Hard Drive HELL (Unknown, Not Initialized)

[Brillyan10]

I had a WD 2TB external drive which I transferred successfully to a USB 3.0 enclosure months ago. Then I moved and the drive has been packed away in the trunk of my car since.

I just got it out as I need some files on it, and when I hooked it up it didn't work: the computer recognized it as a CD drive or something... in Computer it would not show up or show up as just a drive letter ... in disk management it said No Media. I tried it on another PC too to no avail.

After much research, the most likely solution looked to be to get a new enclosure. So I did, but the drive still isn't working, but in a different way.

When I first hooked it up, all looked well: the system tray showed correct recognition of the drive and enclosure type/brand and installed the drivers successfully.

But the drive no longer shows up in Computer at all, and in disk management it now prompts me to initialize the disk, and has it marked as Unknown, Not Initialized.

I have spent all day trying to fix this problem, and have read a million threads on different sites and tried everything, to no consequence. I need the files on the drive, and have tried all of the following:

- booting in ubuntu and knoppix via cd - drive is not recognized

- every major app for this type of problem i saw recommended: seagate seatools, partition wizard, wd data lifeguard diagnostics, power data recovery, find and mount, a bunch of stuff on hiren's boot cd, test disk, etc.

In most cases, the drive was not recognized at all. In a couple instances it was, but no scans were successful - they would instantly say failed, or complete instantly showing no results.

The drive sounds fine when it is turned on/hooked to the pc: it sounds normal, spins like it should, no weird noises.

I have no idea what to do. The only thing left that I'm aware of is to initialize it (against most of the advice I read) and hope it then at least gets recognized by some of the recovery apps.

But I don't want to lose my data and this seems like an absolute last resort.

Help!

[rogfanther]

Have you tried to connect the drive directly to a computer SATA port ? Then what is the behaviour, messages, etc ?

Also, what was the original enclosure that failed ? Many of them have 512/4k sector translation configurations, or also encryption. That doesn't seem to be the case, but it would be good if you could post the models, and possibly photos of the enclosure boards,.

[Brillyan10]

Have you tried to connect the drive directly to a computer SATA port ? Then what is the behaviour, messages, etc ?

Also, what was the original enclosure that failed ? Many of them have 512/4k sector translation configurations, or also encryption. That doesn't seem to be the case, but it would be good if you could post the models, and possibly photos of the enclosure boards,.

I didn't connect it to a desktop via sata yet. I have an old super slow xp machine around, I can try that.

The original usb 3.0 enclosure was one I got at Micro Center I think, I believe it's Inland brand. I don't see any model # or anything on it - it's silver in color.

The new (current) one is this: https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Aluminum ... B00UAA4J6G

Would a photo of the older one be helpful?

[MindMergepk]

drive has probably FW issue + bad sectors.
search slow-fix on this forum and you will have some info on the problem.

good luck.

[lcoughey]

Don't initialize, for sure. Your best option is to seek professional assistance.

At the very least, if your data isn't worth a few hundred bucks, you should try cloning with ddrescue.

[data-medics]

I have no idea what to do. The only thing left that I'm aware of is to initialize it (against most of the advice I read) and hope it then at least gets recognized by some of the recovery apps.
Help!

Initializing it will only create a new partition table (overwriting the original), and will in absolutely no way help you to get your data back. I all liklihood it'll just fail to initialize anyway.

As Luke mentioned, you can try to use ddrescue in linux (guide here) to image the drive to another good drive. If that fails or the data too important to even risk, then seek pro help. It's most likely a firmware issue, possibly a bad head or two from the vibration during moving.

[Brillyan10]

Ok I will search "slow-fix" on this forum and see what I find.

Regarding ddrescue, will this work despite linux (and basically every windows recovery app) not even seeing the drive?

FWIW I'm using a (fairly powerful) laptop (so no sata connection available). I have a super old, super slow XP desktop around as I mentioned, but it's so slow and ancient that I'm not sure it's suitable for this task.

If I were able to "clone" the drive, its original contents (my files) would be available, in a normal way, on the destination drive?

[fzabkar]

There are several DIY ways to implement the "slow fix", but each method requires that the drive is able to identify itself.

HDDSuperTool can implement the fix via USB.

See https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32501

[Brillyan10]

Update:

I got out my ancient XP desktop and opened it to try to connect the HD. (I know my inexperience is showing here:) The type of connectors inside the desktop didn't match the HD (which I guess is a SATA connection) so that didn't work.

Then I googled sata and esata and realized/remembered my laptop has an esata connection. I have an esata wire around which I've use to connect another HD in the past. But the wire doesn't fit with the problem HD.

Is there a way to connect the HD to my laptop via esata (with some kind of sata/esata adapter) or to the ancient XP machine (like I said I didn't see the right type of connection in there)?

And if so, is this going to get me anywhere? (The post above says that the "slow fix" requires the HD to identify itself, and it hasn't been recognized properly in Windows, Linux, or 90% of the recovery apps I listed in the OP.)

[drHDD]

Could you show picture of drive and box's pcbs which you used with drive?