Hi all,
I'm trying to recover a seagate barracuda 3TB hdd.

Here are the specifics:

Model: ST3000DM001
Firmware: CC4C
Date: 12295
Site: SU

I have three identical disks, only the serial number is different (obviously)
These four disks were used in a NAS for storage. The RAID system was RAID 0. One of these disks has failed, rendering the entire NAS sotorage useless.

I've done a search, and found that according to some sources, swapping the controller head for a controller from an identical disk can work. (since I have three other identical working hdd's, I have a controller that I an use) Other sources say that it won't work and that will damage the disk(s).

So the question is: can it work?
And if it works, can I copy the data from this one disk onto another 3TB disk, put the controller bak on the original disk, plug the three working disks one into the NAS together with the other one that holds the copy of the failed disk and gain access to the data on the NAS? (copy it to another storage and reset the NAS to RAID 5)?

To do this, can I just copy the data using windows explorer or am I better of using something like Clonezilla to make a disc copy in order to copy the RAID formatting as well?

If it doens't work to swap controllers, what other options are there? The disks still powers up and it still spins, but it doens't get detected by the NAS (or by a pc when hooked up to the motherboard directly)

Thanks a lot,

Peter

Firstly, DM Series are desktop drive and not recommended to use in NAS, even many Pro do not recommend using DM series at all. These DM series are really nightmare for Pros in term of recovery, so proceeding at your own is really really a bad idea.

I would suggest to immediately clone the working drives assuming they are also DM series to avoid further disaster, since one drive has already failed so another disk failure is likely to happen, just a thought.

It is better to contact a DR company for this JOB.

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Data Recovery Pakistan

I've switched to Western Digital Red disks for the NAS, but as it was RAID 0 I need the data from that one DM disk as well.
Why are these disks such a nightmare?

Thanks a lot,
Peter

DM series are known for being nasty to recover - even for pros, so - sorry to say
to try a Do It Yourself ( DIY ) is a very, very bad idea.....

Its like a patient is thinking about doing his own hart transplant himselve ....
perhaps with a little info from an internet online forum

is ment seriously - not insulting.

Look for a pro if its valuable data

+++

Thanks for the replies.
But whay are they so difficult? Is there something special in the way they are built?
Can a single disk from a RAID 0 configuration be recovered? Or do I need to send all four to a pro?

Do any of you have an idea of a pricetag for a pro recovery?

By the way, it's clearly not an option for this particular disk, but in general, can it work to swap controllers?

And what are the risks if you try?

For future harddisks, which would be recommended to use as far as "easy" recovering goes?

Thanks a lot,
Peter

The DM series are very pron to media degradation, and headswap on Seagates need some skills.
I recommend you to contac Marc (Dobrevjetser on this forum) at http://www.datarecuperatie.be/nl

It depends on how good you are on re-assamble Raid structures, My guess is it's better to send them all in.
And for drive recomendation you have got an good answer: WD Red.

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

I just happened to be reading the Backblaze blog recently. WD's Red 3TB/4TB/6TB EFRX drives have now fallen way behind Seagate's ST4000DX000 and ST4000DM000 drives in the reliability stakes. The WD failure rates are 8%, 9%, and 7% as opposed to 2% and 3% for Seagate.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/

ISTM that Seagate and WD have now swapped places. Still the best drives by far are the Hitachis (1% failure rate), which begs the question, are WD too arrogant or proud or stupid to take advantage of the technological expertise of their acquisition?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Yes, single drive can be recovered, you'll get an image as a result.
But after that you'll need to reassemble the array yourself and most likely that will be a software way, not just inserting the drives back into enclosure.

If you're thinking about DIY way due to the costs, we'll be happy to help. We're not too far and our prices are lower than the European ones.
We can help both with the single drive recovery and/or remote NAS recovery.
Please see your PM.

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• Remote RAID, NAS, SAN, VMware, DVR (CCTV), flash and tape recovery. Data recovery support.

I think DIY is definitely out, even just given the model that it is (ST3000DM001 is the worst one). It's very unlikely to be a PCB issue with this model. And even if it were a PCB issue, you'd need to transfer the ROM code for it to work. Cold swap of PCB's on these never works.

Most likely the problem is the read/write heads. If you try to DIY you've got about a 99% chance of killing the heads in the swap. Even if you do manage to successfully transplant the heads yourself, you've got about a 90% chance that the drive will then need firmware modifications to stabilize it or else it will ruin the heads again on it's own.

Even professionals usually have to do 3-4 read/write head replacements to get the data off of them. They are really terrible, and have forced many companies (including ours) to create new price tiers just to deal with them.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company