Hello, this is my first post here and I'm happy to find such a great community of people who share their knowledge! Thank you for the possibility to ask a question.

Recently I faced the problem which I can't still resolve, though I've spent some time investigating the case.
My slave storage drive failure happened when the system was up. The error was "Can't write $mft". BIOS still detects HDD but with long delays up to 10 seconds. Windows fails to mount logical drive. DMDE can read sectors and shows root directory.

HDD contains no critical information, just vast multimedia collection. Professional recovery is not reasonable, so I'm ready to try DIY approach. I don't care about HDD itself, making copy would be more than enough. The problem with raw copy is that drive became very slow and fails to detect itself or show S.M.A.R.T. sometimes.

It's a pity I couldn't get TTL cable and use terminal connection for diagnostic. But I've got familiar with MHDD and Victoria and here are some results.

Model: ST1000DM003
PN: 1CH162-302
FW: CC46
DATE: 13354
Site: SU

1) HDD info (Hdd detects with delay and can print some rubbish)


2) S.M.A.R.T. values seem to be OK (there's also a 4-5 seconds delay or just error without delay)


3) Linear surface test (it gives different results every time) The same picture is for starting, middle and last areas of HDD. Random surface test fails permanently.


4) Controller/buffer test (this test also gives errors and different results every time it runs)


HDD produces its usual noise, no suspicious sounds. These errors during controller/buffer test make it believe that it's PCB failure, but no visual defects detected. (see attachment)


Is it possible to make suggestion about what's up with this HDD?
Is it PCB, firmware or mechanical failure?

Do you know any HDD Raw Copy program that can make copy of specified area (I mean pointing out starting and ending sectors). It may be helpful if copy operation is too long at can't be completed at once. Logging the numbers of sectors that failed to copy would be also great feature.

Thanks for reading, and even more thanks for answers )

bad sectors + firmware issue
or
bad sectors + weak heads
or
bad sectors + weak heads + firmware issue

No pcb issue because you are accessing to sectors, if pcb was faulty you wouldn't access to sectors in Victoria.

Without any professional tools as DE or DDI i would start to clone sectors on a new drive via DOS utility as Mediatools Prosoft or DMDE.
TTL adapter can help for further inspection and for handling firmware issue as for g-list clearing (full g-list might case slow speed reading).

If after clearing g-list you still have slow reading speed all over platters surface then very likely would mean that some head is weak.
I think weak heads is very probably because:
1) sometimes the S/N of your drive is not detect!
2) bad sector reading on different part of drive surface

_________________
My firmware database:
https://mega.nz/folder/O01DkBRI

You need to disable retries and reallocation.

See http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?t=557


The "rubbish" seems to be the result of Victoria trying to process an Identify Device sector consisting of "BAD<space>", ie "42h 41h 44h 20h" or "20 44 41 42" (little endian).

For example, "LBAs: 541344066" corresponds to ...

541 344 066 = 0x20444142


I don't know why you think the SMART values are OK.

The Reallocated Sector Count is reporting 2880 bad LBAs (probably 360 bad physical sectors).

Attribute 187 is reporting 439 Reported Uncorrectable Errors.

There are 40064 Pending and Offline Uncorrectable Sectors.


Ddrescue is designed for this purpose. It clones the drive in multiple passes, starting with the easiest sectors and leaving the more difficult ones for subsequent passes. It also keeps a log so that it can resume after an interruption.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

michael chiklis and fzabkar, thank you so much for your replies!
I was thinking about PCB replacement, but you saved my time and some money )
I definitely need TTL adapter to disable retries and reallocation because "Reallocated Sector Count" in S.M.A.R.T. constantly increases its value. Ddrescue is also a good hint, thanx a lot!

Hi deric!

You must Disable retries and realocation but you nned at least a TTL adapter.
maybe clear g-list needed too, and maybe maybe clear smart needed too

but maybe heads problem too, in tha case you need repalcements, in that case i recomend you to externalize case