Hi,

I have reserached this a lot but cannot find the solution, or i may not have the knowledge to fully understand what im reading.
Heres my problem.

I have a SATA 1GB external disk (USB powered). ITs a "my passport" version WD.

Clue1: when i connect it to windows it tries to install it for a lot of time and at the end it says tha its ok.
Clue2: the disk does not appear on my computer
Clue3: the disk appears in Disk management but shows disk usage -30MB and it asks me to initialize it
Clue4: i have tried running many data recovery programs that rebuild MBRs but all crash on recognizing the disk, they do noteven start on the recovery

One of those tools recognised the disk and outputted "MBR needs to be fixed" but stuck there.

From what i understand, i assume that a corrupted MBR is one of the least serious problems when dealing with corrupted/crashed/non working hard disks since the data its still on the disk.

i have tried running HDD RAW COPY TOOL that you have here. It recognisesthe disk as source, i tried to create an image but it stays at 0% sector 128 and then crashes... (the image file created is also 0bytes)

any help appreciated

Thanks in advance for your help

edit: the HDD RAW COPY continued and outputted "
READ ERROR OCCURED AT OFFSET 0, LBA 0 *(The device is not ready)
Read ERROR OCCURED AT OFFSET 65,536, LBA 128 ( THE DEVICE IS NOT READY)
Read ERROR OCCURED AT OFFSET 131,072 LBA 256 ( THE DEVICE IS NOT READY)
Read ERROR OCCURED AT OFFSET 196,208 LBA 384 ( THE DEVICE IS NOT READY)
Read ERROR OCCURED AT OFFSET 262,144 LBA 512 ( THE DEVICE IS NOT READY)
Read ERROR OCCURED AT OFFSET 327,680 LBA 640 ( THE DEVICE IS NOT READY)

If there is way i can get the data without rebuilding the MBR that would be great too

Your hard drive very likely has bad sectors, HDD RAW Copy will not help you in this case, rather might do thing worse.
Also, it could be some bad or weak head that can make recovery much more difficult.

If you have important data on your hdd, send it to a pro. Pro can do an hardware clone which can deal with phisical issue and change heads if needed.

P.S.
Don't try to fix MBR, will do thing worse if you do that.
Better solution is to clone it, then access to your data from clone drive.

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

thanks for your reply

I will ask a question on which i know the answer but i will try.

a) are hard disk heads interchangeable between vendors?
b) if im VERY careful, can do the head swap myself? assume that i have the right tools, the right place and be CAREFUL

thanks

also, is it possible that ALL sectors on a hard disk are bad? Could that indicate a bad head? Because i run a software that checks for bad sectors and it showed that every single sector is bad

No, is hard to find correct Heads (marching parameters from drive)




If you do not have tolls and correct enviroment, i must say probably will break heads, but in case of rigth place and tools skills are needed and very probably heads down.

Probably

Hi ,

check ur hdd at linx

I agree in all with 'hhddrec'.

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

thanks for your replies



does gparted work for USB drives?

fdisk -l does not show it

lsusb shows it

dmesg ouputs these while reading the disk :


151.384162] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[ 152.082797] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=0730
[ 152.082821] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 152.082833] usb 1-1: Product: My Passport 0730
[ 152.082845] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Western Digital
[ 152.082854] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 05B8V44EF6F6A944
[ 152.346592] usb-storage 1-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 152.347918] scsi6 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0
[ 152.348452] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 154.297090] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD My Passport 0730 1008 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 154.298775] scsi 6:0:0:1: Enclosure WD SES Device 1008 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 154.300109] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 154.300828] scsi 6:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13
[ 174.346530] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Spinning up disk...
[ 205.012188] usb 1-1: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[ 205.717872] ses 6:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device
[ 235.868093] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 235.972073] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.076052] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.180065] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.284070] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.388078] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.492070] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.596073] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.700104] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
[ 236.804081] usb-storage: Error in queuecommand_lck: us->srb = ffff88007f43b4c0
e.t.c

Yes. Gparted does not make any difference of a USB drive, a drive-image or a motherboard attached drive. They're all the same, sort of.

lsusb showing it means the PCB/ROM is fine. fdisk not showing it means either broken sectors, bad heads, or both. Hard to say which is the case for you. If there has been a head crash I surmise the damage will increase everytime the drive is powered-up, but I'm just a happy amateur taking a guess so the other gurus on here will have to deny or confirm this.

@kevinSTIr, can you retrieve a SMART report, eg with CrystalDiskInfo? I suspect that this won't be possible, and that your drive is only identifying itself via the bridge firmware.

If your drive has internal problems related to firmware, then there are inexpensive DIY possibilities, but they are a little tedious.

See viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29500

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.