Hi, i'm am new here and I am trying to figure out the best course of action to try and recover files from my brother's HDD. After a cursory glance over the forums and first posting on reddit about this, I don't think this will be possible, but reddit pointed me in this direction, so I mind as well continue.

The HDD in question is Seagate Barracude 7200.12 1TB Serial Number 9VP5CE56
When trying to boot him Desktop my brother got "error code 0142"

I found some Dell support site pages in reference to the error code, but all they discuss is warranty information.

This is my reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/com ... d_recover/

A user on Reddit told me that if we were getting an error code then it is a mechanical failure and recovery is probably impossible, but before I do anything it would be best to try and properly diagnose the problem.

I have not opened the drive, nor have I connected it to a computer since my brother asked me to try and help him out, I believe he only tried starting his computer 2-3 times after the initial failure to startup. Arguably he only asked me because I seem knowledgeable about this cause I built my own computer. But I would like to know more and learn. Though I am finding that HDD are extremely sophisticated and this will likely be a much larger endeavor than I initially thought it would be.

We would take the HDD to a recovery service but some of the files are of a "sensitive" nature. And that is partially what he wants to recover, along with a few game saves and documents regarding his expenditures.

So the main thing is, I would like to find out how to properly diagnose this drive so i can learn how to properly recover data. I did a quick skim on the forum and didn't see anything relevant, but I probably missed what I was looking for.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

I've assessed at least a dozen 7200.12 drives this month, none of which were DIY recoveries. Be careful what you do...you could easily make a $350 recovery a $1400 recovery or one that is no longer recoverable.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Well I can assure you my brother wouldn't spend 350 much less 1400 on file recovery. Lol. That being said, this is why I haven't tried plugging it in since he handed it off to me. I am worried anything I do will damage it further. I would like to try and diagnose the actual problem tho, which led me to this website http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofth ... hddiag.htm the other day. Before I go ahead and try anything I would like advice if these programs aren't just blowing smoke and would actually be helpful, and if anyone has recommendations on diagnostic programs to use.

Start by hooking up a serial adapter to the drive's terminal port. Hopefully that will provide some useful diagnostic information. I'm assuming the drive is spinning. Don't apply the "7200.11 fix", as it does not apply to your model.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.