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Demus
 Post subject: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 10th, 2010, 21:44 
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I have an old IBM Deskstar 40GB hard drive, model: IC35L040AVER07-0. Initially I thought the PCB might have failed but I'm now beginning to think it is an error in the SA.

Here's what happens:

- Drive spins up normally
- Detected in BIOS with correct model
- Capacity detected as 32254GB (should be ~38146MB)
- Only first 480MB accessible, trying to access anything beyond the first 480MB gives an immediate error.
- Partition information intact
- FAT16 partition refuses to mount
- Attempting to image the drive causes it to lockup after reaching the 480MB point
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BlackST
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 11th, 2010, 0:43 
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Location: ITALY
SA / head.
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 11th, 2010, 5:12 
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ISTM that the 2/32GB clip jumper is installed.

Jumper settings
Models: IC35L060AVER07, IC35L040AVER07, IC35L030AVER07, IC35L020AVER07,
IC35L010AVER07:
http://www.brbvolumax.it/upload/allegat ... umpers.pdf

This limits the number of sectors to 66055248, which equates to a capacity of ...

66,055,248 x 512 / 1024 / 1024 = 32,253.5 MB

FAT16 partitions are limited to 2GB.

As for the physical (?) error at 480MB, I can't see why this would prevent your 2GB (?) FAT16 partition from mounting.

Can we see the partition table and boot sector(s) with Microsoft's Sector Inspector?
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/SecInspect.zip

Extract the above archive to the one folder and execute the SIrun.bat file. The procedure will generate a report file named SIout.txt.
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BlackST
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 11th, 2010, 5:31 
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Only first 480 mb. seen, not 32 GB instead of 40 so it's SA or head.
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 11th, 2010, 5:58 
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The drive can be jumpered to report 15 or 16 logical heads in CHS mode.

I wonder if the following relationship is anything other than a coincidence:

480 x (16 / 15) = 512
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BlackST
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 11th, 2010, 6:10 
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Then try reading from 960 mb. Or other location. When defective head is accessed it hangs/error. This may be also SA / FW.
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Demus
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 11th, 2010, 21:44 
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Joined: July 9th, 2010, 17:47
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I've found that it's random whether it reports 33.8GB (4111 cylinders) or 40GB (4865 cylinders). I have verified that the 32GB jumper is OFF. The SMART status reports OK.

I determined that the point where it stops imaging the drive is random. Sometimes it gets to 480MB, sometimes only as far as 50GB. I've limited myself to three attempts, to prevent further damage to the drive. The reading stops when the drive hangs. After this point the drive will only start responding if I fully power down the system first (rebooting alone does not fix it).

When I try reading beyond the 500MB mark with dd I get an immediate response "invalid argument".

There also seems to be something going on with the partition table. Gparted and windows report the drive as being unpartitioned. Linux fdisk reports "Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sda" but shows FAT 16 <32M when listing the table.

Here is the sector inspector log: http://pastebin.com/Gjpu2jkQ
Note: I copied the 480MB image I made to a working drive, and grabbed the sectors off of that drive. So naturally the log reports more cylinders than are on the actual drive. I couldn't get windows to boot with the actual drive attached.
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Demus
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 11th, 2010, 21:52 
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Joined: July 9th, 2010, 17:47
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I've found that it's random whether it reports 33.8GB (4111 cylinders) or 40GB (4865 cylinders). I have verified that the 32GB jumper is OFF. The SMART status reports OK.

I determined that the point where it stops imaging the drive is random. Sometimes it gets to 480MB, sometimes only as far as 50GB. I've limited myself to three attempts, to prevent further damage to the drive. The reading stops when the drive hangs. After this point the drive will only start responding if I fully power down the system first (rebooting alone does not fix it).

When I try reading beyond the 500MB mark with dd I get an immediate response "invalid argument".

There also seems to be something going on with the partition table. Gparted and windows report the drive as being unpartitioned. Linux fdisk reports "Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sda" but shows FAT 16 <32M when listing the table.

Here is the sector inspector log: pastebin.com/Gjpu2jkQ
Note: I copied the 480MB image I made to a working drive, and grabbed the sectors off of that drive. So naturally the log reports more cylinders than are on the actual drive. I couldn't get windows to boot with the actual drive attached.
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 12th, 2010, 9:50 
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The partition table is corrupt. Did you attempt to fix your MBR with Microsoft's FIXMBR? If so, then that will explain the damage.

The partition table is reporting a single partition consisting of 66055248 sectors, ie about 32GB. Its type is 04 which is FAT16 (NTFS has a type of 07). The partition [incorrectly] begins at LBA 0 instead of the usual LBA 63 (the boot sector). That's why the boot parameter block contains nonsensical data.

The simplest solution to repair your logical file system corruption is to manually rebuild the partition table (16 bytes) using the information in the boot parameter block at sector 63. Hopefully the original boot sector is still intact.

You can use a freeware disc editor such as HxD to view sector 63.

http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

See this thread for a similar solution:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/ATA-and-Se ... /m-p/52642
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dick
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 12th, 2010, 10:47 
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Joined: January 8th, 2008, 5:21
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Location: uk
I think there is something more than a partition problem if it stops whilst imaging!!! Or are we talking about Ghost here?

With the correct tools I would image to an erased drive in the forward direction until it stops and take note of the sector. Then I would image in the reverse direction until it stops and again take note of the sector. Then you would have an idea where the bads are.
You could use Dmde to do this. In fact Dmde will give you loads of partition info and hex viewing tools which you can report back with.

Or I would consider using copyr.dma but this only works in forward mode ie. 0 to the end sector.

Do you have important data to recover on this drive?
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 12th, 2010, 19:04 
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Obviously the drive has several problems, both physical and logical.

The easiest approach would be to reconstruct the partition table so that the partition can be mounted. Then the OP could retrieve the most important data ASAP, bad sectors notwithstanding.

The drive also appears to have a problem detecting its configuration jumpers. If the capacity limitation jumper is out, and the MCU is intermittently misdetecting the associated GPIO pin, then either the I/O port is faulty, or the pullup/pulldown resistor is open or dry jointed. In this case the OP should not proceed until the BIOS reports full capacity. AIUI, the MCU examines its configuration pins once at power-on, and ignores them until the next power cycle.

An examination of the boot sector at LBA 63 would also reveal whether the OS was installed on a 32GB partition or a 40GB partition.

BTW, the OP stated that dd was being used for imaging. In any case, the FS is damaged, so a sector-by-sector copy is the only reasonable cloning option.
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Demus
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 12th, 2010, 21:44 
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Joined: July 9th, 2010, 17:47
Posts: 14
Location: Canada
To answer the above question, I didn't do anything destructive to the drive. However, I received it second hand from a "tech guy" who may have done virtually anything to it. They've completely written off the data, but I decided to give recovery a shot. I've done MHA and multi-platter swaps before.

Using MHDD I was able to scan sectors from the drive well into the 10GB range. I could only read a few megabytes at a time until the drive locked up. After a couple reboots the drive started taking longer and longer to initialize at boot time. The heads are obviously deteriorating with each attempt.

What serial numbers do I need to match on this model of drive to find a suitable donor?
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 12th, 2010, 22:38 
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Would you indulge my curiosity and upload a snapshot of sector 63?

I'm wondering whether the "tech guy" used Microsoft's FuXBOOT on the boot sector, in which case I am expecting to see a 10MB FAT12 partition.
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hddguy
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 13th, 2010, 0:39 
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Joined: November 9th, 2006, 15:15
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fzabkar wrote:
Obviously the drive has several problems, both physical and logical.

The easiest approach would be to reconstruct the partition table so that the partition can be mounted.


And you would suggest this while there are "several problems, both physical and logical".

The easiest approach is to have it evaluated by a pro, where there is no risk of further damage and a decent chance to get the data back.
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BlackST
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 13th, 2010, 1:27 
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If the drive has not been opened or tampered with, the delay at startup is not necessarily a sign of deteriorating heads. Knowing what to do, the analysis takes 5 minutes including head functionality test - What's worst : dedicated equipment is not mandatory. All the rest, to me, is total bullshit.
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 13th, 2010, 1:52 
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hddguy wrote:
fzabkar wrote:
Obviously the drive has several problems, both physical and logical.

The easiest approach would be to reconstruct the partition table so that the partition can be mounted.


And you would suggest this while there are "several problems, both physical and logical".

The easiest approach is to have it evaluated by a pro, where there is no risk of further damage and a decent chance to get the data back.

Nonsense.

The easiest approach is to rebuild the 16 bytes in the partition table, as was done by a complete noob in the Seagate thread that I referenced.

So far the "pros" have diagnosed an SA problem, which is clearly bullshit.

The first thing the OP needs to do is to examine the boot sector and rebuild the partition table according to the data in the BPB, assuming the boot sector is not also corrupt. There is no immediate need to attempt to clone the drive for the umpteenth time. In fact, if the OP had used a reasoned approach from the outset, then s/he wouldn't now be worrying about whether the drive will survive yet another imaging attempt.

In any case, IIUC, the data are only of curiosity value to the OP.
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hddguy
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 13th, 2010, 2:01 
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fzabkar wrote:
In any case, IIUC, the data are only of curiosity value to the OP.


Ahh, I did not realise that curiosity was justification for encouraging data loss...
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poehere
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 13th, 2010, 2:24 
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[quote="Demus"]To answer the above question, I didn't do anything destructive to the drive. However, I received it second hand from a "tech guy" who may have done virtually anything to it. They've completely written off the data, but I decided to give recovery a shot. I've done MHA and multi-platter swaps before.
Using MHDD I was able to scan sectors from the drive well into the 10GB range. I could only read a few megabytes at a time until the drive locked up. After a couple reboots the drive started taking longer and longer to initialize at boot time. The heads are obviously deteriorating with each attempt.

