Spildit wrote:
You are based in Italy, correct ?
Maybe you should contact forum member
@michael chiklis -
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=21477If your drive does have some bad blocks + firmware issues but if all heads are still working more or less ok then maybe it should still be possible to image the drive using hardware based tools like MRT (after applying firmware patches) and extract the data without the need of (very expensive) clean room work ...
Regards and good luck.
Correct!
Thank you for your advice!
I will remember the contact in other cases, this time I will hope I have solved for myself.
Rling wrote:
Quote:
So I'm wondering, does this repeating clicking mean:
1. likely a problem with the USB insufficient power supply (physical connection problems with the flimsy USB connectors)
2. likely a problem on the PCB (replacing the PCB with a donor PCB may help).
3. likely a problem with damaged heads or media (replacing the PCB probably will NOT help.)
4. not possible to say one way or the other.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Just wanted to say, that I am a big fan of recycling for environmental reasons.
Including recycling other users' posts
I hope you can get what you are looking for and get your data back.
Good luck
Rling
All right, you got me. XD
Sorry if I did that...but when I read your post, I immediately thought: Oh, but it's what I want to say...just change chattering to clicking!
I'm not a best in english...so when I can, I find the fast way to write correctly, thank you!
abolibibelot wrote:
Have you tried turning it off then on again (after a few seconds) when it appeared that no data was read anymore ? Or have you let it run unattended until the end ?
Ok I have to be honest, I have not explained in detail all the steps I have taken.
I hope in the future not to repeat the same mistakes and think before doing something :/
Even if I step by noob, I explain the disaster I have combined (don't ask me why, because I don't even know why I was so superficial).
The only positive thing I thought was also ruined by my actions.
Disclaimer: I'm just a computer science student, that try to breaking everything.
After this off topic..
My friend give me his hard drive and ask me to try to recover the files. (I just to learn I'm always kindly and I accept to help everyone, at own risk XD)
Firstly I connected the hard drive to my notebook and I only tried to run ddrescue. After 14.18 Gb rescued, I realized that I would needed 500gb and time to finish the process, that I did not have on my pc and I have stopped the process.
https://ibb.co/nLr6zTSo I thought used another disk (with 500gb free? No..I would have been too smart).
I have run ddrescue (same options: -r3 -d and without using the previous log ) unattended until the end of space of recipient disk.
https://ibb.co/hvYE4TAfter I have done this stupid steps, finally I used a virgin hard disk (with 500gb free).
So I copied the previous image and log file to the new hard disk and I have run again the ddresceu (same options).
But from this moment on I noticed that there were more errors that increased than the rescued.
https://ibb.co/dOX7OoDon't try to understand why of all this and now that I think about it, I could answer my initial question myself.
castiman wrote:
3. likely a problem with damaged heads or media (replacing the PCB probably will NOT help.)
I wanted to explain everything, because you were very kind in trying to suppose the possible causes and give me all these tips!
abolibibelot wrote:
You may have more luck trying to complete the image in reverse with the -R switch (from the very end to the bad spot in the middle). If the heads are still functional, my guess is that a good portion of the second half can be imaged like the first half. Don't use the -r switch as it indeed can stress the heads to no avail (sectors which can't be read at the first try are unlikely to be read at the 3rd) and it defeats the very purpose of ddrescue which is to bypass the bad areas and get the good ones ASAP.
Now I'll try to run ddrescue with the -R option, but I honestly think I've completely damaged the hard disk.
abolibibelot wrote:
How do you know that ? What have you tried to extract files out of that image ? Mounting it directly ? Scanning it with a data recovery software ? Which one(s), with what options ?
On Windows, I have used
OSFMount to mount the img file and
"Starus NTFS" to try to recover the files. This software show me all directory and files named correctly.
So I think the $MFT file is safe (right?)
abolibibelot wrote:
If the filesystem is indeed NTFS, you can use ddru_ntfsbitmap from ddr_utilities to create a domain mapfile for ddrescue, restricted to the actually allocated sectors, which are determined by analyzing the $Bitmap file ; the $Bitmap file has to be complete for it to work properly. You could first test ddru_ntfsbitmap on your partial image file instead of the source drive, to see if it does work, meaning, if the $Bitmap is complete. There's an option to extract a second domain mapfile restricted to the $MFT file only, which allows to copy that very important file first (but if it contains bad sectors it's not a good idea to insist too much on them).
You could also open the partial image with WinHex to see if it can find the complete directory tree, or if the MFT is corrupted (right-click on the $MFT and left-click on Open, then scroll down and see if there are large chunks of empty sectors).
Yes it is formatted in ntfs so now I'll try what you've written to me, even just to learn how to use this utility and to know how can I recoved file in this situation.
This time I think I was very lucky..
Thank you very much for explaining everything to me in a precise way, you made the whole situation much clearer!
P.S.
abolibibelot wrote:
But again do that at your own risk, as it may further damage the platters' surface and/or heads, and lower the recovery rate if you finally decide to bring the drive to a professional.
Thank you for your continued recommendation. If I had to be honest if the files had been much more important, I wouldn't even have allowed myself to do all these tests, but I would have advised my friend to contact a professional. Also because I know that they have more professional equipment than I do not have.