Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
February 5th, 2013, 15:58
I have a Western Digital 20GB Ata hard drive that has crashed badly. Despite reading other forum posts here, I have been unsuccessful in remounting my hard drive. This has denied me access to a precious archive of work e-mails in my macmail mail-box, and other home office work data including Safari bookmarks tracked via the now non-existent user preferences folder.
This is all information that I would really like to recover without sending to a data recovery company. The loss of data access has been stressful for me over the last several days.
Fortunately, I always stored my text edit, word, and other raw documents on a subsidiary drive. However, and this is unfortunate, backups of my "home folder" fell of the radar due to some significant health issues over the past couple of years. Now, I'm paying the price for that loss of focus.
I'm running a Powermac G4 AGP machine with 1.5ghz fastmac processor, 1.75gb ram, OSX 10.4.11. This has been a good computer for my home office work including e-mails, web browsing etc. The main drive in a two drive setup has been a 20gb Apple branded hard drive Western digital drive that was reported full before the crash. This was after the console log file in the system folder reported large gigabyte file logs.
No major data has ever been stored on this hard drive, only the OS, yet it would fill up. This has happened in the past and I have been able to delete these files, then restart the computer thus clearing hard drive space. I've done this for the last two years.
Two weeks ago when the computer reported low hard disk space, I had a several safari windows open. The computer then froze and the entire computer became totally unresponsive. I had to force power off the computer to get it to restart.
Since then, despite using disk utilities like Techtool, Disk Warrior, Prosoft Drive Genius, Prosoft Data recovery and other software demos like Remo recover, Total Recall, Stellar Phoenix, and Virtual Lab the drive has never been "seen" by the OS to let the data recovery software access it.
I've also used techniques like Safe boot, Singe user mode, Target disk mode, plus mounting the drive in a Wiebetech Firewire 400 external enclosure, and still I've never managed to get the drive to be recognized by the system, let alone remount. All I got was the circle with a slash through it or the mac smiley icon that alternates with a question mark.
The 20Gb WD was the primary ide drive in a two drive setup that also has a Maxtor diamond Max Plus 9 60Gb ATA133 Hard drive which was my subsidiary drive for data storage. I have since mounted this drive when it was made the only drive on the ide cable (the Maxtor has 10.4.6 on it that I can boot from successfully). (If the Western Digital is either the primary or secondary drive on the joint ide cable, the Maxtor then fails to mount).
The crashed hard drive symptoms are:
On startup the Western Digital disk makes several whining noises like it wants to startup, and also sounds like it is trying to access the drive data platters, then it goes quiet. After making the drive the only drive on the ide cable, and rejumpering the drive accordingly, it is only making two whining or "coughing noises" like it wants to start, then goes quiet. In neither case, does the OS ever register its presence.
In the firewire enclosure the drive either starts with the first type of sound and then reverts to periodically making the second type of coughing sound or it just makes the "coughing sound".
Crashed Drive Description is:
WESTERN DIGITAL 20GB TRIDE 655T0022 WC93300Y5H7YA EIDE HARD DRIVE. Made August 18, 1999.
MDL (Model) is WD205BA-40AK.
Firmware is CRNBLKMO.
PRIMARY CONTROLLER BOARD (PCB) NUMBER ON WHITE LABEL JUST ABOVE DATA CONNECTOR IS 845000A 30M01G2V2E2 0056, Apple part # 655T0022
Has Apple logo and came with Sawtooth Machine 450Mhz that was upgraded to 1.5ghz via Fastmac processor and 1.75Gb CL2 Crucial Ram.
Any ideas or suggestions would be most welcome to get the drive to mount and then copy of my home folder data.
February 5th, 2013, 16:38
If I were you, I'd shut 'er down. Those whining noises could be damaging your drive further, and potentially data could be at risk.
Sounds like you're going to need professional help if you want that data back. Give someone a call, and power down! Immediately!
February 6th, 2013, 7:41
Okay I located a donor hard drive for a PCB swap. i was told this is a less risky option than freezing or rapping the drive that while potentially effective could equally destroy the data altogether. I don't know if the codes on the drives are close enough to work. So please take a look and post your advice.
Here are drive specs
CRASHED DRIVE SPECS
Apple Branded
Western Digital Expert 205BA
MDL: WD205BA-40AK
CCC: A1 18 AUG 99
DCM: CRNBLKMO
20GB TRIDE 655T0022 WC93300Y5H7YA
DONOR DRIVE SPECS
Apple Branded
Western Digital Expert 273BA
MDL: WD273BA-40AK
CCC: A1 25 AUG 99
DCM: CSNBLKMO
27GB TRIDE 655T0023 WM934004MH83A