Hi all,

On of my 2 TB HDD (formatted in NTFS) felt on the floor (the disk was
off when it felt).

At first, it looked as if the disk was still working fine but after
one month of use, the disk began to fail and I completely lost access
to my data a few days ago.

Thanks to ddrescue (a wonderful Linux recovery tool), I was able to
copy the recoverable data to another brand new 2 TB HDD and thanks to
some data recovery tool, I recovered about 1/3 of my data from the
copy.
(hopefully, all my personnal data was backed up so I only lost GB of
recorded TV shows ;-))

Actually, it seems that the more I try to read the damaged disk, the
more it becomes unaccessible.

I would like to find a way to reformat it so I can use the undamaged
area of the disk.
I tried the WD low-level format/erase tools, tried almost all the
tools provided on the UBCD 5 but none of these tools work.

I am pretty sure that my HDD is unrecoverable but if anyone one know a
tool which could help me, he would be welcome !

Thanks in advance.


Here is a snapshot of my current SMART data:

WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0

ID Current Worst
ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 179 179 51
2977 ok
(03) Spin Up Time 253 201 21
1000 ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 0
228 ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 183 183 140
334 warning
(07) Seek Error Rate 200 200 0
0 ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 100 100 0
403 ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 0
0 ok
(0B) Calibration Retry Count 100 100 0
0 ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 0
189 ok
(C0) Unsafe Shutdown Count 200 200 0
158 ok
(C1) Load Cycle Count 200 200 0
826 ok
(C2) Temperature 116 106 0
34 ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 197 197 0
3 warning
(C5) Current Pending Sector 200 199 0
0 ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 200 200 0
1 ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 200 0
0 ok
(C8) Write Error Rate 200 200 0
1 ok

Castor Nageur wrote:

> On of my 2 TB HDD (formatted in NTFS) felt on the floor (the disk was
> off when it felt).

> At first, it looked as if the disk was still working fine but after
> one month of use, the disk began to fail and I completely lost access
> to my data a few days ago.

> Thanks to ddrescue (a wonderful Linux recovery tool), I was able to
> copy the recoverable data to another brand new 2 TB HDD and thanks to
> some data recovery tool, I recovered about 1/3 of my data from the copy.
> (hopefully, all my personnal data was backed up so I only lost GB of
> recorded TV shows ;-))

> Actually, it seems that the more I try to read the damaged disk, the
> more it becomes unaccessible.

> I would like to find a way to reformat it so I can use the undamaged area of the disk.

Its far from clear that there actually is an undamaged area of the disk.

If the fall caused some damage that produced a head crash when the
drive was used after the fall, there may well be a significant amount of
debris floating around inside the drive and thats whats producing the
symptom you are seeing of it become more and more inaccessible.

> I tried the WD low-level format/erase tools, tried almost all the
> tools provided on the UBCD 5 but none of these tools work.

What do you mean by work ? Nothing will allow you to use the
undamaged area of the disk if there is no undamaged area of
the disk because debris is floating around in the drive.

> I am pretty sure that my HDD is unrecoverable

Yep, bet it is.

> but if anyone one know a tool which could help me, he would be welcome !

There is no such animal if debris is floating around in the drive.

> Thanks in advance.

> Here is a snapshot of my current SMART data:

> WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0
>
> ID Current Worst
> ThresholdData Status
> (01) Raw Read Error Rate 179 179 51
> 2977 ok
> (03) Spin Up Time 253 201 21
> 1000 ok
> (04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 0
> 228 ok
> (05) Reallocated Sector Count 183 183 140
> 334 warning

Thats a hell of a lot of reallocated sectors and has
likely exceeded the capacity of the bad sector map.

> (07) Seek Error Rate 200 200 0
> 0 ok
> (09) Power On Hours Count 100 100 0
> 403 ok
> (0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 0
> 0 ok
> (0B) Calibration Retry Count 100 100 0
> 0 ok
> (0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 0
> 189 ok
> (C0) Unsafe Shutdown Count 200 200 0
> 158 ok
> (C1) Load Cycle Count 200 200 0
> 826 ok
> (C2) Temperature 116 106 0
> 34 ok
> (C4) Reallocated Event Count 197 197 0
> 3 warning
> (C5) Current Pending Sector 200 199 0
> 0 ok
> (C6) Offline Uncorrectable 200 200 0
> 1 ok
> (C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 200 0
> 0 ok
> (C8) Write Error Rate 200 200 0
> 1 ok

On 27 déc, 19:16, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thats a hell of a lot of reallocated sectors and has
> likely exceeded the capacity of the bad sector map.

Yes, you are probably right :-( (I just expected that I could save a
little of this HDD I just bought $100 6 months ago).
I always dreamed of opening a HDD and see how it is made inside (even
if plenty of photos of opened HDD exist).
I can now achieve my dream ;-) and therefore I will see how much
damaged it is.

Castor Nageur <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi all,

> On of my 2 TB HDD (formatted in NTFS) felt on the floor (the disk was
> off when it felt).

> At first, it looked as if the disk was still working fine but after
> one month of use, the disk began to fail and I completely lost access
> to my data a few days ago.

> Thanks to ddrescue (a wonderful Linux recovery tool), I was able to
> copy the recoverable data to another brand new 2 TB HDD and thanks to
> some data recovery tool, I recovered about 1/3 of my data from the
> copy.
> (hopefully, all my personnal data was backed up so I only lost GB of
> recorded TV shows ;-))

> Actually, it seems that the more I try to read the damaged disk, the
> more it becomes unaccessible.

> I would like to find a way to reformat it so I can use the undamaged
> area of the disk.

