Hard Drive Recovery Advice

Adamcp898

I have a 1TB Western Digital portable hard drive that I can't access. The drive had minimal use (was only used for intermittent backups - few years old) but when plugged in does not show up in My Computer. When I enter Disk Management it appears but I'm told is not initialised and needs to be so if I'm to use it, only to my knowledge this would in turn erase all data from the drive?

I've done some googling and downloaded multiple programs that claim to be able to recover data from uninitialised disks (EaseUS, Wondershare RecoverIt, Remo, Stellar Data Recovery) but only Stellar can actually see the disk and even at that doesn't appear to be able to scan it for existing partitions on it. This is of course only using the free trials of all those programs but none would appear to be able to recover data from disks without first initialising it.

So I'm wondering what are my options here before going down the professional route? Would downloading a particular version of Linux enable me to recover data (have minimal experience with it however and would need to be able to boot it from a burned disc or USB)

degsie

You could try to remove the drive from the enclosure and direct connect to a computer using the appropriate cables.

SchrodingersCat

Degsie is right. That would discount the issue being with the cable or USB controller in the caddy. You could try a different caddy if you had a second external hard drive that you didn't mind opening up too.
Linux is great, but the Windows file recovery applications that you mention should be fine to search the drive with.

Adamcp898

degsie wrote: »

You could try to remove the drive from the enclosure and direct connect to a computer using the appropriate cables.

SchrodingersCat wrote: »

Degsie is right. That would discount the issue being with the cable or USB controller in the caddy. You could try a different caddy if you had a second external hard drive that you didn't mind opening up too.
Linux is great, but the Windows file recovery applications that you mention should be fine to search the drive with.

Haven't taken it apart to try with another caddy because unfortunately I believe some of those Western Digitical portable drives actually have the USB controller directly attached and you can't just pop off the adapter and hook it up.

This is the worrying part, that it can be seen in disk management as uninitialised, but no recovery program can see it at all (except the one I mentioned and even it can't seem to search for partitions on it)

For reference sake, it's this drive:
https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Storage/dp/B006Y5UV4A

smuggler.ie

This one look like with build in USB controller. "Poor move" by WD



How old is the drive?


Did you contact WD for support, if still under warranty they might assist with data recovery or at least replace drive.
https://support-en.wd.com/

Adamcp898

smuggler.ie wrote: »

This one look like with build in USB controller. "Poor move" by WD



How old is the drive?


Did you contact WD for support, if still under warranty they might assist with data recovery or at least replace drive.
https://support-en.wd.com/

I put the drive at roughly 4/5 years old so unlikely to be covered by any warranty unfortunately. It was bought to act as a backup for work that was finished roughly 3/4 years ago, and only intermittently at that. A final backup was put on it roughly 12-15 months ago as the machine it had backed up was being re-purposed but it hadn't been touched since.

I've since tried accessing the drive through "System Rescue CD" Linux distribution and it doesn't appear to be recognised there in it either so things aren't looking good at this stage.


I'm wondering that if nothing can be recovered from it, even though it was formatted along with a fresh install of Windows, is it possible to recover the data from the hard drive in the laptop it used to back up or are we into eye-watering amounts of money now?

smuggler.ie

Adamcp898 wrote: »

I'm wondering that if nothing can be recovered from it, even though it was formatted along with a fresh install of Windows, is it possible to recover the data from the hard drive in the laptop it used to back up or are we into eye-watering amounts of money now?

If you still have access to original data source, why bother with recovering backup.
If original disk was formatted and fresh Win installed - consider its gone.

pah

Have a look at FTK imager

https://marketing.accessdata.com/ftkimager4.2.0

In the menu choose "add evidence item" tick physical drive and see if it shows up as an option to add in the list of drives. If you can add the drive see if you can browse the filesystem using the tree structure on the left. It may show as unrecognised if corrupted.

Adamcp898

pah wrote: »

Have a look at FTK imager

https://marketing.accessdata.com/ftkimager4.2.0

In the menu choose "add evidence item" tick physical drive and see if it shows up as an option to add in the list of drives. If you can add the drive see if you can browse the filesystem using the tree structure on the left. It may show as unrecognised if corrupted.

