I have a WD20EARS that has died.

[CheckMarc]

It's the one that I really need to get the data off. That's before I had the problem with the good drives and the GigaByte BIOS bug. It's been a frustrating journey but I'm finally ready to get this done. BIOS sees the drive but anything Windows either hands of start up or doesn't see it if it does open. Even MiniXP on FalconFour or Hiren's responds the same way. I can see the drive at times in Mini Linux from either of those discs. I've pulled off two folders and the files are OK. It's easier to keep track of what's been done if I move the files versus copy but does this take a great toll on the drive? Is there a better way? I've attached the reports on the drive when I Can open it in Mini Linux.

Attachments

WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA2865743_2016-01-10.txt

(9.28 KiB) Downloaded 728 times

WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA2865743_2016-01-31.txt

(9.28 KiB) Downloaded 710 times

WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA2865743_2016-01-31_ERRORS.txt

(586 Bytes) Downloaded 579 times

2016_03_03_Mounting 2TB Report.txt

(1.67 KiB) Downloaded 647 times

[fzabkar]

Use HDDSuperTool to apply the "slow fix", then use ddrescue to clone the drive.

[pcimage]

Use HDDSuperTool to apply the "slow fix", then use ddrescue to clone the drive.

Sounds like a plan, but keep an eye on it and stop immediately if you still get excessive read errors and/or and untoward noises in case it's a duff head causing your issues.

Good luck

[CheckMarc]

I forgot I do have Active@ Partition Recovery for DOS is that worth a try?

[MindMergepk]

clone the drive first.

your drive has probably a firmware issue which needs to be address and software life Active Partition is not useful in this situation.

hope this will help you bit.

[CheckMarc]

I'm finally getting around to getting this done after two weeks of going backwards in almost everything I attempted. I have several question.

MindMergepk recommended that I clone the drive should I do this before I run HDDSuperTool?

I so how if I can't access the drive and when I can it's very slow and doesn't last for long?

I do the slow fix do I have to keep it attached to the "platform", eg hard drive with Ubuntu installed, that I ran HDDSuperTool from to run ddrescue? I so I'll have to run HDDSuperTool from a USB stick running Ubuntu live will it work?

I read the manual for ddrescue and it talks about several attempt and picking up where the last of stopped by using the log file. How big is this file?


It talks about a mapfile I assume this is similar to a disk image. Is the mapfiles after several attempts the same size as the data on the drive I'm trying to recover? The data is about 1.06TB I have a bare 3TB and 4TB does it make a difference which one I use to the mapfiles?

I know there are a lot of question. I've read the manuals for both but they don't really cover these.

[CheckMarc]

One last question is there a difference between ddrescue and DDRescue-GUI?

[CheckMarc]

Thanks that helped tremendously. You made it understandable. The mapefile is just that a visual representation of the drive by sector. The data takes up about 1.06TB of a 2TB drive about how big will the mapfile be?

[CheckMarc]

The computer I'm trying to use only has two SATA ports so, if I understand correctly, I'll have to if I'm cloning attach one drive as the target than another for the target for the mapfiles and log so I'm better off imaging the bad drive so I can use the one drive and the target for everything. Is there an advantage to one over the other? Image versus clone?

[CheckMarc]

Which "Slow Fix" do I use? reset, reset_hard, wd_royl_patch_mod02 or wd_royl_patch_mod32? Any, none? I've listed the wrong one? Where do the dump (.bin) files get placed? If it's one of the two patches which option do I choose?

1) Read the module to a file and create the patch.
2) Write the patched data back to the disk.
3) Restore the original dump.

[data-medics]

wd_royl_patch_mod02 & wd_royl_patch_mod32 are the ones that do the slow responding fix.

[CheckMarc]

I ran wd_royl_patch_mod32 and powered down the drive and started it again and started running ddrescue. I got this error message:

Error mounting system-managed device /dev/sdb1: Command-line `mount "/media/sdb1"' exited with non-zero exit status 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read vcn 0x17: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

Should I keep running ddrescue?

[CheckMarc]

Thanks every one. So far almost 300GB of 1.06TB recovered and not a bad sector. Since I applied the "slow fix" is this drive usable? Right now it would only be used as a back up.