Forget it. There is no "undamaged" area. Damage due to mechanical
shock always is head or bearing damage, affecting the whole
device. The defective data is just an indirect effect of that.

Arno
--
Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: (E-Mail Removed)
GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
----
Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans

In article <2aa03937-723a-400a-83fd-(E-Mail Removed)>, Castor Nageur <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On 27 d=E9c, 19:16, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thats a hell of a lot of reallocated sectors and has
>> likely exceeded the capacity of the bad sector map.
>
>Yes, you are probably right :-( (I just expected that I could save a
>little of this HDD I just bought $100 6 months ago).
>I always dreamed of opening a HDD and see how it is made inside (even
>if plenty of photos of opened HDD exist).
>I can now achieve my dream ;-) and therefore I will see how much
>damaged it is.
>
>
>
If there is no sign of physical damage to the outside, contact the
manufacturer and get that thing replaced under warranty.

On 28 déc, 18:49, Winniethep...@100acrewoods.net (GMAN) wrote:
> In article <2aa03937-723a-400a-83fd-983f9bfcb...@32g2000yqp.googlegroups.com>, Castor Nageur <guilbert.stab...@gmail.com> wrote:>On 27 d=E9c, 19:16, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Thats a hell of a lot of reallocated sectors and has
> >> likely exceeded the capacity of the bad sector map.
>
> >Yes, you are probably right :-( (I just expected that I could save a
> >little of this HDD I just bought $100 6 months ago).
> >I always dreamed of opening a HDD and see how it is made inside (even
> >if plenty of photos of opened HDD exist).
> >I can now achieve my dream ;-) and therefore I will see how much
> >damaged it is.
>
> If there is no sign of physical damage to the outside, contact the
> manufacturer and get that thing replaced under warranty.

The disk has absolutely no external sign of damage.
Thanks for telling me this before I open it and definitely lost the
warranty :-)
I am just going to try to wipe what can be wiped because I do not want
to send my personal data to some unknown people.

In article <eb36e0b8-73a7-472d-a3f7-(E-Mail Removed)>, Castor Nageur <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On 28 d=E9c, 18:49, Winniethep...@100acrewoods.net (GMAN) wrote:
>> In article <2aa03937-723a-400a-83fd-983f9bfcb...@32g2000yqp.googlegroups.=
>com>, Castor Nageur <guilbert.stab...@gmail.com> wrote:>On 27 d=3DE9c, 19:1=
>6, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >> Thats a hell of a lot of reallocated sectors and has
>> >> likely exceeded the capacity of the bad sector map.
>>
>> >Yes, you are probably right :-( (I just expected that I could save a
>> >little of this HDD I just bought $100 6 months ago).
>> >I always dreamed of opening a HDD and see how it is made inside (even
>> >if plenty of photos of opened HDD exist).
>> >I can now achieve my dream ;-) and therefore I will see how much
>> >damaged it is.
>>
>> If there is no sign of physical damage to the outside, contact the
>> manufacturer and get that thing replaced under warranty.
>
>The disk has absolutely no external sign of damage.
>Thanks for telling me this before I open it and definitely lost the
>warranty :-)
>I am just going to try to wipe what can be wiped because I do not want
>to send my personal data to some unknown people.
>
Good idea. If not possible, i wouldnt sweat it as the manufacturers dont have
a habbit of doing that. But if possle, do a wipe at least using some program
like this free one. Dont let the name fool you , its not a true llf like in
the old days. Its as close as one can get, it wipes the drive.



http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-...l-Format-Tool/

On 28 déc, 23:41, Winniethep...@100acrewoods.net (GMAN) wrote:

> Good idea. *If not possible, i wouldnt sweat it as the manufacturers dont have
> a habbit of doing that. But if possle, do a wipe at least using some program
> like *this free one. Dont let the name fool you , its not a true llf like in
> the old days. Its as close as one can get, it wipes the drive.
>
> http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-...l-Format-Tool/

Thanks for the tool, I am going to try it.

I just filled the RMA so I can return the disk to WDC.
I wrote "H.S" (~ "out of order" in English) on the disk label with a
pencil so I do not confuse it with a good disk (I have many Caviar
Green HDD at home). The label is still perfectly readable. Do you
think writing on the disk could cancel the guarantee ?

In article <56941aa6-119d-4b8f-bcd4-(E-Mail Removed)>, Castor Nageur <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On 28 d=E9c, 23:41, Winniethep...@100acrewoods.net (GMAN) wrote:
>
>> Good idea. =A0If not possible, i wouldnt sweat it as the manufacturers do=
>nt have
>> a habbit of doing that. But if possle, do a wipe at least using some prog=
>ram
>> like =A0this free one. Dont let the name fool you , its not a true llf li=
>ke in
>> the old days. Its as close as one can get, it wipes the drive.
>>
>> http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-...l-Format-Tool/
>
>Thanks for the tool, I am going to try it.
>
>I just filled the RMA so I can return the disk to WDC.
>I wrote "H.S" (~ "out of order" in English) on the disk label with a
>pencil so I do not confuse it with a good disk (I have many Caviar
>Green HDD at home). The label is still perfectly readable. Do you
>think writing on the disk could cancel the guarantee ?
Just wipe it off before you put it in the box to ship to WD.

On 29 déc, 18:41, Winniethep...@100acrewoods.net (GMAN) wrote:

> Just wipe it off before you put it in the box to ship to WD.

Impossible, this is the pencil with the permanent ink I use for
writing on my cds.
I am going to try. I will only lose the postage if it does not work.