Any way to copy data off this dying drive?

[hupjack]

So I was called in to help with my uncle's computer woes.
It appears his IBM 40GB Deskstar is dead.

Trying to boot from it, his intel desktop board reports an error
related to reading the SMART info from the drive. S.M.A.R.T. data
unavailable - or something to that extent..
hit f4 to continue (if you hit f4, bios then says it can't boot from
the drive.)

I booted from a CD Image of the latest hitachi drive fitness test.
Running a quick test found bad sectors. I ran sector repair rather
than wiping the drive, since I want to recover data somehow. After
attempting to repair the bad sector(s), I'm presented with a nice big
RED screen to let me know things are NOT good.

0x70 - defective media
and a technical result code (TRC)

I tried dropping the drive into an external USB case. My goal being to
copy data off the drive to another computer. The system detected the
drive and model properly, but rather than give me access to the data,
I'm hearing what I presume is a repetetive attempt at accessing some
damaged area of the drive.

spin spin spin spin
pause
spin spin spin spin
pause

and so on... and so on...

I didn't figure it would help any, but I opened up the other pc, and
dropped this drive in as a secondary slave. Windows showed the drive
in my computer as a local disk, but when trying to open the drive...

spin spin spin spin
pause
spin spin spin spin
pause

then a popup... the disk in drive G is not formatted.. would you like
to format it now?

I chose no for the time being.

Is there anything I can do to recover data from this drive? Some
utility? some trick to get it to move passed this damaged area and
rover data from the rest of the drive? Or is it beyond the abilities
of a home *power* user like myself? I'll check with my uncle, but I
doubt there is any data on there that was so important, that it would
warrent sending the drive to a data recovery specialist. (though I
have no clue that sorta thing would cost in any case.. maybe it would
be worth it?).

Thanks in advance for any help / advice / info you can provide.
-Ethan

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

So I was called in to help with my uncle's computer woes.
It appears his IBM 40GB Deskstar is dead.

Trying to boot from it, his Intel desktop board reports an error
related to reading the SMART info from the drive. S.M.A.R.T. data
unavailable - or something to that extent.
hit f4 to continue (if you hit f4, bios then says it can't boot from
the drive.)

I booted from a CD Image of the latest Hitachi drive fitness test.
Running a quick test found bad sectors. I ran sector repair rather
than wiping the drive, since I want to recover data somehow.

After attempting

Describe 'attempt' and result of attempt in more detail.

to repair the bad sector(s), I'm presented with a nice big
RED screen to let me know things are NOT good.

0x70 - defective media
and a technical result code (TRC)

I tried dropping the drive into an external USB case. My goal being to
copy data off the drive to another computer. The system detected the
drive and model properly, but rather than give me access to the data,
I'm hearing what I presume is a repetitive attempt at accessing some
damaged area of the drive.

spin spin spin spin
pause
spin spin spin spin
pause

and so on... and so on...

I didn't figure it would help any, but I opened up the other pc, and
dropped this drive in as a secondary slave. Windows showed the drive
in my computer as a local disk, but when trying to open the drive...

spin spin spin spin
pause
spin spin spin spin
pause

then a popup... the disk in drive G is not formatted.. would you like
to format it now?

Probably bad sectors in allocation tables or directories.
DFT doesn't repair those.

I chose no for the time being.

Is there anything I can do to recover data from this drive? Some
utility? some trick to get it to move passed this damaged area and
rover data from the rest of the drive?

Overwriting the bad sectors in allocation tables or directories may
solve that.

Or is it beyond the abilities of a home *power* user like myself?

Nope. Get Findbad from www.partitionsupport.com

 

[hupjack]

After attempting to repair the bad sector(s), I'm presented with a nice big

Describe 'attempt' and result of attempt in more detail.

ok... more detail...

I'm actually doing it again right now.. so that I can give you more
detail.

I boot to CD imaged with the latest Hitachi DFT and run the
quicktest....
test results say "one or more bad sectors" were found..
options at that point are "erase disk" and "sector repair"
I opt for sector repair (which says it will overwrite bad sectors)...

while the sector repair app is analyzing the media.

it does the spin spin spin spin..... pause....... repetition
it's pretty early.. doesn't get very far...

the location that it says it's at when it gets stuck is..
LBA 0x5f3750 (6240064)
if that means anything to you.

so perhaps it's ass you guessed..
bad sectors in allocation tables or directories?

I snagged the technical result code this time...
it's 70006A26

I'll have a go with that findbad application... Is there any value in
trying a "fixboot" when booted from the XP CD and having chosen the
repair option? I saw that on some websites, but I'm not sure if that
comes even close with dealing with my layer of problems.

 

[hupjack]

ok.. now I feel like a boob...

but how the heck do I use findbad?

I tried making a bootdisk and throwing findbad on it.. but it
couldn't see my hard drive,,
perhaps the joe average win9x boot disk can't see ntfs drives?

I just also tried throwing it on a dos boot disk that could speak ntfs
that I snagged here, http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm
but that appears to have locked up...

not sure if I'm being a bone head, or if the drive is in so much
trouble that dos isn't playing with it?

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

ok... more detail...

I'm actually doing it again right now.. so that I can give you more
detail.

I boot to CD imaged with the latest Hitachi DFT and run the
quicktest....
test results say "one or more bad sectors" were found..
options at that point are "erase disk" and "sector repair"
I opt for sector repair (which says it will overwrite bad sectors)...

while the sector repair app is analyzing the media.

it does the spin spin spin spin..... pause....... repetition
it's pretty early.. doesn't get very far...

the location that it says it's at when it gets stuck is..

Did any bad blocks get repaired before that happens?

LBA 0x5f3750 (6240064)
if that means anything to you.

Not really. Is there a partition starting at ~3 GB?

so perhaps it's as you guessed..
bad sectors in allocation tables or directories?

I snagged the technical result code this time...
it's 70006A26

Presumably that's 0x70006A26
0x70 is corrupted sector.

It only shows this code at the repair attempt, not before that?

I'll have a go with that findbad application... Is there any value in
trying a "fixboot" when booted from the XP CD and having chosen the
repair option?

Probably not, as it will likely read first before it writes anything back.

 

[Zvi Netiv]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

[...]

I boot to CD imaged with the latest Hitachi DFT and run the
quicktest....
test results say "one or more bad sectors" were found..
options at that point are "erase disk" and "sector repair"
I opt for sector repair (which says it will overwrite bad sectors)...

while the sector repair app is analyzing the media.

it does the spin spin spin spin..... pause....... repetition
it's pretty early.. doesn't get very far...

the location that it says it's at when it gets stuck is..
LBA 0x5f3750 (6240064) if that means anything to you.

so perhaps it's ass you guessed..
bad sectors in allocation tables or directories?

I snagged the technical result code this time...
it's 70006A26

I'll have a go with that findbad application... Is there any value in
trying a "fixboot" when booted from the XP CD and having chosen the
repair option? I saw that on some websites, but I'm not sure if that
comes even close with dealing with my layer of problems.

There is no point running FIXBOOT (nor FIXMBR) as it's obvious that the bad
sectors aren't even close to the boot sector / MBR area.

What may help is cloning the dying drive on a new one and do the recovery on the
clone (you'll have to replace the bad drive anyway).

Don't waste time on extensive testing of the bad drive as you risk losing it
while you can still clone it.

Regards, Zvi

 

[_B]

Nope. Get Findbad from www.partitionsupport.com

Nice site. I was just trying to compile a list of utilities for an
emergency repair diskette/cd. Looks like those should be included.

Any suggestions for other stuff?