Strange problem: Seagate Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS

[koopa]

Hey everyone, and first of all, thanks very much for the great information on these forums, I have already progressed quite far with the recovery, but need some advice:

The booty: I am a wedding photographer (and part time nerd), and this hard drive contains the lightroom catalog for much of my work (stupidly triple backed up the photos, but not the editing information - can take 5x longer than the shoot!)

The problem/solution so far:

- Hard drive started to die (read errors in windows, no clicking, no unusual noises)
- I ghosted the drive -> BAD idea, got stuck on bad sectors for 11 hours and 'killed' the drive.
- There is no clicking, and the hard drive spins up normally except for SMART errors, and reports 2 partitions.
- First partition: completely normal, no errors (100Mb system reserved).
- Second partition: Reports name of drive ("MM OS Drive"), but any attempt to look inside in LINUX or WINDOWS results in error messages and no listing. (465Gb, all the things I need obviously)
- Under HIREN'S BOOTCD (USB stick v15) under their LINUX RECOVERY ENVIRONMENT, I have tried to recover the drive with:
"ddrescue /dev/sdj /media/sdi3/test.img /media/sdi3/test.logfile -i0"
this allows me to recover a random amount of data, sometimes 10bytes, sometimes 200Mb, average of 40Mb each time. However, it always stops after 30 seconds and GSmartControl goes from listing it as a ST9500325AS with SMART errors to 'Unknown Model' - I then have to turn the drive off and on again to copy my next 2-200Mb.
- I'm not sure, but I think the same sectors may cause the drive to 'lose its name', the off/on trick works only because it moves to another safer area of the drive.
- I have rescued 2155Mb of the drive so far with 350 errors, but so far this will take me about 10,000 on/off presses and 150hours of time - plus I'm afraid that the output might be all garbage, or that I'm killing the drive.

Please tell me what else I can do (before sending it to a data recovery specialist). Swap logic boards?

The rest of this post are drive details (from GSmartControl):

smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [i686-linux-3.0.4-pmagic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Momentus 5400.6
Device Model: ST9500325AS
Serial Number: 5VE042Z4
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 01199ae1b
Firmware Version: 0001SDM1
User Capacity: 500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: ATA-8-ACS revision 4
Local Time is: Wed Feb 15 20:30:17 2012 UTC
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
See vendor-specific Attribute list for failed Attributes.

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 678) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 139) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x103b) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 083 082 006 Pre-fail Always - 204545702
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 097 097 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 099 099 020 Old_age Always - 1433
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 001 001 036 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 2040
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 057 057 030 Pre-fail Always - 803257546645
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 089 089 000 Old_age Always - 10152
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 037 020 Old_age Always - 506
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 1092
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 093 093 000 Old_age Always - 115965952031
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 069 049 045 Old_age Always - 31 (Min/Max 31/31)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 36
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 010 010 000 Old_age Always - 181067
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 031 051 000 Old_age Always - 31 (0 2 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 041 034 000 Old_age Always - 204545702
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 7
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 7
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 197 000 Old_age Always - 651

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 1492 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 1492 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10152 hours (423 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 71 04 9d 00 32 e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
a1 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00 00:00:08.723 IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE
ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00 00:00:08.690 IDENTIFY DEVICE
2f 00 01 10 00 00 a0 00 00:00:08.634 READ LOG EXT
60 00 08 98 23 de 40 00 00:00:05.843 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 de 09 40 00 00:00:04.932 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 1491 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10152 hours (423 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 71 04 9d 00 32 e0

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00 00:00:08.690 IDENTIFY DEVICE
2f 00 01 10 00 00 a0 00 00:00:08.634 READ LOG EXT
60 00 08 98 23 de 40 00 00:00:05.843 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 de 09 40 00 00:00:04.932 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 ce 69 40 00 00:00:04.923 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 1490 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10152 hours (423 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 71 04 9d 00 32 e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
2f 00 01 10 00 00 a0 00 00:00:08.634 READ LOG EXT
60 00 08 98 23 de 40 00 00:00:05.843 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 de 09 40 00 00:00:04.932 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 ce 69 40 00 00:00:04.923 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 48 ce 09 40 00 00:00:04.915 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 1489 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10152 hours (423 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 71 04 9d 00 32 40 Device Fault; Error: ABRT at LBA = 0x0032009d = 3276957

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 08 98 23 de 40 00 00:00:05.843 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 de 09 40 00 00:00:04.932 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 ce 69 40 00 00:00:04.923 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 48 ce 09 40 00 00:00:04.915 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 28 d0 09 40 00 00:00:04.900 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 1488 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10152 hours (423 days + 0 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 71 04 9d 00 32 e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
2f 00 01 10 00 00 a0 00 00:01:34.797 READ LOG EXT
60 00 20 88 2a bf 40 00 00:01:30.665 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 80 2a bf 40 00 00:01:30.664 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 20 88 aa bd 40 00 00:01:22.186 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 80 aa bd 40 00 00:01:21.881 READ FPDMA QUEUED

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Conveyance offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 10151 0
# 2 Extended offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 10151 0
# 3 Short offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 10151 0
# 4 Short offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 10150 0

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

[Nick_CT]

ddrescue can only do so much, with a drive in really bad shape it doesn't have enough control to work around the problems.