What serial numbers do I need to match on this model of drive to find a suitable donor?[/quote]

This is kind of funny all of this. :mrgreen: This is not even his data on the drive to begin with. He states here he is trying to do DR work on it. Looks like they have written off the data on this drive and it is not even important at all. Now he is asking to find a suitable donor drive to do what ever with. Think he is thinking of head swaping now on this one. All this over a drive that has been written off and data is gone. He is playing with this drive now out of hoping he can recover the data on it for who knows what reason. Does not seem like the owner of this drive is interested in his data any longer so why recover it now?

_________________
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 13th, 2010, 3:37 
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hddguy wrote:
fzabkar wrote:
In any case, IIUC, the data are only of curiosity value to the OP.


Ahh, I did not realise that curiosity was justification for encouraging data loss...

I'm asking the OP to provide two sectors' worth of data. If you think that in doing so I'm encouraging data loss, then you really need to examine yourself and your profession.

BTW, sector 63 is right at the beginning of the 480MB partial image that the OP has already retrieved ... again and again and again.

What's more, why would the OP send his (or someone else's) valuable (?) data to "pros" who cannot recognise what is glaringly obvious, namely that the drive has a 32GB capacity limitation issue, and that the existence of a 32GB FAT16 partition indicates a fundamental file system fault, not some obscure SA problem.

Professionals? I don't think so ...
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Demus
 Post subject: Re: Hard drive spins, detects, and reads up to first 480MB
PostPosted: July 13th, 2010, 5:55 
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Joined: July 9th, 2010, 17:47
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Well there's no need to be arguing back and forth over this. I appreciate all of the help from everyone in this thread.

poehere wrote:
Does not seem like the owner of this drive is interested in his data any longer so why recover it now?


There is a gap between "not interested in the data" and "willing to pay $1000 for DR." The owner of the drive is a friend and knows I have done successful MHA and platter swaps on my own personal drives in the past. I offered to give it a shot as a hobby. The only thing he cares about on the drive is a school assignment, however he didn't have enough hours invested in the assignment to justify the high cost of DR. It was cheaper for him to just start over.

Here is the content of sector 63.
Code:
EB 58 90 4D 53 57 49 4E 34 2E 31 00 02 40 20 00
02 00 00 00 00 F8 00 00 3F 00 FF 00 3F 00 00 00
A0 8B 90 04 A2 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00
01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
80 01 29 F0 14 3F 3F 49 42 4D 5F 50 52 45 4C 4F
41 44 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 33 C9 8E D1 BC F4
7B 8E C1 8E D9 BD 00 7C 88 4E 02 8A 56 40 B4 08
CD 13 73 05 B9 FF FF 8A F1 66 0F B6 C6 40 66 0F
B6 D1 80 E2 3F F7 E2 86 CD C0 ED 06 41 66 0F B7
C9 66 F7 E1 66 89 46 F8 83 7E 16 00 75 38 83 7E
2A 00 77 32 66 8B 46 1C 66 83 C0 0C BB 00 80 B9
01 00 E8 2B 00 E9 48 03 A0 FA 7D B4 7D 8B F0 AC
84 C0 74 17 3C FF 74 09 B4 0E BB 07 00 CD 10 EB
EE A0 FB 7D EB E5 A0 F9 7D EB E0 98 CD 16 CD 19
66 60 66 3B 46 F8 0F 82 4A 00 66 6A 00 66 50 06
53 66 68 10 00 01 00 80 7E 02 00 0F 85 20 00 B4
41 BB AA 55 8A 56 40 CD 13 0F 82 1C 00 81 FB 55
AA 0F 85 14 00 F6 C1 01 0F 84 0D 00 FE 46 02 B4
42 8A 56 40 8B F4 CD 13 B0 F9 66 58 66 58 66 58
66 58 EB 2A 66 33 D2 66 0F B7 4E 18 66 F7 F1 FE
C2 8A CA 66 8B D0 66 C1 EA 10 F7 76 1A 86 D6 8A
56 40 8A E8 C0 E4 06 0A CC B8 01 02 CD 13 66 61
0F 82 54 FF 81 C3 00 02 66 40 49 0F 85 71 FF C3
4E 54 4C 44 52 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0D 0A 4E 54
4C 44 52 20 69 73 20 6D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 FF 0D
0A 44 69 73 6B 20 65 72 72 6F 72 FF 0D 0A 50 72
65 73 73 20 61 6E 79 20 6B 65 79 20 74 6F 20 72
65 73 74 61 72 74 0D 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 AC BF CC 00 00 55 AA
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