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately the drive is indeed appearing as "unrecognized file system."

riclad

Try any linux live cd,
an live iso fits on a cd 700meg disc.
boot from disc , linux loads up ,click on drive 1000gig ,https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-retrieve-windows-files-using-a-linux-live-cd/

drive = SDA1 or sda2 1000gig
Mint linux is a good one .
or see does partition magic from ubcd ,see the drive.
ie ultimate boot cd.
Press f2 or del key, boot up pc.does it show up in the bios as a 1 tb drive.

pah

Could be a lost cause

Best chance here IMO is photorec. It will carve data for you but will dump that in folders as it finds files. It won't retain metadata or original filenames though.

*Was it ever used with a Mac for backup

Firblog

Format the drive, it will then be recognised by windows, then you can run the data recovery software which will recover the 'deleted' files. I normally use getdataback which normally works when you tell it that the drive was formatted.

Firblog

smuggler.ie wrote: »

If you still have access to original data source, why bother with recovering backup.
If original disk was formatted and fresh Win installed - consider its gone.

Not so, got 100GB of photos/video from laptop that had O/S reinstalled and had been used for couple of weeks. The space is only marked as empty, the data is not deleted.


However if the longer the machine is used the less data you'll be able to recover.

riclad

If you format the drive use the option quick format,
click the box marked quick format


https://www.freetv.ie/how-to-quick-format-external-hard-drive-in-windows/

this will make it easier to recover files ,rather than using the default full format command

riclad

Go to bios ,set fastboot to Off .
it may give the drive extra time to boot up.
i use mint linux live cd to fix old drives or recover data .
It fits on 1 cd 700meg cdr.
Or try ultimate boot disk ,its a live cd with lots of utilitys on it.

https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/data-recovery-software/


https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
you can set it to search for file type,
jpeg, avi, mp4 etc


I find recuva easy to use ,
it lists all files , red = lost damaged file.
green = files in good condition.
tick all the green files you want , then start, recover. ok.

Adamcp898

Thank you for all your suggestions. I didn't have as much time at the weekend to work with it as I thought I would.

Alas, I tried to initialise the disk so that I could reformat it and go about recovering the data that way. But unfortunately I can't even do that. I get the error "The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error" which is I guess why none of the Linux distributions or recovery software I've tried can even "see" the disk.

I'm guessing this also means the disk is close to being a lost cause as in it's quite possibly a mechanical failure? Does anybody have any knowledge of going about data recovery in such instances, as in are we talking hundreds or thousands to attempt?

While there is no pressing, immediate need for the data, it was a lot of personal work and research that does represent some personal value and at the very least I'll most likely buy a second similar drive and attempt to swap the drive heads myself should the professional route prove to be prohibitively expensive.


As for the drive where the original data was stored. I ran some recovery software on it and it actually can find some of the original files, even after over a year's use, but unfortunately most appear to be corrupt. It's fairly disheartening to see the original file names popping up and then realising the file can't be opened anyway. Unless anybody has any bright ideas to go about finding a solution to the issue that way?

riclad wrote: »

Try any linux live cd,
an live iso fits on a cd 700meg disc.
boot from disc , linux loads up ,click on drive 1000gig ,https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-retrieve-windows-files-using-a-linux-live-cd/

drive = SDA1 or sda2 1000gig
Mint linux is a good one .
or see does partition magic from ubcd ,see the drive.
ie ultimate boot cd.
Press f2 or del key, boot up pc.does it show up in the bios as a 1 tb drive.

pah wrote: »

Could be a lost cause

Best chance here IMO is photorec. It will carve data for you but will dump that in folders as it finds files. It won't retain metadata or original filenames though.

*Was it ever used with a Mac for backup

Firblog wrote: »

Format the drive, it will then be recognised by windows, then you can run the data recovery software which will recover the 'deleted' files. I normally use getdataback which normally works when you tell it that the drive was formatted.

Firblog wrote: »

Not so, got 100GB of photos/video from laptop that had O/S reinstalled and had been used for couple of weeks. The space is only marked as empty, the data is not deleted.


