How to proceed? - WDC WD1500AHFD (Raptor X)

[MrSpecRev]

Hello!

I come seeking advice on how to proceed with my drive. Here is my story:

I was working under Windows 7 and it just froze. Rebooted, and then got the "A disk read error has occurred" message. I ran the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic and ran a Quick Test and got these results with 10 seconds:

http://i55.tinypic.com/2a80sq9.jpg

What I have tried so far:
Boot off a secondary OS (XP) on another drive. It detects the 2nd partition (there are only 2 partitions) I have within the drive and wants to CHKDSK (which I skip). It takes a very long time to access anything from the desktop, about 5-10 minutes to pull up the Start Menu for example.

BIOS still detects the drive and there are no clicking sounds either.

I have not tried an external enclosure yet or tried another PC.

Any thoughts on how I should proceed? I do want to salvage whatever data I can from this that is not OS-related.
I thank you for taking the time in providing any solutions!

[pcimage]

The drive is failing and almost certainly has developed bad sectors.

If the data is important then I suggest take to a pro. RIGHT NOW it shouldn't cost much but if you continue to tamper with it then the cost could go up exponentially.

Alternatively if it's not that important and you want to take a chance, image the drive to a good one with some non-windows imaging software (e.g. dd_rescue or Media Tools Pro) and hope for the best

Good luck

[MrSpecRev]

Thanks pcimage!

I tried using Media Tools Pro and going with the Reverse-Clone option. I left it on overnight and eventually, it said that it would take 20,000 hours to recover. I assume that it was just taking a long time because it may be the beginning of the drive, but time-wise, it was going to take forever.

I can put the drive in another computer and just let it copy for a really long time, but I don't know. Thoughts?

[scratchy]

Sounds like your problem is more severe than bad sectors, perhaps a weak head or failing media or maybe something more simple like a translator problem all will need a data recovery specialist. If the data is important, look at the costs of data recovery then see if the cost is worth getting the data back. In the mean time, I would also consider stopping the imaging process.

[pcimage]

Agree with scratchy, probably a bad head.

No longer a DIY candidate.

And STOP the imaging process right now before the heads munch their way through the platters.