Recover the data from the faulty HDD hard drive

[Lardman]

I'm still waiting for your response.

You haven't answered fzabkar's question regarding the largest file recovered, (he didn't ask for the total recovered capacity). Nor have you provided the results of the benchmark test from the donor as he requested. You might want to scale back on the entitlement, nobody is obligated to respond.

Fzabkar also doesn't consider himself a pro as he doesn't make a living recovering data, despite having more recovery knowledge than most of us. If he's prepared to offer assistance for free it's would be sensible to do as requested, even if you don't understand his reasoning.

If DIY recovery is possible he will get you there, but without the drive in hand nobody can change the heads for you, the likelihood of you doing so successfully on your first attempt even on a drive this old is slim.

[fzabkar]

What is the size of the largest file that was successfully recovered?

Can you run a short-stroked read benchmark in HD Tune on your donor drive? This will tell us the size of the serpentine zones.

How to determine number of heads using HD Tune:
https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=650

I'm still waiting for your response.

I'm still waiting for yours.

You are fixated on the idea that there may be a head fault, but Fields appear to have performed a logical recovery, without internal intervention.

If there is a problematic head, then this will affect large files but not small ones, hence my questions.