However if the longer the machine is used the less data you'll be able to recover.

riclad wrote: »

If you format the drive use the option quick format,
click the box marked quick format


https://www.freetv.ie/how-to-quick-format-external-hard-drive-in-windows/

this will make it easier to recover files ,rather than using the default full format command

riclad wrote: »

Go to bios ,set fastboot to Off .
it may give the drive extra time to boot up.
i use mint linux live cd to fix old drives or recover data .
It fits on 1 cd 700meg cdr.
Or try ultimate boot disk ,its a live cd with lots of utilitys on it.

https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

https://www.sodapdf.com/blog/data-recovery-software/


https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
you can set it to search for file type,
jpeg, avi, mp4 etc


I find recuva easy to use ,
it lists all files , red = lost damaged file.
green = files in good condition.
tick all the green files you want , then start, recover. ok.

riclad

Boot up pc,press del or f2, or f12 to go to setup,
see does it show up in bios,
set boot order to 1 drive,c, 2 cdrom d, 3 hdx ,
hdx =faulty drive.
turn on heating in the room.
for 30 minutes ,
before you boot up pc.
you could buy an identical drive,
eg seagate 1030ltc and switch around the drive pcb board.
post the model of your drive here.
eg seagate 500llx.
old hard drives are cheap to buy on adverts.ie or ebay ie

riclad

Turn on pc ,click on bad drive,
put your hand on top of the drive case,
jumper on drive should be set to secondary mode,
not primary mode.
if drive is working you should feel a slight vibration as the heads move around.
is drive 3.5 or 2,5 inch ?sata or ide type drive

https://www.dummies.com/computers/pcs/how-to-set-jumpers-for-your-computers-ide-drive/


https://www.datarecovery.ie/

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/use-jumpers-sata-hard-drive-69047.html

drives made after 2002 should not use jumpers if its a sata type drive.


https://www.cpumedics.com/seagate-st31220a-1-8gb-5-4k-ide-3-5-hard-disk-drive-hdd/ old ide drives have pins at the back to connect to a cable,

Adamcp898

riclad wrote: »

Boot up pc,press del or f2, or f12 to go to setup,
see does it show up in bios,
set boot order to 1 drive,c, 2 cdrom d, 3 hdx ,
hdx =faulty drive.
turn on heating in the room.
for 30 minutes ,
before you boot up pc.
you could buy an identical drive,
eg seagate 1030ltc and switch around the drive pcb board.
post the model of your drive here.
eg seagate 500llx.
old hard drives are cheap to buy on adverts.ie or ebay ie

riclad wrote: »

Turn on pc ,click on bad drive,
put your hand on top of the drive case,
jumper on drive should be set to secondary mode,
not primary mode.
if drive is working you should feel a slight vibration as the heads move around.
is drive 3.5 or 2,5 inch ?sata or ide type drive

https://www.dummies.com/computers/pcs/how-to-set-jumpers-for-your-computers-ide-drive/


https://www.datarecovery.ie/

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/use-jumpers-sata-hard-drive-69047.html

drives made after 2002 should not use jumpers if its a sata type drive.


https://www.cpumedics.com/seagate-st31220a-1-8gb-5-4k-ide-3-5-hard-disk-drive-hdd/ old ide drives have pins at the back to connect to a cable,

Thanks for your help. I've linked the drive below but it's a WD portable hard drive and, unfortunately going from the youtube video I've also linked, the USB connector is directly connected to the board and so there's no SATA connection that can be used to put it into another caddy or any other method of connecting it.

https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Storage/dp/B006Y5UV4A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBenRlPzb_s


When connected, the power light comes on and you can hear the drive begin to spin but unfortunately there's also a clicking sound you hear three times before it gives up trying to read. This is why I'm thinking it's a mechanical failure of the drive head and that the only way to recover anything now is to attempt to replace it. I've contacted the recovery business you linked for a rough estimate.

degsie

The big lesson here is to keep backups on harddisks/thumbdrives/DVD/NAS/cloud or moon!

riclad

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/205798/drive+won't+show+up+and+making+clicking+sound


qoute from link above

I had this same issue, computer gave ERROR CODE: 2000-0141, HARD DRIVE:- NO DRIVE DETECTED' and the hard drive was making a skipping clicking noise.

Turned off and on a few times, no change, put the hard drive in another machine, no change.

