S.M.A.R.T failure/data recovery

[syben1]

I have had a WD 160 GB with a SMART failure (B10HD-8). Lost valuable data which I'm having trouble even restoring that (data) from recent backups because of quirks in the Microsoft File transfer (XP to WIN7) utility. Therefore I wish to extract only some current data from the failed WD-160. I intend to download, install, learn and apply the MHDD diagnostic tool on my older XP machine. Knowing only basic design and operating features of HDD's my question to anyone - is it possible to extract data with the MHDD software tool or am I beating a dead horse. Is it even possible to extract data from a "SMART" drive failure.
Second question: Is the SMART failure code written to the platter(s) or is it in the circuit board. Therefore making it possible to replace a near exact working WD-160 circuit board with the bad one? A close match probably exists on eBay or even this forum. Thanks for your interest in replies!

Code:

syben1@comcast.net

[BlackST]

SMART failure is a consequence, not a cause , in a nutshell the problem is not the SMART itself but SMART reports a problem that was elsewhere.

Yes with appropriate tools (not freeware or simple SW) it is still possible to recover data from a "failing" drive (the damage must be within a certain extent) but they cost $$$.

Finally, SMART data is on the platters. Forget the PCB.

[TaskManager]

Hi BlackST
Is it Ok to clear Smart on hard disks having these types of issues ( reallocated sectoe count high etc) I use UDMA for recovery

[syben1]

SMART failure is a consequence, not a cause , in a nutshell the problem is not the SMART itself but SMART reports a problem that was elsewhere.

Yes with appropriate tools (not freeware or simple SW) it is still possible to recover data from a "failing" drive (the damage must be within a certain extent) but they cost $$$.

Finally, SMART data is on the platters. Forget the PCB.

****************************
Repeating "TaskManager" question also: 'Is it Ok to clear Smart on hard disks having these types of issues. . . . "
My data was on a split partition of the WD-160. 25% was used for all backups and vital data; 75% was OS and all programs. Lesson bitterly learned. A failure of this sort burns the whole house, not just a few bedrooms while sparing the garage storage unit !!.
I scrambled to save a few mb's of data before the entire HDD became inaccessible. The data is valuable (years of photos and recent business data, but not impossible to replace with time but certainly not worth more than $100! So I won't spend $$$. Praying may help???

[syben1]

Hi BlackST
Is it Ok to clear Smart on hard disks having these types of issues ( reallocated sectoe count high etc) I use UDMA for recovery

How would you go about doing that (clearing SMART), and what type of tools or SW would you use? What is UDMA?

syben1

[Vulcan]

You're asking the wrong question, because the answer won't help you.

Read again what BlackST explained. Your SMART "failure" is not causing the problem accessing the data - it's whatever the underlying reason for the SMART "failure" is, which is the cause of the loss of data access [from your story, you mention the data is now inaccessible]. Simply clearing SMART the warning won't (cannot) fix that underlying cause - still to be diagnosed - on your drive.

As a car analogy: Your car's oil pressure warning light (i.e. SMART warning) has been illuminated for a while, due to [for example] an oil leak (i.e. some kind of underlying problem); the engine [motor in US English] has eventually totally run out of oil, and it is now seized (i.e. you have lost access to some/all of the data). In this analogy, you are now asking the equivalent of whether just removing the oil pressure warning bulb (i.e. the resetting SMART warning) would allow the seized engine (i.e. your disk drive) to work correctly again.

If you had the skills / tools / experience / spare parts / etc. to diagnose & properly fix whatever underlying problem your drive has, then resetting the SMART warning would make some sense. However those pre-requisites have not been met, so that situation does not apply for you.

You say the data is "valuable" but also "certainly not worth more than $100" which seem rather contradictory, so I don't want to give further advice which could make things worse. However that low budget almost certainly rules out the professional help which you need. Sorry that you probably won't like this news

Last edited by Vulcan on January 22nd, 2013, 23:08, edited 1 time in total.

[BlackST]

PC3000 UDMA is a hardware+software diagnostic tool. Several THOUSANDS $/EUR .
About the rest, save the money and wait for better times or live without data and go on.

[BlackST]

Hi BlackST
Is it Ok to clear Smart on hard disks having these types of issues ( reallocated sectoe count high etc) I use UDMA for recovery

Yes if you have fixed the drive and surface is OK. Better : recertify the drive.

[pcimage]

As a car analogy: Your car's oil pressure warning light (i.e. SMART warning) has been illuminated for a while, due to [for example] an oil leak (i.e. some kind of underlying problem); the engine [motor in US English] has eventually totally run out of oil, and it is now seized (i.e. you have lost access to some/all of the data). In this analogy, you are now asking the equivalent of whether just removing the oil pressure warning bulb (i.e. the resetting SMART warning) would allow the seized engine (i.e. your disk drive) to work again.

Nice analogy, have to use that one!!

[syben1]

As a car analogy: Your car's oil pressure warning light (i.e. SMART warning) has been illuminated for a while, due to [for example] an oil leak (i.e. some kind of underlying problem); the engine [motor in US English] has eventually totally run out of oil, and it is now seized (i.e. you have lost access to some/all of the data). In this analogy, you are now asking the equivalent of whether just removing the oil pressure warning bulb (i.e. the resetting SMART warning) would allow the seized engine (i.e. your disk drive) to work again.

Nice analogy, have to use that one!!

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Better than nice. Excellent!. To a layman it makes it as clear as day and certainly an understanding of the underlying problem. Thanks for the input