Dead Samsung HD502HJ 500GB SATA

[lestatblade]

Hi !! I am having a really BIG problem trying to save a hdd, samsung hd502hj, my OS us win7 64x, had no problem with this hdd and then suddenly after a checkdisk the hd was gone !! Booting up takes a lot when it lists the hdd in my pc, i get a f1 to resume and a message from the hd saying that it is smart capable but command failed. Win7 disk management cant initialize the drive, it gives me a "Data error (cyclic redundancy check)". Ontrack easyrecovery gives me a I/O error on various sectors, including sector 0. HDD Regenerator gives me a "MBR is currupt". Tried hutil, shutil, and seagate tools with no avail, full of errors, tests not available. Drevitalize cant repair the damaged sectors, it finds them but cant repair them. Partition Guru doesnt see the drive. Easeus Partition Recovery says the drive is unwritable. Partition Wizard cant repair the MBR. Tried with tools from Hirens Boot Cd, Wondershare Liveboot and Ultimate Boot CD with no success. HDAT2 hangs, never could load the software from a boot cd. I am really quite desperate, i work as a computer technician and had a couple of hard disk drives come to me with errors and could save the data or repair them with these tools, but this one (this hdd is mine for personal use, all my family photos, music, books, work, etc) is making my head want to explode. Do you have any suggestions on what to do ?? Any help will be very appreciated !! Thank you all !!

[SAjunky]

Possibly firmware corruption, turned read-only, but not sure from your report. I don't know Samsung, but it is perhaps similiar to Seagate, WD, etc. Try to find information whether your drive can be repaired from diagnostic interface. Stop diagnosis, your usual tools won't help, put it aside to the moment you know what to do... or give up and pay for the job....

[lestatblade]

Hi SAjunky !! thanks for the reply !!
I will try the firmware update, but will that end up in data loss ???
Is there a special software to check the diagnostic interface ?? I tried with samsung DOS utils and Seagate tools (Sansumg HDD is now part of Seagate), they have updated their tools to support samsung hdd too. On the Seagate tools i cant get advanced test to start, it says "Test Unavailable" and in basic tests all fail. Thanks for the help, i post about the firmware update and its results.

[labtech]

Do not do a firmware update as in a "flash firmware update" as you may encounter a lot of people trying to do on the Web.

Not a good idea.

[pcimage]

Hi SAjunky !! thanks for the reply !!
I will try the firmware update, but will that end up in data loss ???
Is there a special software to check the diagnostic interface ?? I tried with samsung DOS utils and Seagate tools (Sansumg HDD is now part of Seagate), they have updated their tools to support samsung hdd too. On the Seagate tools i cant get advanced test to start, it says "Test Unavailable" and in basic tests all fail. Thanks for the help, i post about the firmware update and its results.

SAjunky said the firmware could be corrupt, not needs updating. DO NOT TRY IT!!

Fw updates are for working drives, to repair fw on a broken drive requires specialist equipment and the right knowledge.

There is nothing else you can do DIY I'm afraid

[SAjunky]

Is there a special software to check the diagnostic interface ??

Hardware: - RS232C to LVTTL converter (5-10USD) or USB to serial converter.
Software: - any COM interface console, Windows Hyperterminal by example.
Need general understanding how firmware works and details of HDD firmware, research on the net, but information is very fragmented. One mistake or missunderstanding and say good buy to data.
Separate power supply for HDD is handy. When you connect terminal, don't do anything stupid, just capture boot messages. Post here, (sometime) you get positive response, not just "hand it over to 'PRO'".

Other questions answered above

[dick]

In the first post I see you have tried a whole range of different tools which was really a bad idea!
A simple diagnostic would be best then depending on the result you would move to the next stage which would depend on the outcome.

You need to run some simple tests using Mhdd or similar. Remember to set bios to ide/ata mode.

Check drive details: model name/number, serial number and capacity.
Check smart attributes info
Run surface scan and be prepared to stop or jump the scan if required.

Maybe you can't run all these tests but you should still report back with the results.

Good luck!

[lestatblade]

Hi !!! Thank you all for your help !! =)
Ok, i checked again my samsung with mhdd and other test tools that come with hirens bootcd. All tools tell me that the disck has ALL bad sectors, not one has been found, didnt finished all the tests, it is the only computer that i have at home and this test can take a lot of time. All that can recognize the drive (not all do) give me the correct info about it, Samsung, 500gb, firmware: 15A10001, SN, etc. Have tried to analize with TESTDISK and it suggests me that it is a EFI GPT disk (that could be the reason that some tools dont recognize it, or that it is completly unusable), trying to analize as a INTEL gives me MBR error, as EFI GPT it starts but apparently hangs the program and it finds two partitions MS Reserved with the exact same information in start and end sectors and two other partitions MS Data with same sector information too (start, end and size).
Tried booting with a ubuntu live cd, to try to analize with gparted tool for gpt disks and it never starts, gives me tons of errors. Tried with a gdisk live cd and just a blank screen.
Thank you all for your help, at this point i am quite sad because i am realizing that recovering my info will take a miracle. Recovering services from companies are not present in my country, only overseas, and veeeeery expensive.