Evening All - not entirely a Newbie but far from a Guru.......am really struggling at the minute with the remains of my recently acquired WD 2TB Elements (the first bout required me to know it out of its enclosure)...in all seriousness I'm not a 'HDD-Beater'.

To the point - I need to tap into your knowledge & wealth of experience regarding Data Recovery. My 2TB WD Elements HDD, FAT32 formatted (for PC/Mac/PS3) died when I stopped watching some media via my PS3 when it froze, when I restarted the PS3, the Drive was not visible, did this a couple of times with the same result.
Plugged the drive into an XP laptop and the drive isn't allocated a letter but its there in the USB disconnect thing and Device Manager but nowhere else.....when plugging into my Mac, it states that it needs to be initialized but the only option available via Disk Utility is to format....its basically unallocated space.
I've managed to get hold of several Data recovery applications but when trying to make an image or a run a scan....I get read/write I/O errors or 'Error 19'.
Its really doing my swede in as there is loads of Data that I know is there but I can't get to it.
Is there anything you can suggest that will help me get my data back ?

Many Thanks & 10,000 Best Wishes

Start by plugging it directly into SATA, but I will say that your case does not sound promising for DIY

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

most likely heads went bad already either pro recovery or rma for replacement

..the thing is, it doesn't appear to be a dead drive..
Its spins up just fine, no clicking at all........I've been told that the PS3 has a history of locking external drives, hence being unable to read.
Its now been removed from the enclosure and installed within my PC, it shows in the BIOS but Windows won't boot with it in.

Can't really afford for a Pro-Job, so DIY is my only real option........if its knackered, I got nothing to lose and am wiling to follow instruction to try to resolve.

Can the heads be fixed ?

No heads cant be fixed only replaced. I stress only "IF" bad heads a donor drive needed for parts a head swap is not a diy procedure. Only a proper diagnosis will know for sure send to a pro and get a free evaluation then decide. If you choose to do this diy you should just rma the drive before you void the warranty by tinkering with it. What make and moldel is the drive

Its a Western Digital 2TB Elements - bought on August 12th......so I've had it barely a month.
I am struggling to accept that its 'KAPUT", as it was working superbly prior to the crash.
Even then it was a case of me only moving within the XMB on the PS3 when it froze and became unavailable, which is why inspite of the wealth & knowledge coming my way from individuals on the board....I believe it is retrieveable.....someone, somewhere has encountered the same.

This drive was well looked after, never dropped..........so for it to become knackered physically.......can't be right.
I suspect the read errors I'm getting on every single recovery program run (scans only) are because its locked in some kind of state from the PS3.

Has anyone come accross an instance where the drive has become inadvertantly locked ?

Your drive's exact problem has not yet been diagnosed, of course, but I suggest you do some research about the "bathtub" failure curve (especially the start of that curve), to understand why a drive failure would not be a complete surprise. Many, many drives fail every day, which seemed to be working "superbly" until that point, some of them very new drives.


Perhaps - but if the problem is specific to your use in the PS3, as you seem to be suggesting, then other groups of users may have seen it more than those here.


See my first comment above.

If I was in your situation, and if your BIOS allows the SATA controller to be put into IDE/compatibility mode, then I would do as drc suggested earlier. Attach the drive via SATA, ideally disconnect any other hard disks, select that SATA controller mode in the BIOS, then boot MHDD from CD / USB (you should research that on this website):

http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

Then select this drive from the list of drives which is presented by MHDD, hit F2 for the EID command, and you'll be told if the drive is locked. If the drive is not locked, then that's your question about this point answered. Further diagnosis could then be attempted - though I'm not going to hand-hold through that process, on this occasion.

As always, if there is a physical problem with the drive, then your continued use / testing i.e. DIY may cause further deterioration (and hence increased recovery cost / difficulty). There are also other risks of you causing damage during DIY (e.g. ESD, accidently dropping it etc.) so don't say that you weren't warned.

Have you even tested the drive with the WD diagnostic's available on the WD site ? I would download the DOS version create a bootable CD and run the tests and see what it has to report back.

@Vulcan - Many Thanks....I will look into your suggestions a bit further

@Networks - I did do the WD Diagnosis check and it was'nt good, same as before its cannot access anything.

I guess it is the inevitable....I though I'd go and Nuke/Shred it last night but even that failed.