Hi there,

i have a Samsung MP0804H HDD which doesnt initialize. I connected the drive with a normal 2.5" to usb adapter and it shows under disk management as "Drive 5, not initialized". If i try to initialize, it says "device not ready" and a system event error from Virtual Disk Service is generated saying "VDS fails to write boot code on a disk during clean operation. Error code: 80070015@02070008".

The disk was running perfectly normal until the laptop was opened due to a police investigation in which the drive should have been cloned. The details exactly how the drive was damaged are unknown to me.

I also tried various recovery tools:

Testdisk doesnt show the drive at all.
R-Studio shows the drive as "GenericVoid Disk9.02" (i think this is the name of the usb adapter), but doesnt let me do any tasks.
Gparted doesnt show the drive at all.
mhdd shows the drive, but all commands (I, ID, EID, Scan, etc.) give me the same "device not ready" message.

this is my first posting here, so plz let me know what data i can provide u with additionally to clarify the drives status or what i could possibly do to recover any data at all.

ty

edit: if its of any use to you, the hdd is a rev. A with firmware UE100-14

Guess your first step should be to speak to the police & let them know it now doesn't work.
If they did clone it then you might be able to get your data back from them.


Loki

I also agree you should do that, as that might be damaged to the point that you'll need professional help to recover.

Feel bad...

Just because it is police, it does not mean they know what they are doing. It probably went through a few pairs of hands and not every person would know how to handle a laptop/hdd.

If this is your property I would demand a chain of custody document and what had been done on it report.

Or demand a replacement new drive.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

ok i shouldve pointed that out more clearly in my first post...

the police "tried" to get the hdd out of the laptop for cloning (dunno why they didnt just clone via usb) and bricked the drive themselves somehow in the process, how exactly is unknown to me and the police wont tell those details either. the only option they gave the driveowner (ex-girlfriend of me) was to send the drive to a professional data recovery firm which made an estimate of costs at several hundred euro... when my ex-gf refused to pay, she got the laptop and the faulty drive back without any repairs.

they also kind of "threatened" her, that she should be happy that the drive got bricked, because of all the "evidence" they had found there (whatever that means, the laptop was mainly used for studying, pictures, music etc.) i think those "threats" were told to scare her away from pursuing this matter any further, and it worked somehow, because she doesnt want anything to do with the police anymore.

so thats that. are there any means that i, as a private IT-affine guy, without such things as hd doctor at hand can do, to get anything back from that harddrive?

Nothing much you can do on your own.

At this point, you would need professional help to determine what is wrong with the drive.

All of the tests you ran and have posted results for led to dead ends. Nothing to work with. If the drive does not ID correctly, then DIY is over.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

ok then... i thought there might be anything i didnt know how to do, since i only used the beforementioned tools until now and i got a link referring to this forum, because there could be ppl here that might know more things i could do :/

maybe ill contact the police on my own and try to get any info regarding the issue... but i think that will be a dead end too.

thx anyways

Just to be sure of what problem your drive has you should go into a DR company who doesn't charge diagnosis fee and in the end you'll know at least what is the real problem.

i just did that, ill know more in 1-2 days.

Ok.
Let us know the results.

It's nice to know that we are encouraging people to send their drives off to DR companies JUST to get a free diagnosis and a repair/recovery plan. I for one am only too happy to provide a FREE diagnosis and recovery plan for a clients drive, but at least I like to feel that I have a chance of winning my quotation and NOT just providing a DIY'er a heads up.

Sorry....... just my 2 cents....

_________________
East Anglian Data Recovery Services
http://www.eadr.co.uk

"If it's your only copy - then it's not a backup!"

With you all the way on that one Steve.

On more than one occasion people have come to me after recommendation on this forum for a quote, which has been declined (even at a heavily discounted price), then they are back on the forum again wanting help after they've tried DIY and f***ed it up good and proper. Those sort of tight-wads deserve all they get IMHO.

That said, I do get a lot of GENUINE referrals from this forum, and have been successful in recovering virtually every one that has come to me

So, a big thank you to the 90% of the genuine decent hddguru community and thumbs-down to the time-wasting tight-fisted minority!!

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

We charge diagnostic fee in those cases and only those cases, but in most cases we don't charge diagnostics fee at all, but its listed on our website.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

hi all
i have a hdd Fujitsu model MHZ2320BH this is showing password on mhdd and Victoria
i tried for clear password but it's showing fw corrupt
can anybody halp me how can do it i don't have fw also
thanks

Which tool did u use to clear pwd?

