Problems with WD5000AAKS

[TheNamesJohn]

Greetings,

One day Windows said goodbye to the internal HDD (WD5000AAKS 500GB) - it simply disconnected/dissapeared. Turned off PC checked all the cables which were good and turned the PC back on. Everything seemed alright but the moment I tried accessing the HDD I started encountering problems. Explorer would just hang, not respod and so on. I decided that the drive is dying and that I needed to backup some files.

The problem:
Some files are copying fine and some dont and whenever I've reached the "wrong" file copying stops, hdd makes a sound - something like "spinup" from lower key noise to higher and for couple of minutes Windows is not responding. After those couple of minutes it couldnt access the file I think it skips it and continues copying the rest until its finished or theres another unreadable file (or the file is located in unreadable sector?). After hard try's of backing-up my music, and many not-respoding-minutes the hdd just "disconnected".


Before backing up thought I would scan it with HDD Regenerator but even then it cant scan it, the hdd's just not respoding, stops and tells me to shut down and try again.


Would like to know if its something fixable or I can smash the drive with a hammer because I aint no hdd/soldering guru?
Appreciate all the answers.

[harddrivespecialist]

You have to get an image of that drive before it dies completely.

[fzabkar]

Use multipass cloning software to make an image of your drive, then use data recovery software on the clone, if necessary.

Ddrescue, dd_rescue, and HDClone are freeware cloning utilities that know how to work around bad sectors. They can also clone your drive in reverse, effectively disabling lookahead caching.

HDClone: http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html
dd_rescue: http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
ddrescue: http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Comparison between ddrescue and dd_rescue:
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Dd_rescue

See the following thread for a discussion of commercial and freeware cloning/imaging utilities:

The Best Disk Cloning Hardware/Software:
the-best-disk-cloning-hardware-software-t10396.html

[TheNamesJohn]

Well, I'm trying right now to make and image with HDClone but the same happens when I'm trying to run some scan on that drive. In the first seconds of the cloning process the drive makes the sound described earlier and basicaly stops there. Data rate continuesly drops and progress stays at 0 percent.

[fzabkar]

Try reverse imaging, or tell your software to skip over the bad sectors at the beginning.

[TheNamesJohn]

I'm on Windows so HDClone is the way for me, but unfortunately I can't find any option for reverse imaging or for skipping bad sectors.

[pcimage]

I'm on Windows so HDClone is the way for me, but unfortunately I can't find any option for reverse imaging or for skipping bad sectors.

Media tools pro, or dd_rescue.

[Alexii]

wont really help much most likely all those imaging suggestions. If data is not important , and u dislike soldering - just trash it , or check for warranty =)

[lcoughey]

The odds are that with the WD5000AAKS, it is the PCB or a faulty head that is the point of failure. Without dealing with the physical problem, you are most likely compounding media damage and the drive will eventually completely give up the ghost. I suspect that, even with a professional imaging tool like DDI, you would still not be able to get the drive mirrored without dealing with the physical problems. Of course, I head that Data Compass can recover data from a drive that doesn't even have heads.

So, unless your data is worth being recovered by a pro, I'd say that you aren't likely to recover your files without a lot of luck.

With respect to HDDRegenerator, it is programs like that which completely destroy a hard drive that is failing. If you want to try such a program on a failing drive, be sure to backup the data first.

[fzabkar]

Check for oxidation at the preamp contacts on the PCB. Shine them up by gently rubbing them with a soft white pencil eraser.

Try a comprehensive SMART diagnostic. Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows / Linux):
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:
http://hddscan.com/

See this article for SMART info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.