Hi Folks,

I have two identical Western Digital 250GB hard disks which were previously in a RAID array in a Lacie D2 BigDisk enclosure (which died). When I examine them individually, I end up with one showing up at it's accurate 250GB value, and the other at a truncated 128GB. I have used MHDD, and found the following information being reported:

Disk 1 (Incorrect):

Reported size: 137,437,904,896 bytes

From RPHA Command:
LBA: 268,433,408
Native Maximum LBA adress = 488,397,167


Disk 2 (Correct):

Reported size: 250,058,637,312 bytes

From RPHA Command:
LBA: 488,395,776
Native Maximum LBA adress = 488,397,167


It appears that the physical parameters on this disk (1) are incorrect, and I need to change them and restore the data from my disk. I have tried swapping the driver cards from the good HD (disk 2) to the bad one (disk 1), and it still shows the same values. I don't care about continuing to use the disk, I just need to be able to read everything so i can get my data back.

Any ideas how I can use to change the disk parameters of the
incorrect disk, or at least a method I can use to retrieve the (raw)
data? Perhaps there is a way to copy the servo zone from one to the other since they were once identical (as parameters are concerned). I tried to perform an NHPA command with a failure result. Since then, I have read that it may be a bad idea to perform an NHPA on the bad disk. since I suspect this is a corrupted configuration sector rather than a created HPA. I never intentionally created an HPA, and I haven't found any utility to determine the existence/size of one if that's what is causing the size mistake. I'm guessing that this size alteration happened when I put the disk in a controller which didn't support 128GB+ drives. MHDD does report that HPA is supported.

I have also tried doing a CONFIG command and hitting enter on every option, with no success (Device Error) as well.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Eric

First ensure that you have removed all jumpers from both drives;
Then try NHPA, but in the following way: attach power connector to the drive AFTER mhdd loads.

_________________
Dmitry

I just tried that. Here's what happened:

booted system and loaded MHDD (selected an empty slot for HDD since none were powered).

1. Powered drive and used PORT to select it. Then:

2.
MHDD>nhpa
WDC WD2500JB-00FUA0 LBA:268,433,408
SN:WD-WMAEP3488811 FW:15.05R15 CACHE:8192KB Size = 131071MB
Init drive: Done
Do you want to set Native LBA adress? (y/N) <typed Y>
Read NHPA...
Native Maximum LBA adress: 488397167
* Continue? (y/N) <typed Y>
Working...
Fail. Try to re-power HDD.
Done.

3. I then re-power the HDD (take out the power cable and plug it back in). I check the size size. It is still the same
4. I perform above (2 and 3) again with same result.
5. Finally, I EID the drive to see that the params are still the same.

I'd use config to fix this, but when I did this before (just hitting enter on each line as I had read in a previous post), I got:

Calculating new checksum...
Writing changes to the drive...
Device error.

Le sigh. Any other ideas?

Many thanks!
Eric

Hi Umop,
Maybe U can solved this problem with learning ,reading & trying last topics about wd in this forums.
-How to checked Moduls, How to repaire & whats the tools to use.
-How to rewrite damage moduls, without make damage data.
-How Hot Swap Methods, and when u must use this methods.

This Questions, can follow you to make understand that u wd have similar problems with wd problem in this forums... And then u can get solutions from yourself.
The good tools to repaire hdd is your experience & your friends experience.