Seagate drives have 'offline scanning' which, when the drive is degraded like yours, can cause it to become non responsive. You need something that has adequate control of the drive, or be able to disable this feature.

Ultimately you need a proper hardware imager that can work around this problem. I would urge you to stop trying to get data off it the way you are doing as it will only deteriorate.

I think you need to get some professional help on this case, if it's just imaging that's required it shouldn't be too expensive.

[Vulcan]

@koopa,

As Nick_CT says, a professional hardware imager would likely do a much better job. Unfortunately your drive's SMART data shows the same indications of a failure mode that I've seen on many 3.5" Seagate drives (e.g. 7200.11), in my (non-DR) work. A member here with such a 7200.11 drive, with similar behaviour to your Momentus, reported they were able to use a DDI imager to clone the drive even with that behaviour, after attempts with ddrescue had not been any more successful than yours have been.

If I get another of those failing Seagate drives into my hands, I've got some ideas about how ddrescue could be used (in conjunction with other software) to better cope with this behaviour (which I don't see on Hitachi disks, by the way) - but as Nick_CT said, ddrescue on its own does have limits, and it cannot control the other factors which he mentions.

If this data is important to you, as you explain, then personally I wouldn't take further risks with it by continuing to try ddrescue options (of which there are several). Using the services of a DR company with a DDI unit has better chances of success, based on the report which I mentioned above.

A couple of brief other comments:

I ghosted the drive -> BAD idea, got stuck on bad sectors for 11 hours and 'killed' the drive.

Unfortunately that's probably correct. Using ddrescue at that stage would have had a better chance, if you were going to take the risks of DIY anyway.

"ddrescue /dev/sdj /media/sdi3/test.img /media/sdi3/test.logfile -i0"
this allows me to recover a random amount of data, sometimes 10bytes, sometimes 200Mb

It's impossible to read only 10 bytes from a disk - it's a minimum of 512 bytes (or nothing). You're probably being misled by the averaging being done by the ddrescue live display.

Please tell me what else I can do (before sending it to a data recovery specialist). Swap logic boards?

Based on the symptoms and my experiences of similar 7200.11 faults, then I wouldn't spend time or money on a replacement PCB (and associated activities), as it's probably a waste.

Good luck!

[koopa]

Thanks Nick_CT and Vulcan for your information!

I'm at a loss as to how to proceed, as I can re-do most of the work on the drive in about 100 hours (and maybe do a better job), but I've always had an interest in data recovery (software only solutions, started with "magical undeletes" for friends, led to imaging / MFT rebuild, usb/sd flash controller chip repair, very mild stuff compared to you guys)

I wish to restore my drive, but could not justify the cost to send it to a lab (prices seem to be $500 just to 'diagnose', $2000 for successful recovery). I'd much rather work on experimental techniques, even if that risks the data!

Nick_CT: If you have an interest in this drive, you are more than welcome to it, under no obligation to recover my data (although I'd very much appreciate it and would pay shipping / new drive costs if they were incurred of course!)

So far, I've found one 'solution':
Good news - If I turn off ACPI (back to ATA) and run MHDD 1.4, I can use the ATOF command to image the drive!
Bad news - It is working at 10 minutes per Megabyte, so at this rate it will complete the drive by 2022 D:
(it could be that it's writing to my 9mb/s write speed USB key, which in turn is mounted as "C:\" by HIREN)

So anyone got some hair brained high-risk low-cost solution you'd love to see tried by someone who's seen his share of Magic Smoke?

[northwind]

I wish to restore my drive, but could not justify the cost to send it to a lab (prices seem to be $500 just to 'diagnose', $2000 for successful recovery).

This looks rather out of range to me.
There are labs that will do a free diagnostic to your drive and quote you a price. Then if you accept price they go on with recovery. If you not, you just take your drive back.
Also the price of $2000 for recovery seems a bit high to me. OF course someone must perform accurate diagnostics to know for sure the problem of your drive, but judging by the symptoms you describe i'd say the price for recovery for such drive should be 1/3 of the price you mention, if not less.
Again, it has to be diagnosed to tell for sure, and there could be other serious internal problems to drive which raise cost. But AISI, it should be simple enough for someone with proper knowledge and equipment.

