System Area okay but seek error on all sectors? (MK6021GAS)

[Stefan_DO]

Hi all!

I've tried to find another thread in which more or less the same problem is described, but as I didn't find it, I started this topic...

I'm having a problem which looks somehow strange to me: A friend gave me his notebook with Toshiba MK6021GAS (60GB) because he couldn't boot anymore. He said the system got slower and slower in the last couple of weeks, and now the hard disk would only make the typical click of death sounds. I tried to check the drive, it got detected by BIOS, and MHDD could init it (per access cycle, I got 4 click sounds with an interval of about 700 ms between each of them though). But it looks like I get seek errors on every sector - trying the tof function of MHDD for example, I keep getting the error code D1.

Now what I don't understand: Why can the drive obviously read the system area (because otherwise it would not be detected by BIOS etc.) but none of the other sectors? I find it very unlikely that all sectors except those of the system area are bad, and if anything was wrong with the head stack, the system area couldn't be read either, right?

Does anybody have an idea what's going on here? Maybe even a tip how I could make the sectors readable?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[beto]

What did u get on ATA registers when tried to read any sector?

[pcimage]

Possible full or bad G-List

[Stefan_DO]

Hi!

First of all thanks a lot for the fast replies!

When I try copying sectors to a file via the TOF function, this is the sequence of flags and colours MHDD displays:
BUSY (green)
AMNF (red)
both BUSY and AMNF deactivated
D0 (but ERR deactivated)
HPA (blue)
D1 (ERR red)

On the Seek&read test (CX) I get Read Error, Maximum: 0.00, ERROR: Seek Test FAILED! Stopping drive...

The SMART attributed are all 0 except Spin up time (1254), Number of spin-up times (3), Start/stop count (1), Load/unload cycle count (5), HDA Temperature (36), Disk shift (8286), Load-in time (163).

About the full or bad G-List: Could that really result in *all* sectors being unreadable / would it match the error code (D1)? If so, is there anything I could do / would it help to reset the G-List?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[N.C.]

security on?

Janos

[Stefan_DO]

When I press Shift+F2, I get
...
SMART: Enabled SelfTest: Supported ErrorLog: Supported
Security: high, OFF. Size = 57231MB

I just found something interesting: If I try to deactivate SMART (smart off), I get "Command aborted" and ABRT is red. Shift+F2 still returns SMART: Enabled. If I enter "smart on", I get "SMART Enable Operations Successful".

Anybody has any clue?

Thanks a lot again!

[BlackST]

You can't fix anything with MHDD. If you need to recover data buy a pc3000+DE or send drive but stop experimenting. I can do it in Italy.

[falther]

Ohne sündteure Spezialgeräte für Datenrettung ist da sicher nichts zu machen.
Entweder lokale Hilfe suchen oder das Angebot von BlackST annehmen, er ist
zwar oft hart in seinen Ansichten / Aussagen, aber dürfte ein absoluter "Guru"
für Datenrettung sein. Sein Englisch ist auch überdurchschnittlich, es würde
mich nicht einmal wundern, wenn er sogar deutsch könnte.

+++

[Creator]

Ohne sündteure Spezialgeräte für Datenrettung ist da sicher nichts zu machen.
Entweder lokale Hilfe suchen oder das Angebot von BlackST annehmen, er ist
zwar oft hart in seinen Ansichten / Aussagen, aber dürfte ein absoluter "Guru"
für Datenrettung sein. Sein Englisch ist auch überdurchschnittlich, es würde
mich nicht einmal wundern, wenn er sogar deutsch könnte.

+++

Here is english forum.

[HardDiskBug]

Here is english forum.

Even I used to think so...

[hddguy]

Ohne sündteure Spezialgeräte für Datenrettung ist da sicher nichts zu machen.
Entweder lokale Hilfe suchen oder das Angebot von BlackST annehmen, er ist
zwar oft hart in seinen Ansichten / Aussagen, aber dürfte ein absoluter "Guru"
für Datenrettung sein. Sein Englisch ist auch überdurchschnittlich, es würde
mich nicht einmal wundern, wenn er sogar deutsch könnte.

+++

I think BlackST has a fan

[Stefan_DO]

@BlackST: Thanks for your help and advice. I can't afford buying PC3000+DE, so I will PM you after this message.

Anyway I also want to understand how this problem is even possible (see initial posting). As all information (incl. system area) is written in cylinders (which requires all heads for reading, right?) and the system area could be read, all headers and the PCB must be working, right? But as no sector outside the system area could be read, does this mean that the system area includes corrupted data and thus no other sectors are readable? I'd wonder about that, because - as my friend told me - the drive did not change from "perfectly running" to "nothing but click of death" from one moment to another, but the problem got worse by time, means data access got slower until he couldn't boot anymore (for obvious reasons). How could that be a consequence of corrupted system area only? This is also important to know in order to estimate if rewriting the system area with correct information would allow to recover most of the data.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[hddguy]

Toshiba HDDs store most system information on the PCB. Very little SA information is recorded to the platters with this HDD

[Stefan_DO]

Oh - doesn't sound good. Because then it could mean that head damage is not that unlikely, right? At least more likely than faulty PCB because then one would rather expect the problem to arise from one moment to another instead of getting worse by time, right?

[hddguy]

I am simply saying that SA can be read because it is stored on PCB, this does not make head failure any less likely. The best you can do now is go ahead and get BlackST to properly diagnose it for an accurate indication of what is wrong, by a professional, and this is also the best chance you have to get back your data.

[HDD Spaz]

could also be bad motor.

[Stefan_DO]

Okay thanks - so without PC3000, there is no way for further troubleshooting? It's just that I'd like to estimate in advance how much the recovery would cost (both my friend and me are students and can't afford spending a few hundred Euros on this) - and if the SA is corrupted or the PCB is damaged, a professional might be able to recover the data with a lot less effort (at least in case of SA corruption I hope) than in case the head stack or motor is damaged, right?

[hddguy]

Most companies provide free evaluations to determine the cost of work involved. It is very difficult to estimate the problem without physically seeing it, and because of this estimating a price is also very diffcult.

[Stefan_DO]

@hddguy: Thanks for the tip - when I googled with better keywords, I finally found a company in Germany which only charges you if they recover data for you. Anyway, in that case it seems to be more than 250 Euros in most cases, I know it's not much for data recovery, but still too much for a student. That's why I thought the only way to go anyway would be to learn about this and do it on my own. I also thought about getting the same model of that hard disk and swapping PCBs first - if that doesn't help, then swapping head stacks. If I can't afford professional service, what alternative do I have? Sure, if it goes wrong, I'd have lost about 30 Euros, but it might be worth a try. But I also sent a PM to BlackST, will see what he thinks.

[HDD Spaz]

You will lose 30 euros and lose the data. Its a waste of time. Why don't you get a loan?