This marks my third attempt to respond to you all. I will now try to do so with tiny posts, as these seem to get through without approval.

1. The owner of the hard drive is not a client or customer. I have no professional relationship with them.

1. The owner of the drive is not a customer.

2. The owner of the drive was advised to consult a recovery specialist. She did so, obtained price quotes, and decided the data was not important enough. The data is mostly pictures and music files.

I can't reply to you all because of terms like "price quote," I think. Every time I mention those key words, the system blocks the message.

I am trying to tell you that the owner consulted a data specialist.

And that she decided that the data was not important enough for the cost.

I am the hard drive owner's friend. She sent it to me because I like to troubleshoot things.

You need tools. Start with something like MHDD and check if the drice can be picked up (ID) by MHDD or if it's stuck on BSY.

Does it spin at all ? I guess so.

Does it make clicking sound ? I hope not ....

If MHDD can pick up the drive and it's not stuck on BSY try "smart att" and check if you have pending sectors and re-located sectors. If the drive is stuck on BSY and you can't ID then just guive up. You will need to block SA access to go any further and it will not be a simple mission.

If MHDD can still ID the drive and "scan" it (verify) you might be able to apply a slow fix with something like WDMarvel or HDDSuperTool and clone the drive with HDDSuperClone ...

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Great! Thank you so much for this!
Yes, it spins up just fine, no clicking, no "attempts" (spooling up, then spooling down, then back up in a loop). It spools up and hums along like any other drive.

I will look into MHDD and get back to you.

If you were in my country I would fix your drive for 20-30 min and you would pay about 15$, but in your country the things are different. The GREED is in power and you can't find help from anybody. So try your enemies:
http://wdmarvel.com/en/