Bad news - It is working at 10 minutes per Megabyte, so at this rate it will complete the drive by 2022 D:

You have been advised to stop tinkering with the drive if you care about the data, which obviously you chose not to follow. If it is a risk you choose to take (ie. drive failing completely and recovery impossible or very expensive) then ok; but my experience with these drives, and as Nick and Vulcan stated previously, is that your drive will fail very soon completely.
For these drives, when they fail, sectors must be read ONCE: When they're being recovered.

Good Luck!

[Vulcan]

@northwind,



@koopa,

Personally I find ATOF in MHDD quite error-prone for large scale copying, as you have to keep track of the output files and LBAs copied in each one, due to file size limitations and the manual process which is involved. Then you have to construct your clone from those files manually.

Also remember that ATOF doesn't include any unreadable source sectors when writing the output file, as well as not creating a log file which you can use for later restarts etc. So how do you know that the file(s) you're creating with ATOF, actually contain anything that you can use later? For these reasons, I have used ATOF only occasionally, and then only on good disks.

As northwind has explained, your decision to do DIY seems to be based on prices you have seen, but not from anyone reputable who has actually diagnosed your disk. I suggest you review that decision, for the reasons which he explains.

Since you say that you are "... at a loss as to how to proceed ..." then it sounds like you are unsure what to do. Therefore I don't want to advise further, until you have definitely decided to risk further DIY and abandon potentially more successful professional recovery.

Good luck!

[koopa]

Thanks Northwind/Vulcan for your information!

Let me categorically state, I will not be saddened if my DIY efforts kill this drive, neither will I blame anyone here - the data is not critical/irreplaceable, it'd just be like finding a few hundred dollar bills in my pants pocket that I didn't know was there if I got it working, and a good chance to learn something from a bad drive, when the results are not critical (means I'll be better equipped to understand the situation when it's something really important). Don't you guys ever just tinker with something beyond your competency for the sake of learning?

The prices I quoted were from the only clean room equipped data recovery service (Payam) in Sydney (I am located in Australia), and the prices are for whether they use the clean room or not. Fortunately I have received offers via PM to fix the drive that are much more reasonable/promising!

I think the way I will proceed is to keep your excellent suggestion of a DDI imager in mind. I get about a drive a year that I have to forensically image (another job I have) or to recover lost files from (friends/relatives) - depending on the cost, perhaps I could purchase the machine and charge something each job to cover the expense? I have trawled both Australian and American eBay, and I can't seem to find any imagers - do you guys know somewhere to get one for a good price (second hand is great if it is from a trusted source)?

Thanks again for your assistance

[poehere]

Sorry nobody sells DDI imagers it is hard to get any of us to let them go. Considering they are in use 24/24 in shops. Most shops own more than one and keep them running day and night in their shops cloning drives.

You can check with Deepspar out of Canada that is where we buy ours. Good luck. You can also look into imagers from Atola also. They have a good small imager that might do the trick for you on this one. I had one drive in similar condition to yours and got it cloned on the Atola. This is another options to look into for you. Good luck and have fun

[BlackST]

Don't you guys ever just tinker with something beyond your competency for the sake of learning?

Not if it can backfire.

The prices I quoted were from the only clean room equipped data recovery service (Payam) in Sydney (I am located in Australia), and the prices are for whether they use the clean room or not. Fortunately I have received offers via PM to fix the drive that are much more reasonable/promising!

With a big "incognita" about the actual drive state

... I get about a drive a year that I have to forensically image (another job I have) or to recover lost files from (friends/relatives) - depending on the cost, perhaps I could purchase the machine and charge something each job to cover the expense? I have trawled both Australian and American eBay, and I can't seem to find any imagers - do you guys know somewhere to get one for a good price (second hand is great if it is from a trusted source)?

With the revenue you should get , a DDI or other solution would be affordable. Unless we're talking about something else. I don't get how forensic examination / jobs can be safely performed without specialized tools , maybe it's Europe...

I don't see other way to get a DDI except from a closing DR business or buying it brand new, but don't expect to pay it 100$ neither 500 nor 1000...

Finally, if you know how 5400.6 and co. work, assuming heads are not completely toast, it's not a problem to pry out data from the drive (albeit slowly, not at the rate you were complaining about). Even without dedicated tools.

To me, the drive had (in the beginning) quite easy-to-fix problems. Now, only a deep analysis (maybe need a coroner rather than a doctor ) can tell .

[crecomp]

Try a quick search on data recovery in Sydney and you will quickly find that there is another company with full clean room facilities on premises available for inspection in Sydney with very fair and reasonable pricing and a free evaluation.

A quick search on google will reveal this.