I have a bad/damaged hard drive that had Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS installed on it, and per suggestions in the Ubuntu Forums, I was going to try and use ddrescue on it to clone it to another drive and see what I could get going with it. Unfortunately, now it's not even being detected by a LiveCD boot (the bad/damaged drive itself is connected via a USB SATA enclosure). Any ideas what I can try to get it back to being detected?

Just some more information - it was previously detected, and I unplugged it from the computer while I was in Ubuntu via LiveCD so that I could wipe the other drive (which is installed in the computer) and make sure that I didn't accidentally wipe the bad/damaged drive. And now, since doing that, it isn't showing up at all (after reconnecting it, and even after rebooting the LiveCD).

Thanks!

maybe the enclosure got damaged, have you you tried direct access ?
is the HDD spinning ?
is there any unusual noise coming from the HDD ? (clicking knocking beeping...)

if the above is OK it could be weak\bad heads (not a DIY)
BTW you didnt mention the HDDs model ...

Yup - plugged it directly into a computer and the BIOS shows it as "Unknown"



HDD appears to be spinning and no unusual noise coming from the unit that I can tell



Sorry about that - it's a Seagate Barracuda 2 TB (ST2000DM001)

So anything else I could try to get it working? Thanks!

Given the model that it is (DM Series), probably has firmware issues such as the media cache bug or possibly failing heads. Definitely going to need pro tools to handle it, sorry to say.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Darn, oh well. Can you advise what you mean though about "given the model that it is (DM Series)" ?