Should I try and and save these drives?
October 8, 2015 4:51 PM Subscribe
So I have two external hard drives that have issues. I spoke with a local computer repair/data recovery company, they are estimating $350-700 for the pair. The data on there isn't actually worth that much to me. Are there any recovery steps I should try on my own?
Drive 1: 1TB eSATA firewire 800/400/usb2.0. Mounts, and starts to get directory information, but very quickly becomes unresponsive. Can't actually pull any files off.
Drive 2: 500 GB firewire 800/400/usb2.0. Sounds like it spins up, but can't get this one to mount at all.
No strange sounds (no clicking) coming from either drive. Is it worth it to pull the drives and try them in a new enclosure? Is there anything I should try before giving up?
Drive 1: 1TB eSATA firewire 800/400/usb2.0. Mounts, and starts to get directory information, but very quickly becomes unresponsive. Can't actually pull any files off.
Drive 2: 500 GB firewire 800/400/usb2.0. Sounds like it spins up, but can't get this one to mount at all.
No strange sounds (no clicking) coming from either drive. Is it worth it to pull the drives and try them in a new enclosure? Is there anything I should try before giving up?
On both drives check what the low level system logs on your computer say. That you mention these drives have Firewire makes me think you might have a Mac - if that's the case,
There are LiveCD tools which will help you clone drives as close to the bare metal as possible, and will skip read errors and come back later so that you can recover as much as is still read-able.
I agree with andrewcooke - #2 sounds like an enclosure swap might help (or maybe just power supply if it's a 3.5" drive) but #1 sounds like read errors.
posted by tomierna at 5:05 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
tail -f /var/log/system.log and watch closely when you plug each drive in.There are LiveCD tools which will help you clone drives as close to the bare metal as possible, and will skip read errors and come back later so that you can recover as much as is still read-able.
I agree with andrewcooke - #2 sounds like an enclosure swap might help (or maybe just power supply if it's a 3.5" drive) but #1 sounds like read errors.
posted by tomierna at 5:05 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
If they do spin up, then giving them a thump won't help (that's for dealing with stiction, which is largely a non-problem with modern drives).
If you're using Linux, ddrescue (package name "gddrescue" on Debian/Ubuntu) will copy as much of the disk as possible out to a file that you can then fsck and try to recover data from.
posted by russm at 5:22 PM on October 8, 2015
If you're using Linux, ddrescue (package name "gddrescue" on Debian/Ubuntu) will copy as much of the disk as possible out to a file that you can then fsck and try to recover data from.
posted by russm at 5:22 PM on October 8, 2015
TestDisk.
It's the closest thing to magic that actually exists. Seriously. It's fiddly, but it's amazing.
And to be clear, despite the name, it's a kickass file recovery program.
posted by emptythought at 6:48 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's the closest thing to magic that actually exists. Seriously. It's fiddly, but it's amazing.
And to be clear, despite the name, it's a kickass file recovery program.
posted by emptythought at 6:48 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
the first thing i would do is rip the hard drives out of the enclosures and pick up a sata to usb adapter. it's not uncommon for the enclosure to die or start failing before the hard drive and it's a cheap test.
the drive that's giving you directory information and then dying seems a particularly good candidate for this remedy.
posted by noloveforned at 6:54 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
the drive that's giving you directory information and then dying seems a particularly good candidate for this remedy.
posted by noloveforned at 6:54 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Put them in the freezer for a while, then run them with a cold pack while you get the data off.
posted by cosmac at 7:50 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by cosmac at 7:50 PM on October 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
The freezer thing isn't catch-all. It's a last ditch possibility for an issue that these drives don't have, and is more likely to do more damage. So don't do that. Definitely worth pulling the drives and running TestDisk/PhotoRec over it. One caveat with that is that I've had some drives require being connected via the logic-board from the enclosure due to it doing some on-the-fly encryption or something.
posted by quinndexter at 1:33 AM on October 9, 2015
posted by quinndexter at 1:33 AM on October 9, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll try some of this over the weekend...
posted by danny the boy at 10:07 AM on October 9, 2015
posted by danny the boy at 10:07 AM on October 9, 2015
Response by poster: So I've been able to get data off drive 1! I had tried both firewire ports, but never actually tried the USB port. Drive itself seems intact.
Still can't get drive 2 to mount, and I've tried all the ports on that one. Oh, and that one has been making a high pitched whine. That is, back when it was working, I noticed that it had developed the noise. Annoying but didn't seem (at the time) like a "bad" noise.
posted by danny the boy at 6:48 PM on October 9, 2015
Still can't get drive 2 to mount, and I've tried all the ports on that one. Oh, and that one has been making a high pitched whine. That is, back when it was working, I noticed that it had developed the noise. Annoying but didn't seem (at the time) like a "bad" noise.
posted by danny the boy at 6:48 PM on October 9, 2015
Response by poster: That is, the noise was present when the enclosure was powered, and before the drive spun up
posted by danny the boy at 6:50 PM on October 9, 2015
posted by danny the boy at 6:50 PM on October 9, 2015
I think I'd look for a live CD / USB drive with TestDisk - maybe something with a forensics bent, so it doesn't try to mount or fix the disk upon connection. Perhaps try gddrescue, watching for non-responsiveness and power cycling the drive as needed. You could look at drive 2 and perhaps tell if the problem's with the interface or with the drive, by watching the system logs as you plug it in.
Apologies for repeating details from upthread. I'm on a tablet and also exhausted.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:03 PM on October 9, 2015
Apologies for repeating details from upthread. I'm on a tablet and also exhausted.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:03 PM on October 9, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
if it were me, i'd pull them both out of their enclosures, to check the enclosure wasn't at fault (unlikely for 1, possible for 2). then i'd see if i could mount and grab any critical files after cooling them, and after giving them a solid clout (both methods that may help some disks).
i'm used to doing this, and have one of these that makes mounting "bare" disks easy. but you could likely use the remnants of the existing closures.
posted by andrewcooke at 5:02 PM on October 8, 2015