Hi and thanks for reading:

I have rather good data backup procedures, backing up often to a large external a Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00 formatted in NTFS. I also reformat my main OS HDD (in my laptop) about every 6 months. Before a reformat naturally I move any important files over on to the external to make sure i don't lose anything. Problem is, the external died about a day before my reformat. Loaded up with my files and the backups.

It's not the enclosure since other SATA drives in it are recognized just fine. The HDD is invisible to BIOS (even when connected internally via SATA) and I've tried it in a couple of different laptops and desktops. Unsurprisingly trying different a different OS didn't matter in the slightest. Hardware wise it appears to be in perfect shape (I haven't opened it up to check the platters and heads) the contacts between the PCB board and the rest of the HDD seem perfectly clear and the board doesn't have any obvious scorches on it. It doesnt make any strange sounds. It spins up, you hear the arm become active and moving around, then you wait say 45 seconds and the arm docks itself.

But from reading on this forum I've now read about 2 different pieces of software that might be useful to me. HDDSCAN which somehow (magic?) is able to see my dead drive. It reports its model and serial number, but no other functions with it work at all. It wont do a SMART check, or anything. But the fact that it at least sees the drive gives me some hope. I've read that MHDD is very powerful and can bypass the BIOS check issue i seem to be having. But since it needs to be on the internal SATA to function i wont be able to surf as this is now the only machine i have with me. So I've been printing out a lot of info on the MHDD page to try and solve it. But not being able to be online for it kinda sucks.

My goal is to just image the disk onto a new external that ive had to buy... Does anyone have maybe a short primer for MHDD since im currently in the "What if i fuck up" stage of planning. I'd also greatly appreciate any further info/suggestions anyone can give me.

Also, recommending I get a professional to do this is kind of out of the question since i a college student who survives only by balancing scholarships. So, unless you know someone willing to do it pro-bono it doesn't really help me.

Pardon the double post... I wasn't allowed to edit the previous post to add in some orthographic shots of the PCB.

If attention to anything on it is desired let me know, i'll take another photo. I would embed but they're probably more useful in the higher resolution.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/35068/kdk_0894.jpg
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/35068/kdk_0896.jpg
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/35068/kdk_0897.jpg

hi,
firmware has problem. send it to DR pro as well. or you can send it to me.

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data recovery service[/b]

Firmware corruption eh? Does anyone else echo this diagnosis? Is there any way to "fix" this? Would replacing the PCB board be enough?

MHDD has pretty comprehensive help if you hit F1. I would check it out there and see if you are able to see the drive at all, or scan it, or whatever.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.