Seagate Drive Failing

[gx1987]

Dear everyone,

Firstly, I'd like to thank all of you who have (indirectly) helped me in the past - you've provided knowledge to others which has got me out of a few tricky situations. However, I've tried everything for my most recent problem and have to submit a post - I read the rules so I hope I'm doing the right thing posting to this thread.

So, my issue - I have a Seagate FreeAgent Desk External Harddrive - http://www.productwiki.com/upload/image ... desk_1.jpg - and I happened to pull it from its perch atop a coffee table. It made a little noise and a bit of a grunt and started up, seemingly, without issue again.

I connected it to my old XP laptop and tried to move everything to a new drive... Then I got a Delayed Write Failure. I went to the Seagate forums and tried a fix by editing the registry... to no avail. I tried Recuva but the DWF interrupts the process.

I decided to try the harddrive on my Windows 7 notebook and, although it'll transfer a few files, it then subsequently hangs. I tried Revuca here too but it told me the process would take up to 13 days just to scan. I also attempted to edit the registry to see if it makes any difference.

I'll continue to update as I try more solutions.

What would you people suggest? Should I remove the drive from its external case and connect to a SATA-to-USB cable? Should I use PhotoRec and leave it off for however long it'll take? Any other solutions greatly appreciated.

[Nick_CT]

First and foremost remember that attempting to retrieve your data from your damaged drive could result in further damage, as I'm sure you are aware.

The fact that the drive initialises and sounds OK is a good sign. You could have damaged the magnetic media, a read/write head, or a combination both. I would guess that it's just some bad areas.

Working over USB gives you pretty much zero control over the drive. Rather connect it straight to your machine via SATA. You could possibly try something like Unstoppable Copier and see if you have any luck. A better solution might be to try ddrescue, do some Googling and you'll see it's straight forward and might be better suited in your instance.

What you really want is a hardware imager for something like this that will image the drive, skip the nasty bits and then come back and try them once it's got all the easily readable parts of the drive. It won't be viable for you to buy one though for your personal drive.

If you're serious about getting the data back you should send it to a pro, it should not be an expensive job if it's only some bad areas. It sounds like you can see the folder structure so the MFT is most likely fine.

If you're not too concerned about it getting worse then try some DIY efforts. You really want to get an image of the drive first, then use something free like Recuva to recover from the image. Try ddrescue.

[northwind]

What Nick says.

I suggest you contact member CK he's from your whereabouts and should be able to help you.

At THIS stage, it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg, but I seriously think your drive is at the edge of the cliff. If you tamper with it just a little more, things will get really bad.

[gx1987]

Thank you guys for your suggestions.

@Nick_CT > When you say connect your drive directly via SATA, how should I go about doing this? Should I stick it in my server and see how that works?

I've checked out DD-Rescue; might take a little while for me to figure it out but looks like a good solution.

@Northwind > I agree, I feel failure may be imminent too.

Overall, I'm not HUGELY bothered about getting all the data back, to the point where I'd pay for professional recovery - I have managed to recover about 50,000 files that were deleted from an old harddrive using Recuva.

I'd love to recover the full folder structure and file names from this drive however - it'd just make my job or re-organising all my music that little bit easier.

Thank you for your suggestions - I'll make sure to keep you updated.

[gx1987]

Hey guys, I'm sorry to have to BUMP this thread but has anyone any information they can help me with please?

[Nick_CT]

Connect directly via SATA means remove it from the USB external case and connect it up to a PC via a SATA connector.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

[laptokowiec]

Connect to SATA and then clone it to another HD. Use DMDE or HDclone (if free ver cloning is possible)

[gx1987]

Nick > Please forgive me but how would I go about connecting it via SATA to a computer? I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 (I know, its old).
Do I remove the harddrive in the Inspiron and use a SATA connector then?

I do have a Synology Diskstation server with a free bay. Could I pop it in there or will the server format the drive?

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

[labtech]

Do NOT pop it in the synology unit.

Here is a link to SATA info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

Your computer needs to have this interface built in in the motherboard of the computer. The connect the SATA cable from the motherboard to the failed drive. You also have to connect corresponding power cable.

This seems to be beyond your ability to it is probably better to seek professional help.

[mr_spokk]

Don't you have a desktop with a free sata slot? If so put it in and try to make an image to work further from.
Working on with a laptop is very limited.