I'm hoping you might be able to direct me to my next course of action on this recovery I am currently doing.

The source drive is Maxtor DiamondMax plus 8 40GB ATA/IDE - from a good friend.

The drive was initially dead. My friend says her son was on the internet with some friends in the computer room playing around and the next time she tried to boot the computer would not get past post with virus warning. When I received it, it was dead, no spin, nothing.

I replaced the PCB with a donor and now it spins without any noises or clicks, but I get a default message after post stating it was unable to boot, boot error possible virus, with 4 options use Ontrack, Reboot, and two more I can't remember.

Using tools from Ultimate boot CD I am trying to copy the disk. My current problem is that the software is reading the drive size wrong, it says the number of sectors are wrong etc. I have tried three different cloning tools and each have similar problems and cannot read the source correctly. After the PCB replacement I used TestDisk first, it found 4 partitions with one of the large ones being unrecoverable - in the message also stating there was an error in the drive size.

Is this a situation I can correct by replacing the SA or some other code module? What would your next step be?

All I am trying to end with is the data on a CD/DVD so I can make my friend happy. Pictures of her late husband and early family photos.

Thanks for your time

X

_________________
Thanks for your time and efforts.

X->out

Can you post a pic of the original (bad) PCB?

And the donor one.

Component sides.

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

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Your HDD is one of the slimline maxtor range and what you have is a common firnware fault. If you look at the BIOS screen as it boots your hard drive is most likely being displayed as its family alias, N40P or similar with 0GB capacity and in most cases 0 sectors. This requires specific knowledge and specialist equipment to repair. i think you should consult a professional

Okay I've put these photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/XtrChessreal/DataRecovery#

Photos:
The PCB from the original 6E040L0510605
The Donor label side up 6E040L0510653
A screen shot of the current progress of the MHDD scan - now 7+ hours into it.

If you can't access the pics I will try to post them here. I didn't see the file attachment button until after I did the Picasa upload

The donor was manufactured 3 weeks prior to the source.

I have not used MHDD before - is the amount of time its taking related to the number of bad blocks or the depth/level of the scan? I haven't reach 20% yet or I would have stopped it and begun replacing the heads.

BTW - I checked the donor drive, connected it to the computer etc and verified it was in working order prior to pulling the PCB and swapping the old one.
I am an Electrical Engineer, build my own amplifiers, build and repair computers as a side business, do some coding, and generally tinker and modify everything. This HDD data recovery is not hard but the information on how to get it done is a long road - I lack experience but I am confident I will succeed.

_________________
Thanks for your time and efforts.

X->out

HPA is limiting the drive size to 33GBs from the MHDD pic. My money is on firmware fault. The more you play with it the less likely you will ever get this data back. 7+ hours.....yikes!!!

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

The problem is elsewhere, and this 7 hrs scan was not a good idea - who knows the firmware problems of N40 is aware about what I mean. Anyway the OP seem to know his stuff. Good luck.

Hi xtrchessreal,

So you an electrical engineer. You should have known better to do what you did.
Maybe you will lose a friend. Maybe if you stopped your tinkering and guesswork
and LISTENED to some expert advice, you could make your friend happy.

So I suggest you stop all your futile attempts and get some help, you can get it here.
If you misunderstand me, that's your problem.

Nothing is hard as long as you are told how to do it. I could build a rocket ship if I was told how to put it together. Have I ern't the right to build my own rocket ship?

I am confident you wont succeed on this not so hard data recovery case.

7 hours scanning like that - OUCH!

If you have a firmware problem, you will succeed only if you have the proper tools and the proper know how.
Or if you buy the tools and someone will spoon feed you.
Probably one of the "heroes" is going to rescue you, who knows...
I only hope there was nothing important on that drive.

xtrchessreal

7+ hrs please stop and think about the problem. I understand ur an electrical eng so try to engineer a copy of the drive another way but faster. think about it. I know guys have talked about PC3k and Data Compass in this forum, use any of them if u have it, or use something cheap that would clone sector by sector from windowsliveCd or HDclone.
Don't worry tell ur friend what is going on so as to keep the relationship for ever.