WD 2.5" 500GB. no MBR or

[Luofu]

Hello.

A friend asked me to retrieve some photos of his son.
It was saved on a HDD from his laptop. The HDD died.

A company was able to replace the broken read-head(repeating click noise before the replacement). and was able to save most of his files.

But the folder with the photos was not saved.

He asked to whether I am able to do something. because the company who did the save is in another country.

So I connected it to my PC. after I tried to reinitialize it, it asked me to make MBR
But after a short wait time. A Device Error comes up.

The harddisk should be repaired. why cant I still make a MBR?

All file recovery software I find so far, need a recognized HDD to work with. :/

Anyone knows a program which will work fine without MBR?


thanks!

[mr_spokk]

Hi, don't try to fix this one by your self...this drive is very fragile in this state.
You should contact Marc @ http://www.datarecuperatie.be/en/ also known as: dobrevjetser in this forum, he can help you out.

[pcimage]

The drive isn't "repaired" as such, and trying to write to it is very unwise.

The head replacement will be only a temporary "fix", just enough to allow the data to be read by PROPER EQUIPMENT.

As mr_spokk says, the drive is very unstable in this state, and could easily be killed by messing about with it using regular access.

It requires cloning under a non-windows environment with the proper tools.

If you REALLY want to to take a gamble and risk totally destroying the drive, and accept the risk of losing the data forever, then you could try using something like dd_rescue or media tools pro to clone it to a working drive then run some recovery software on the clone. But I can't stress enough that by doing that you stand a good chance of DESTROYING THE DATA BEYOND RECOVERY.

Highly recommend using the services of a data recovery company, who shouldn't charge too much to do this for you.

[digitalferret]

Hi Luofu

just to re-affirm what is said above.

Hard drive "repairs" give DR technicians a chance to offload data safely at the next available opportunity, much as an emergency tyre repair (the tin of compressed air and goo) is designed to get you off the motorway.

Neither is designed for you to carry on as before. Both require new gear in order to go forward safely.

Running a full scan on the drive would be similar to running the temporary tyre repair at full throttle, not knowing how far you will get before it overheats, wears out, or explodes.

btw, what is your understanding of the term "re initialize"?

K

[pcimage]

Hard drive "repairs" give DR technicians a chance to offload data safely at the next available opportunity, much as an emergency tyre repair (the tin of compressed air and goo) is designed to get you off the motorway.

Neither is designed for you to carry on as before. Both require new gear in order to go forward safely.

Running a full scan on the drive would be similar to running the temporary tyre repair at full throttle, not knowing how far you will get before it overheats, wears out, or explodes.

Good analogy

[Luofu]

thanks for all the replies!

by initialize is: when I connect the HDD to my computer.
In the Computer Management --> Disk Management
It will automaticly ask to set up MBR or GUID.


I will tell my friend everything I have read now. IT is better to let the pros do the work. It may take a while till he gets back to his home country(much cheaper there).
But it should be worth it. Photos of his growing up son can not be replaced



thanks again everyone.!