Hi; I need some help with this hdd. I'm a HDD repair newbie, but I want to learn.
Sorry about my english.

Model: HDT722525DLAT80
Size: 250GB
P/N: 0A30243
Data printed on sticker PCB:
0A29181
BA1438_
MzG539
40R5

SYMPTOMS:
Hard drive power and spin ....OK
Hard drive detected by the OS ....OK(But very slow)
Hard drive appears UNFORMATED to OS
Hard drive is unreadable
R-Studio detects the HDD but can't read data. (Read disk H: at position XXXXXXXXX failed after 1 attempts)
Also: Os keeps asking about formating the device again and again...

I'm thinking about a PCB swap and eeprom donor.
Do I need to match the two first lines of the sticker data to find a donor PCB board?

Thanks in advance.

PCB swap will not change anything.

Thanks.
Any suggestions, please?

Some news:
After booting with a custom freedos pendrive I can access the data.
I'm copying it (folder by folder) to another drive using ARJ (to preserve long filenames).

Seems that some files can't be readed...

If (as it seems from your comments) you have decided to accept the risks of DIY (i.e. you could make things worse), then I suggest you consider cloning that drive onto other working storage first (not using Windows) - then do file copying from the clone image.

Search the forum for many previous threads about cloning. Your choice of cloning technique depends on your skill, experience with different OS e.g. Linux, budget, expectations about functionality, expectations about ease of use etc. (e.g. some free software exists but there is no vendor support; or buy commercial software; or buy commercial hardware, but this may cost more than using the services of a DR company for a simple recovery).

Note: For data recovery, cloning must be done either (a) using software which copes with unreadable sectors (e.g. skips and then later retries them, with control over the number of retries) - so Acronis, Ghost, CloneXXL etc. are not suitable; or (b) using specialist hardware which is also designed for this type of problem - so simple "USB cloning stations" sold for copying working disks, are also not suitable.

Having control over retries, cloning direction, cloning speed etc. can sometimes allow sectors to be read which are otherwise unreadable using a standard OS approach - but YMMV and there are always risks.

P.S. Some people on the forum disagree with the idea of cloning a disk first, as I have suggested - but many agree with it. Again, you can search for such discussions in the forum, if you want to read them.

Thanks Vulcan; what image tool did you recommend? Maybe diskpatch can do the trick?

When copying some directories I have an OPTCODE error. What does it mena? Do you think it's possible to fix it?

As I explained before, you have a choice to make, depending on many factors - I don't know enough about your skills, experience, budget, expectations etc. to know which tools are sensible for you.

The free software which I use in this type of DIY situation (and accepting the risks inherent in such a situation) is GNU ddrescue - but I have fairly good Linux/Unix skills, so it is easy for me to use that software. If you don't have Linux/Unix skills, then you would need to consider different software. In any case, you would need to have working storage (>= 250GB) to hold the clone image, and perhaps more space to hold files copied out of the clone image, depending on the success (or not) of making a full clone.


Unless you know something about diskpatch which I don't know, then no, I don't believe it is suitable.


Are you talking about a FreeDOS "Invalid Opcode" error message?

Hi Vulcan! I recovered 90% of disk using DOS and ARJ, and now I'm trying your suggestions:

I switched from DOS to Linux. I'm using Part Magic 2012 and trying ddrescue.

This is my first and very basic attempt with ddrescue:
ddrescue /dev/sdd1 /media/sdg1/hdimage /media/sdg1/logfile

Currently it is imaging the drive and shows "10 errors" at the beginning.

How can I extract the files from the image file?

There are several different techniques which can be used, depending on how much of the partition is successfully cloned (i.e. depending how damaged the filesystem structure is).

I usually copy the clone image to another "working image" (so that needs another 250GB disk space in your case), before attempting any logical recovery from the "working image", because some techniques will change the filesystem in whichever image is being used. That way you keep a "master" copy of the clone, which you can easily copy again to a "working image" to try different techniques, without ever changing the "master" clone.

Examples of techniques which can be used include:

- simply mounting the filesystem in the "working image" and trying to copy the files which you want, if the filesystem structure is not badly damaged. This could be more successful than what you have done already, if the cloning process manages to copy more of the failing disk into the clone image, than was readable with normal OS retries etc. that you have tried so far.

- running fsck on the "working image" and then mounting it, if the filesystem structure was substantially damaged/incomplete in the clone. Of course this changes the image file, so this is a clear case where you do NOT want to do this, when using the only copy of the clone.

- file carving from the unmounted partition image, using photorec or similar software.

- using commercial Windows recovery software on the image file (e.g. GDB, R-Studio etc.) to see whether they cope better with the filesystem in whatever state you are able to recover.

I've probably forgotten some possibilities, but those are a few for you to consider.

Remember that there are risks with any DIY approach, and read the ddrescue manual, to see examples of different command options. Also, I hope that you have the IDE disk attached directly to the PC motherboard, not via USB. A direct attach of the failing disk can sometimes be more successful than via a USB attachment.

Hello again, Vulcan. After trying ddrescue and Linux I really want to build a dedicated computer to learn Linux (Ubuntu) ddrescue and any other disk tools out there.
Did you know what´s the best mainboard chipset for use with ddrescue (and any other disk tools)?
I can buy a cheap P5G41-M LX2; it has IDE and SATA connectors and ICH7.

Thanks;

Hi Vulcan.
I'm looking to a new motherboard with integrated IDE (& SATA) controller for use as a recovery station, with Ubuntu.
Did you know what is the best motherboard IDE chipset?
Did you think an ASUS P5G41-M LX2 can be a good candidate?

Thanks.

I cannot assist you with this subject.