Hard-drive has sort of died..

tang0 · 21 Mar 2017 at 00:14

It's a WD Caviar 500gb. It spins up fine and is detected by the bios but fails to boot into Windows. When it gets to the Windows loading screen I can hear the HDD trying to seek, but it just sort of clicks like it can't fully engage.

Could it possibly be something on the PCB? I could try and find a replacement

KIA · 21 Mar 2017 at 20:16

Do you need to recover data?

tang0 · 21 Mar 2017 at 20:33

Ideally, yes

JTrickle · 22 Mar 2017 at 13:09

I'd try the usual cable swap and in a different SATA port, then on a different machine before trying the old freezer last straw.

KIA · 22 Mar 2017 at 20:29

See if you can use ddrescue to create an image of the drive.

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 00:09

I've tried other ports, and another PC; same thing. I've also tried booting from a Linux USB and it wouldn't detect the drive and threw up errors

Danny75 · 23 Mar 2017 at 05:08

Hot-plugging worked for me with a WD drive. Finally accessed it that way and was able to recover all the data. The system was always unable to find the drive if it was connected during startup but hot-plugging found it straightaway like happens when plugging in an external drive. Some motherboard BIOSes support hot plug (ability to re-assign a Sata port as hot-plug). It's not "necessary" (I've read) because it's an ability every SATA drive/drivers has/have but if you can do that, might as well.

I have no idea how safe this is, or how far down the list of things to try it should be. Just chucking this in as something else to try at some point.

ubersonic · 23 Mar 2017 at 10:33

One thing to try if everything else fails, which has worked for me with clicking drives. Is to put the computer on a desk and run the drive outside the case on it's side, when it begins to click during power on lift it ~1CM off the desk then bang it onto the desk (no more force than you would use to open a chocolate orange), this will usually unjam it.

NB: Obviously this can damage the drive but by the time you get to this stage it's obviously already damaged and this is a good last resort.

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 17:59

Ok, so I've tried hotplugging it and I've tried using a USB 3 caddy and still nothing. I tried a good drive first to make sure the caddy and ports were working.

I also tried dropping it as it tried to engage, still nothing

Is the next step a PCB swap?

koolpc · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:15

Dynamite would be a good option.

brigantium · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:21

Swapping PCB and soldering your original PCB firmware is definitely not simple but, if HDD doesn't spin up, you have nothing to lose.

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:22

When it's in the caddy and I plug the USB in, it's then when I can hear it trying to engage and makes the faint double ticking noise

The HDD does spin up normally though

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:25

Apparently drives older than 2008 don't need to have a firmware swap, and the WD Caviar RE2 was made in 2005, so if I can find the same PCB it should work right?

Silly that I was still using a drive that old and not making a backup really.. ;/

brigantium · 23 Mar 2017 at 18:38

If it spins up it's a gamble, it might work if it's not a mechanical issue. I have an HDD that needs (at least) PCB replacement + firmware and still haven't found any reliable place that can do it.

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 19:23

I MIGHT BE ON TO SOMETHING, NEED HELP!!

I just loaded RS Studio in Windows and it has detected the drive! Im scanning for files and it's bringing up these errors

Read disk at position 0 failed after 1 attempts. Data error (cyclic redundancy check) (23)
Read disk ASMT 2115 0 at position 0 failed after 1 attempts. Data error (cyclic redundancy check) (23)
Read disk ASMT 2115 0 at position 512 failed after 1 attempts. Data error (cyclic redundancy check) (23)
Read disk ASMT 2115 0 at position 1024 failed after 1 attempts. Data error (cyclic redundancy check) (23)
Read disk ASMT 2115 0 at position 1536 failed after 1 attempts. Data error (cyclic redundancy check) (23)

etc etc

I have no idea what to do next

brigantium · 23 Mar 2017 at 19:40

Well, now it's reporting all sectors as unreadable/damaged. You could try http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk to save what you can if it can recognize anything logical on it but something physical isn't working.

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 20:34

It's just coming up with read errors everywhere, I can't even hear the drive doing anything :/

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 21:09

It's also coming up in Computer Management and asking if I want to initialise disk. I'm guessing if I do that it'll create a new partition and make any attempt at recovering files even harder

Edit: Nm, I tried doing that and it just wouldn't work. Something physical is buggered, RIP

tang0 · 23 Mar 2017 at 22:58

Sending to Kroll Ontrack

Danny75 · 24 Mar 2017 at 02:17

tang0 said:
Sending to Kroll Ontrack

It's hilarious Kroll Inc/Marsh & McLennan (parent orgs) actually have a data recovery service. Didn't know they had one till you mentioned it.

Am surprised this article from the Sydney Morning Herald is still findable online: http://www.smh.com.au/news/business...the-private-cia/2005/06/24/1119321904732.html