I have a failing WD2500. The drive spins and sounds normal, and is recognized by the computer ONLY if I have the jumper on the C/S setting, but the system is slow anytime I hook up this HD.

In a previous thread about this HD someone said I should attempt to image it with Media tools. I have tried the cycle- clone/image feature of this program and the first time the drive started to be copied but the estimated time soon went to over 2000 hours so I aborted this attempt. I then tried to reverse clone it with the same program (cycle-clone) but it never started to clone and the program was only getting read errors. I then tried the Boot / Partition repair in Media tools and got the message:
No repairable file system found. This is an indication of corruption beyond boot sectors and partition.
I next tried the File Tree Recovery of Media tools and got this message:
No valid file system found.

The only software program the I have found that is willing to attempt to recover/fix the HD is OnTrack Easy recovery. Should I let this program have a shot at a repair??? Shouldn't I just stick to attempting to image the drive and leave the repair alone since I am not a professional? Is this drive beyond repair, or should I take it in for professional data recovery?

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do next? I do have an WD1200 (my failinh HD is a WD2500) that is identical in PCB and model numbers and 3 days off in manufacturing date that I am very willing to sacrifice if needed.

Hmm, sounds like the drive has some serious issues.

If your data is important then I would admit defeat and send to a professional for evaluation, before it packs up entirely.

Where are u based? US?

If it starts to image, then it's very doubtfull the PCB is at fault.

Sounds like bad head/media or some sort of firmware/translator problem.

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Because the only thing I am really able to do with it is let OnTrack Easy recovery attempt to fix it I also believe the drive has serious issues. If the data is irreplaceable am I foolish for letting Ontrack Easy recovery attempt its fix?

PcImage: I am located in the San Francisco Bay area, USA. Does anyone know of any good data recovery specialists in this area?

I have been reading about "hot swapping" on this forum.

Does anyone think that a hot swap on this drive will help me? I already have the donor drive, but it is a WD1200 instead of WD2500. Other than that it is identical.

Sailor,

In order to do hotswap, you first need to copy essential modules from the defective drive to the donordrive.
Without the proper tools you cannot do this. At least PC3K pci is neccessary for this drive.
But reading your description, very well possible hotswap is not neccessary, and pc3K alone is enough.

I think you should seek professional help for this case.

Best regards,

Dobre

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Hot swap won't work.
If your drive is not clicking, it is seen in BIOS and you can't get a single sector from it then most likely it's a firmware corruption...
You need PC3000 or Salvation Data to fix it. There are no other work-arounds, sorry