Hi,

My girlfriend's laptop recently stopped working after being dropped from about 1.5 feet off the ground. It's been dropped numerous times before with no trouble, but this seems to have been the last straw. I quickly narrowed the problem down to the hard drive, but my limited knowledge of HD recovery has not helped me, so hopefully someone else can shed some light. I'll just detail everything I've done so far and the HD specs.

HD specs:
Brand: Western Digital
Model: Scorpio Blue
Interface: SATA
Model number: WD320BEVS
Capacity: 320GB
Size: 2.5"
Serial number: Can provide if useful for diagnosis

Operational Behavior and steps taken:

1. After being dropped, Sony VAIO laptop stopped booting. It would show the VAIO screen first, then go black with a small DOS cursor, which would move down the screen a couple of lines. Then nothing else happens.

2. If I press Delete during the VAIO splash screen, I get an advanced/ diagnostic boot options screen with surprisingly un-advanced options. It shows me that Windows is installed and is the only OS option. I can run a memory scan (no errors found), or ask to see advanced boot options for Windows. If I request the advanced Windows boot options, behavior is same at #1.

4. Replaced HD with another one from an external USB enclosure. The laptop then tells me there is no OS installed, or no boot record present, which I gather means it is reading the HD fine and just not seeing any OS, suggesting the HD reading problem is not on the laptop side.

5. Removed the broken HD and put it in an external USB enclosure that I know works. Physical inspection of the HD reveals no obvious external damage.

6. Attached USB enclosure to another computer running Windows 7. HD does not show up in Windows Explorer. In Disk Management, it does not show up as a lettered drive (in the top list of drives), but it does show up as a numbered drive (lower portion of screen - see attached screenshot, where suspect disk is Disk 3). In that lower portion of Disk Management, I see three partitions: a 10GB recovery partition (presumably Windows 7 as installed by Sony), a 100MB portion and a 287GB partition. Presumably the 100MB part is the normal system reserved part, and the 287 is the primary partition. However, these latter two do not show any details, and if I right click either and try Properties, I get a message "The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console is not up to date." Refreshing freezes Disk Management.

7. I have tried Western Digital's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics utility, and SalvageData Recovery, and both utilities can sort of see the HD for a while, but freeze up and eventually lose sight of the drive (see physical behavior below).


Physical Behavior

1. When first plugged in, the HD spins up and makes standard (not alarming) clicking sounds like the heads are traveling around or warming up or whatever they usually do. If I pick the HD up I can feel it spinning and feel the normal gyroscopic inertia, i.e. where the HD seems to resist being gently tilted side to side.

2. After about one minute the HD seems to power down with one fairly loud (for the size of the drive) click. After this point, picking up the HD makes it obvious it is no longer spinning, and the HD disappears to all HD utilities I've tried (Disk Management, WD Lifeguard, and SalvageData), and it's after this point that the repair utilities lose sight of the drive and either return an error that the drive can't be found, or simply freeze.



Given all of the above, I strongly suspect that the read heads crashed into the platter when the laptop was dropped. I am just wondering if I should expect to be able to recover any data myself or will I need to send it to a data recovery place, and will they be able to recover anything? Is there any point in opening the drive up? I heard that that destroys drives if normal atmospheric air got into the platter chamber, but maybe that's just computer nerd baloney.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Hi
Nope, it is not baloney, if you open the drive and atmospheric air enters drive internals, then platter will get contaminated and that is something you don't want to happen, assuming you care about the data.
So, don't do it.

After reading your very detailed description, i think your diagnosis of failed heads is 99% correct.
But one must accurately diagnose drive to tell for sure.

Having said that, i'm afraid there is nothing more you can do, but send drive to a pro, who will:
a) Diagnose the drive
b) Examine media for platter damage
c) Estimate recovery probability and cost

If i were you, i would stop all power supply to this drive and send it to a pro.

Forum member lcoughey is from your area and comes recommended.
Good luck.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Agree with all that Northwind just said

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

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

Thanks for the feedback so far!

I'm curious, does the fact that Windows' Disk Management can actually see the number and size of the partitions on the drive mean that the heads are still functioning at least somewhat? Or is that info not stored on the platters themselves, i.e. is it stored on a ROM or something like that?

Also, I've gotten estimates for professional data recovery ranging from $500-$1,500, and even the lower level there is way more than I'm willing to spend. If I was wanting to attempt a headstack swap from another drive, where is a good place to look for an identical drive from which to swap, and is it strictly necessary to have an identical drive?

The part number on this one is G8BC00055320, but when I search for that number I mostly find a lot of expired eBay auctions. Are there any other Western Digital drives that would have an identical headstack that could be swapped in, and if so, how do I find out which ones?

Also, I've seen some posts about connecting to drives via UART - do all drives have UART capability, and specifically does this one? How would I find out where to connect to it, and how much should I expect to be able to glean by doing this?

Thanks again.

I don't mean to be rude, but it seems you have decided to take the DIY route. This means that the chances of you getting data off your drive are ... zero, no offense or anything.

Again, if you care about the data send it to a pro. If you can't afford the pro, store the drive somewhere safe until you can afford it. This is the only chance you have to get working data back.
Otherwise, I wish you good luck.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Your drive will have multiple heads. Just because one head is able to read sector zero, does mean that the heads and the surface are good.

No

If you are not willing to spend possibly less than $500 on a successful recovery, then why would you be willing to spend several hundred to not get your data back?

You need the exact model, DCM and date to be sure that you have a match. Of course, if your drive has only 3 of the 4 heads present, you may have to order multiple drives before you find one with a matching set of heads.

So, as has been said by others, send to a pro or trash the drive.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery