Hi, I am new to this forum, so I want say hello to all people.

Now, I have a problem with an LG HXD5 external usb disk.
it contain one NTFS partition. Two weeks ago it has became very slow. and now is not mounted anymore in windows Xp. Luckily is still detected under ubuntu 10.10, so I could save my important data. But now I would do a scan on it to see if can recover it.

Now I don't know the real manufacture of the hd to choose the appropriate low level tool.
Cannot use tools that run under windows because the hd is not mounted.
The only possible way seem to use some low level tool under linux, to scan it and then if possible try a low level format, but I don't know which could be more suitable or if there is a better way to follow.

Thanks very much, Angdrak

If your trying to do a low level format on the drive then any data on it is not important. If the drive is failing then its time to bin it & get a new reliable drive. I wouldnt use a drive to store data on that had issues.

Loki

Using hdparm -i (or -I) on Linux will identify the drive, but as loki said, now that you've been able to recover the data that you wanted, it's unlikely to be worthwhile trying to fix that drive.

... or if your version of Linux kernel and/or hdparm is too old to support gathering this info from USB drives, then you can install smartmontools and run smartctl to answer your question.

In fact gathering the SMART data from that drive using smartctl, would also help you (and anyone who you are asking for help) to understand some more about the (lack of?) health of that drive.

you all are right but I want do some experience with hd in troubles to increase my knowledge on the subject.
Now using gsmartcontrol I discovered the hd is a western digital WD5000BPVT-22HXZT1, but no more smart information are detected. I downloaded the data lifeguard from WD site, but same problem arise, cannot detect the drive in windows xp.

Thanks for your kind answers, Angdrak

Good luck with your plans, and I hope you have fun learning. If you continue reading this forum, you will see some useful info - but remember that many of the tools, software & other equipment needed for drive repair & data recovery, are expensive, and much of the "know how" is closely guarded, as it has taken time / skill / money for other people to learn those details. If you search here, I remember there have been other threads asking about training in the past few months.


I'm glad my suggestion helped you to answer your question about which drive was inside your enclosure.