Hi, I have 2TB WD drive (WD20EARX)
that died recently. I have important files on it that I want to recover.
The drive comes ready in MHDD, however the scan shows bad sector after bad sector, not even one block without it (at least in the first 5 min).

So, I tried to clone it (sector by sector + recovery) using Clonezilla, but even after 1 hour, the cloning is stuck on 0%
(it does move, but so slow that it looks like it will take few weeks to finish).

I am afraid that this cloning will only damage the drive more. should I continue it?
Maybe Clonezilla is not the right tool in this case?

Please help,
Qshadow.

I think you first need to clear the relo-list...then try to image the drive again.

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Maybe bad head/s too.

Nothing can be done with software imagers.
You will need to check all FW modules first, fix the problem and then start imaging.

_________________
Sistrum Data Recovery
http://www.sistrum.mk/en

@Qshadow

viewtopic.php?t=31401&f=1&start=0#p218235


+++

If this is HW problem (eg head, or chip) I am done. I will take it to professionals, although it will cost me a fortune.

So I would like to try first any possible SW solution first.

If it is FW modules, can i solve it by SW (eg burning new/special FW?)


Could clearing relo-list damage my data in any way?
And if it is safe, what tool does it (I googled but found nothing).

Regards,
Qshadow.

Certainly agree with you, however in this particular case my data although valuable, but still had some backup few month ago.
So I am only risking loosing any changes made in the last few months, which for this particular drive were rare.
So, I need to find some balance between recovery cost and lost data.
Regards,
Qshadow.

DR costs often depends on the area you live in.

What might costs $ 100,- in one country, could be 300,- to 700,- in another country.

Ask for a pro in your area here in the forum (and perhaps change your location
statement as member) - to get a recommendation for a diagnosis.

Reputable DR companies often offer such a diagnosis for a very low amount, and
if you then let them do the work, its taken as down payment.

+++

Nothing can be done with SW. You will need professional DR to recover you data. Best advice now i s to stop playing with this drive.

_________________
Sistrum Data Recovery
http://www.sistrum.mk/en

No, if done properly it will not harm your data.
Of course it can be a bad/weak head as well...check the drive in different lab's...to see if it will read some sectors. But don't play to much with it if the data valuable.
Where do you live?

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

I live in Israel, last time my HD failed I used professional services (recover.co.il) and payed around 600$ to recover my data (also 2TB WD),
they said that was SW only problem, that why the price is "low".
Of course, first i tried to do it myself, but programs like R-Studio, couldn't do anything.
And of course I compared prices between several companies, so it was a normal price for a big firm few years ago.
Maybe freelancer can do it cheaper (but unfortunately I am not familiar with any).

I will try to go and check tomorrow how much it will cost me, again the data is not super valuable since it is not my main HD and i have 3 month backup,
it is enough for me to recover at least only the directory structure with timestamps , so I could know what exactly was lost, and maybe I can recover the files from elsewhere. I almost managed to do it by using
"RoboCopy" with /CREATE
that Creates only a directory tree with zero-length files

but after successfully copying one of the root dirs, I am now stuck with "Data error (cyclic redundancy check)" on the second one.
Any ideas how can I at least copy this? maybe somehow copy only NTFS MFT files?

Regards,
Qshadow.






I am sure there should be some tool for this.