WDC WD20EARS appears ok but no Data..

[pcsel]

Okay I fear the worst with this drive.. this is my first post so be gentle with me... Years ago I used to work for DEC Digital Equipment Corporation as a field service engineer replacing heads on old removable pack drives.. boy this technology has changed.. anyways nostalgia trip over with..

I have a WDC WD20EARS-00MVBO drive that I was using as an external. It is still under warranty and was giving me bad blocks.. well the other day I dropped it a few inches whilst moving some stuff.. (grrr) and now I cannot see any pof the data on there.. there was about 1.3 Tb formatted in NTFS

I can see the drive in BIOS although SMART doesn't want to know about it.. it appears to soin up and I can hear the heads locating.. they don't appear to be struggling..I can see it in disk manager and also in Linux. I have tried to run up ddrescue in Linux and it doesn't want to know.. it just sees it as one 2Tb Error !!

I have also run up MHDD from a USB stick and it says it doesn't support LBA mode and can't see the drive.

Some see the drive okay along with it's geometry but some do not..

I haven't performed ANY write functions on the drive since the incident but would really like to get the data off there..

I don't know what's happened, maybe the heads are not calibrated to the cylinders now but.. Does anyone have any ideas or is it a case of shipping it off to a recovery specialist?

Many Thanks in advance..

Paul

[Vulcan]

the other day I dropped it a few inches whilst moving some stuff
[...]
I don't know what's happened

You've likely caused internal damage by dropping the drive (although the drive may have been sick even before that, based on your comments). Trying to test it afterwards has only increased the risks of media damage.

[To be clear: To minimise further risks to the data, stop powering-up the drive!]

is it a case of shipping it off to a recovery specialist?

Yes - there's no sensible, low-risk, DIY for internal damage. You can start with reputable local members like pcimage who is in Peterborough (check his "signature" for website link to his company).

Good luck!

[einstein9]

Okay I fear the worst with this drive.. this is my first post so be gentle with me... Years ago I used to work for DEC Digital Equipment Corporation as a field service engineer replacing heads on old removable pack drives.. boy this technology has changed.. anyways nostalgia trip over with..

I have a WDC WD20EARS-00MVBO drive that I was using as an external. It is still under warranty and was giving me bad blocks.. well the other day I dropped it a few inches whilst moving some stuff.. (grrr) and now I cannot see any pof the data on there.. there was about 1.3 Tb formatted in NTFS

I can see the drive in BIOS although SMART doesn't want to know about it.. it appears to soin up and I can hear the heads locating.. they don't appear to be struggling..I can see it in disk manager and also in Linux. I have tried to run up ddrescue in Linux and it doesn't want to know.. it just sees it as one 2Tb Error !!

I have also run up MHDD from a USB stick and it says it doesn't support LBA mode and can't see the drive.

Some see the drive okay along with it's geometry but some do not..

I haven't performed ANY write functions on the drive since the incident but would really like to get the data off there..

I don't know what's happened, maybe the heads are not calibrated to the cylinders now but.. Does anyone have any ideas or is it a case of shipping it off to a recovery specialist?

Many Thanks in advance..

Paul

[pcsel]

Yeah thanks.. I have sent off a request for a quote.. I do remember on occasions after going to customer sites and replacing the heads and telling the customer NOT to use the same pack that caused the HDI....only to be called back a couple of days later to find they had done exactly that... Mmmm sometimes it's easier to chew your own leg off and I should have remembered that!!!

[einstein9]

I was referring to ext. hdd as Encrypted hdd btw, nothing else
whatever is the case, good luck,
but you will need a pro. in such a case