Hi,

Got a faulty WD5000YS-01MPB1 SATA 500GB. PC just decided to crash on me. Next reboot - no drive letter/partitions. Tested on 6 PCs.
- All the PCs will detect the HDD in the BIOS.
- No clicking, grinding noises or anything that's unusual sounding coming from the HDD - not completely silent either, sounds pretty normal.
- SMART has been tripped on the HDD.
- Ran GetDataBack for NTFS (since I had previous success in the past) - It will see the HDD but cannot recognize the partitions on it.

Can someone give me an educated guess as to what part of the drive is failing.

Cheers...

Hi,

Are you accepting the risks involved with DIY?
If the data is important then use a dr pro, don't put your data at risk just to save money.

Do you get a message asking to format or initialise the drive? if so don't do it.
Were you having slow performance issues before this happened?
Can you post a pic of SMART values?

Firstly I would recommend (like others here) of taking a sector by sector image of the drive & then try recovering your data from the image.

Secondly for a quick test you could try testdisk & check the boot sectors are ok?
Testdisk can be run either on a drive or an image file.

Basically :
Place the downloaded testdisk files in the same folder as the image you created.
Run CMD
cd to the folder with the image file in it
Type testdisk_win "name of image file" ie testdisk_win clone.img
press enter
press enter
select advanced & press enter
press enter

do both boot sectors say ok?
if not then select rebuild bs & press enter
select write
quite testdisk
disconnect drive & then reattach

The above test will only take 5 minutes to check.


Loki

The most common failure with this model is the heads. But in those cases, the drive usually clicks and spins down.

It might also have a firmware issue. Pro gear is needed to do a correct diagnosis.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Absolutely. Would prefer to retrieve data but, not ultra-critical.


Yes. Under Disk Management, the offending drive shows "Unknown. Not Initialized".


Hard to say since this was just a non-primary drive. I'd say no.


Gave the drive a few more whirls just before typing this reply and the error message "SMART status BAD, backup and replace" has reversed back to "OK..."


Not able to. I can't get passed sector 0 - unreadable.


Forgot to mention in the initial post that I did send drive out to a data recovery centre for a free quote and evaluation. this was their reply

"Our engineers have completed the free evaluation of your hard disk drive. We have discovered that the hard disk drive’s heads are damaged. This is a very serious internal hardware fault."
I always thought a damaged head equated to hearing "clicks" and other unusual sounds coming from the drive. Obviously not the case.

You "forgot" to mention that absolutely vital information in your first post?! Hmm... Anyway, if their diagnosis is correct (and since they've had the drive in their hands, they have that advantage over readers here) then obviously there isn't a low-risk DIY option.


That result for sector 0 does not necessarily mean that all sectors are unreadable - it all depends on the actual fault with the drive, and the chosen cloning utility & technique (within the limits of software cloning, of course).

Of course if the free diagnosis you received is correct, then you'd be wasting your time (and perhaps making any later recovery more expensive and/or less likely to be successful) by further DIY attempts. There are many posts where I (and others) have discussed software cloning tools, which you can find using the forum search function. Your risk, your choice.

If it is heads (and there are 8 in all) there is NO chance for DIY. This model can be a bit of a pain even for pros -- lid / head stack alignment is a factor.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Harsh as it may sound.. I suspect the OP "forgot" to mention the professional report so as to get a different and unblemished perspective here.

I've seen this happen when a user is confronted with the cost. They'll go elsewhere thinking the first quote is a major ripoff.

_________________
On a clear disk you can seek forever.

I've seen many a "professional" report, written in boilerplate & full of jargon, having nothing to do with the actual problem . . .

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Me too, often worded (and padded out) with absolute bollocks to frighten the client into thinking its much worse than it is!!

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

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Then they were not professionals in my opinion.

A real professional (from doctor to mechanic to whatever you want) always tell how things are and then they have to say : I WANT THIS to fix the problem. PERIOD. Then there is another aspect : if people want a complete report from me it's not for free simply because you can take it and go elsewhere , where they have the most relevant part (diagnose) already done. And this trick can be repeated 2 -3 -5 times , so NO WAY!

@ BlackST: We offer a no-charge diagnosis, and the client is free to do whatever they desire (including deciding not to recover their data). However, it's really very unusual for folks to take it elsewhere, unless we determine that we can't recover it (e.g. media damage).

Unfortunately, there is no easy way for a client to determine for themselves who might be telling the truth and who might not. So we "err" on the side of candor and honesty, and let the chips fall where they may . . .

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

Different points of view.