IO errors after head swap

[fzabkar]

Is model number is the only thing you checked for HSA compatibility? If this is the case, you sould research a bit more for HSA compatibility criteria. It's all there.

Headstack matching for Western Digital:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=1036

[myiannakou]

That's right - I'm NOT reading via SATA

[kaxi]

If you don't have the DDI USB add-on, converting to SATA would give you the only chance of recovery if media damage is involved. After imaging whatever is posible, then you can deal with the encription issue as a next step.

[myiannakou]

Yes I was afraid that was going to be the case. I've email Ace Labs for a quote

[pcimage]

Yes I was afraid that was going to be the case. I've email Ace Labs for a quote

It's approx. €5,000

[myiannakou]

Seems pretty reasonable when you considered what their equipment is capable of and the support they offer.

[pcimage]

Yes, it is

[lcoughey]

Seems pretty reasonable when you considered what their equipment is capable of and the support they offer.

It is certainly cheaper than having an own in-house engineering team making your own equipment.

[fzabkar]

It is certainly cheaper than having an own in-house engineering team making your own equipment.

You could apply that same argument to justify the price of a one million dollar car or television set.

I wonder what the price of tools would be if every potential developer had access to the same stolen/leaked information. There are plenty of intelligent people in the open source community who would very quickly change the shape of the data recovery business with free or affordable tools.

[Alexii]

If you are reading the drive through the USB - stop. Results in most cases are bad. There is a procedure you can find on the forum that allows for SATA access ( removing 4 capacitors ) or in some cases you can use compatible SATA board ( there is a list on the forum as well ) But that in turn bypasses the encryption controller (depending on the drive Initio, jmicron, PLX ). I use data extractor for this next step , however you might be able to bypass that using the 3.5 sata to usb bridges from My Books ? Have any techs attempted that? Good luck.

PS my rule of thumb is if drive IDs with donor heads - i dont question compatibility =)

[hhddrec]

The most probably problem is media damage on 1 platter face. very probably too 1 badlly head.

the best is to take a look to all platter heads (but tools needed to extract heads, platters,..)

[Alexii]

i had situations when a 2.5 usb3 wd would not even ID normally under USB conditions , but working with the same drive through SATA yielded close to 100% clean images.

[myiannakou]

pcimage. What do you mean OP? I've seen this scattered around the forum. What does it stand for?

[myiannakou]

Ah OK. Thank you