Size mismatch on two identical drives

[umop]

Hi Folks,

I have two identical Western Digital 250GB hard disks which were previously in a RAID array in a Lacie D2 BigDisk enclosure (which died). When I examine them individually, I end up with one showing up at it's accurate 250GB value, and the other at a truncated 128GB. I have used MHDD, and found the following information being reported:

Disk 1 (Incorrect):

Reported size: 137,437,904,896 bytes

From RPHA Command:
LBA: 268,433,408
Native Maximum LBA adress = 488,397,167


Disk 2 (Correct):

Reported size: 250,058,637,312 bytes

From RPHA Command:
LBA: 488,395,776
Native Maximum LBA adress = 488,397,167


It appears that the physical parameters on this disk (1) are incorrect, and I need to change them and restore the data from my disk. I have tried swapping the driver cards from the good HD (disk 2) to the bad one (disk 1), and it still shows the same values. I don't care about continuing to use the disk, I just need to be able to read everything so i can get my data back.

Any ideas how I can use to change the disk parameters of the
incorrect disk, or at least a method I can use to retrieve the (raw)
data? Perhaps there is a way to copy the servo zone from one to the other since they were once identical (as parameters are concerned). I tried to perform an NHPA command with a failure result. Since then, I have read that it may be a bad idea to perform an NHPA on the bad disk. since I suspect this is a corrupted configuration sector rather than a created HPA. I never intentionally created an HPA, and I haven't found any utility to determine the existence/size of one if that's what is causing the size mistake. I'm guessing that this size alteration happened when I put the disk in a controller which didn't support 128GB+ drives. MHDD does report that HPA is supported.

I have also tried doing a CONFIG command and hitting enter on every option, with no success (Device Error) as well.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Eric

[Dmitry Postrigan]

First ensure that you have removed all jumpers from both drives;
Then try NHPA, but in the following way: attach power connector to the drive AFTER mhdd loads.

[umop]

I just tried that. Here's what happened:

booted system and loaded MHDD (selected an empty slot for HDD since none were powered).

1. Powered drive and used PORT to select it. Then:

2.
MHDD>nhpa
WDC WD2500JB-00FUA0 LBA:268,433,408
SN:WD-WMAEP3488811 FW:15.05R15 CACHE:8192KB Size = 131071MB
Init drive: Done
Do you want to set Native LBA adress? (y/N) <typed Y>
Read NHPA...
Native Maximum LBA adress: 488397167
* Continue? (y/N) <typed Y>
Working...
Fail. Try to re-power HDD.
Done.

3. I then re-power the HDD (take out the power cable and plug it back in). I check the size size. It is still the same
4. I perform above (2 and 3) again with same result.
5. Finally, I EID the drive to see that the params are still the same.

I'd use config to fix this, but when I did this before (just hitting enter on each line as I had read in a previous post), I got:

Calculating new checksum...
Writing changes to the drive...
Device error.

Le sigh. Any other ideas?

Many thanks!
Eric

[yudi]

Hi Umop,
Maybe U can solved this problem with learning ,reading & trying last topics about wd in this forums.
-How to checked Moduls, How to repaire & whats the tools to use.
-How to rewrite damage moduls, without make damage data.
-How Hot Swap Methods, and when u must use this methods.

This Questions, can follow you to make understand that u wd have similar problems with wd problem in this forums... And then u can get solutions from yourself.
The good tools to repaire hdd is your experience & your friends experience.