@DR seagate:

You are asking a totally new question. Therefore you should start a new thread, if you want people to notice your question. IMHO on most forums, it is generally "frowned upon" to attempt to hijack a thread, like you are doing here.

ok, first off, i told the data recovery guy beforehand, that i dont know if i can afford a repair, depending on the price. he said the minimum repair price would be 300€, which i would probably have accepted. he also told me to get back to the police and let them pay the costs, because they bricked it.

directly after giving the drive away for diagnosis, i went to a specialized lawyer and asked him, if it would be possible to charge the police for the recovery and he replied, that in those cases, the police is only required to pay for a replacement drive, but only, if the value of the broken item exceeds a price of 23 eur. in case of lost data, the police is not required to pay for a recovery, because in the laws opinion, everyone is supposed to do regular backups to avoid dataloss. he added, that no lawyer could get around that fact and i would have to pay myself.

i then got the email regarding the diagnosis back (on the same day even, so, common, that was hardly a great loss for the data recovery guy -.-)

he concluded, that parts of the "HDA unit" and electronics within the inner physical unit are affected and a recovery would take 4-5 days and would cost 780 eur. a price i cannot and will not pay.

since the drive is dead as it is now and professional help is out of the question, is there a chance to transfer the platter to a identical working hdd (which i could obtain for a small fee) or is there any documentation available about this matter? or maybe just replacing the electronics board?

i know i will probably kill the drive for good in the process, but theres nothing to lose at this point. i have some old hdds to practice on before going for the real thing.

i googled a bit and replacing the pcb should be relatively easy compared to a platter transfer. i just removed an OUTER pcb from an old hdd within minutes. could anyone provide me with infos regarding where exactly the "HDA unit" and the electronics (its "ansteuerelektronik" in german, after reading a bit, that should be the firmware) lie? would it be sufficient to replace the outer pcb or do i have to open the drive entirely? help is much appreciated.

mäh... just realized, that hda is the hard disk assembly unit which consists of the most difficult things to repair i think... damn, i want this fixed, just for personal satisfaction ^^

PLEASE listen :

1) Remote diagnose is IMPOSSIBLE.
2) At this point, as nobody knows (except someone....) what was done to the HDD, it is necessary to assume it is completely DEAD and diagnose it COMPLETELY...
3) ... but this requires the necessary know how and extremely expensive equipment.
4) If you can't afford the recovery of data you have to wait until you can afford it wrapping the disk in safe envelope and storing it (data won't escape from the disk) ....
5) ... but if and only if it has not completely been destroyed or bricked / fiddled up beyond repair ( in a nutshell the disk is FUBAR ) - see point 2.
5 bis) Don't expect to get a complete diagnose and report FOR FREE from nobody - unless this person is on "pro bono day" or has too much time in his hands. But on these times........
6) Nobody can point you to anywhere where you can't get by yourself reading stuff on the internet (and this include bullshit too, unfortunately) because it would mean give away proprietary info AND in any case it would require equipment for diagnose that you could not even think about to afford. Even us need money, damn ! - and not only for personal satisfaction
7) In any case, as "fortuna audaces iuvat" (= luck helps who dares) you can always make some experiments, the only cost to pay, just in case, is to make things worse.

Good luck.

1. there was no "remote diagnose" damnit, the drive was diagnosed by a professional recovery firm and the diagnosed defects were hda unit and firmware damage - do u mean they lied to me about that? X_x

2. they HAVE that "extremely expensive equipment".

3. i will never be able to afford this much for it (at least not before winning the lottery or sth), because the data is not as important as that amount of money. nevertheless i would love to have it back somehow.

4. if it gets completely destroyed, so be it, i dont care. at least ive tried. i didnt think to get that data back since last week, when i got hold of the drive - so i mentally closed the matter long ago. getting the data back would just be a lucky turn of events.

5. the diagnose wasnt "complete" at all. besides from telling me, that the firmware chip got damaged, they only told me that "parts" of the HDA unit were damaged. that could be anything.

6. in the meantime i declined the offer for repairing the drive for 780 eur and i almost immediately got a response telling me they would now repair it for only 580 eur as a gesture of goodwill. THAT made me suspicious. i mean, they dont know me or sth. and suddenly the repaircosts are dropped as much as 200 eur? I think, the damage is not as severe as they would let me believe. i mean the diagnosis was finished in half a day, and their 100 cleanroom is not here in hamburg but in berlin, so they definitely didnt open the drive - i think a pcb replacement with an equal drive could fix this. AND replacing the pcb is non invasive.

7. even 580 eur are too much money to pay, i wouldve thought about it for 300 eur (their minimum price), but i dont have a job right now and no savings, so - no thx.

8. i just asked for some advice/documentation of diy repairs and even on THIS homepage, there are some picture documented things, like the "head stack replacement" -> http://hddguru.com/articles/2006.02.17- ... k-Q-and-A/

i thought maybe there are some more links you could point me to - why are you so stubborn in giving help for free? i just cant afford to pay such amounts of money, the data was mainly studyfiles (outdated), pictures (would be nice to have them back), music (most of it regained anyway) and some php files i wrote, which would be nice to have back, since i dont want to rewrite them - BUT, theres no "valuable" stuff on there. i just want to try my luck and maybe get some insight into hdd repairing.

X_x