Hit F12 to go into boot setup, of course hard drive not detected and it makes crazy beeping noises and drive still clicking away. I cancelled the drive search so it was just sitting in this white screen diagnostics menu. After a while, maybe 10-20 minutes all of a sudden the clicking stopped and drive sounded normal. I rebooted, and everything was fine. I guess the spinning drive got stuck and while clicking away trying to spin it eventually unstuck itself. Not the best solution and I'll try to update if it "dies" again, but wanted to share.




https://community.wd.com/t/wd-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-in-my-computer/6787/13



qoute ;

But to avoid this issue in the future, I knew I had to put the drive in a new enclosure. Thankfully I had a spare SATA enclusure handy and so I put the Passport drive in there. Since doing that, the drive has been running like a champ. NO DISCONNECTS. Zero. What’s more, it seems to be more responsive in terms of transfer speed and browsing files on the drive. I should have done this earlier as I knew about the problem for a few months. I can only chalk this problem up to poor quality control.The mini USB port that WD put in this model of the Passport is of poor quality.

Be careful, as I have read that not all WD Passport drives can be extracted from their enclosures … that some of the newer models have the USB port permanently attached to the drive which prevents you from re-using the drive in a notebook and also from putting it in another external exclosure. But my Passport is R/N: B7B and these can easily be taken out of the plastic enclosure that it comes with. Look on the back label for the R/N number. For instructions on how to take apart this model, do a search on YouTube for “Western Digital Passport disassembly” and look at the video by the person called “amerist” … his instructions are easy to follow.



https://community.wd.com/t/wd-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-in-my-computer/6787/22

try connecting it to A laptop ,or a pc in a internet cafe

qoute ;
I used the second user profile on my computer I created yesterday with the help of an apple person as a test to make my iPod function properly (control panel>users>create new-“test”-make sure it is an administrator). This user has only the basics so that may have helped the software sort through all the confusion. I attached the drive again and it still said the same but after waiting a few minutes and bringing up the WD smartware program it rescanned the drive itself and found the files. It asked if I wanted to scan and fix and I said yes. Now it is telling me that it may have been removed while copying files. I don’t believe this to be the case, but I could be wrong I suppose. I made sure to remove the drive after clicking the remove safely thing.

Anyway, i have went back to the other user, my original, (i have decided to keep “test”, aparently it is quite useful) and reattached the drive and it works fine now. with the one exception that the cord is still ultra sensitive and will disconnect easily when wiggled or sometimes i think even looked at to intently!



https://community.wd.com/t/wd-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-in-my-computer/6787/38


wd support forum

https://community.wd.com/c/wd-external-drives/external-drives-for-pc



https://community.wd.com/t/my-book-external-hard-drive-not-working/243734




https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-fix-external-drive-blinking-but-not-detectable-issue/

Adamcp898

riclad wrote: »

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/205798/drive+won't+show+up+and+making+clicking+sound


qoute from link above

I had this same issue, computer gave ERROR CODE: 2000-0141, HARD DRIVE:- NO DRIVE DETECTED' and the hard drive was making a skipping clicking noise.

Turned off and on a few times, no change, put the hard drive in another machine, no change.

Hit F12 to go into boot setup, of course hard drive not detected and it makes crazy beeping noises and drive still clicking away. I cancelled the drive search so it was just sitting in this white screen diagnostics menu. After a while, maybe 10-20 minutes all of a sudden the clicking stopped and drive sounded normal. I rebooted, and everything was fine. I guess the spinning drive got stuck and while clicking away trying to spin it eventually unstuck itself. Not the best solution and I'll try to update if it "dies" again, but wanted to share.




https://community.wd.com/t/wd-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-in-my-computer/6787/13



qoute ;

But to avoid this issue in the future, I knew I had to put the drive in a new enclosure. Thankfully I had a spare SATA enclusure handy and so I put the Passport drive in there. Since doing that, the drive has been running like a champ. NO DISCONNECTS. Zero. What’s more, it seems to be more responsive in terms of transfer speed and browsing files on the drive. I should have done this earlier as I knew about the problem for a few months. I can only chalk this problem up to poor quality control.The mini USB port that WD put in this model of the Passport is of poor quality.

Be careful, as I have read that not all WD Passport drives can be extracted from their enclosures … that some of the newer models have the USB port permanently attached to the drive which prevents you from re-using the drive in a notebook and also from putting it in another external exclosure. But my Passport is R/N: B7B and these can easily be taken out of the plastic enclosure that it comes with. Look on the back label for the R/N number. For instructions on how to take apart this model, do a search on YouTube for “Western Digital Passport disassembly” and look at the video by the person called “amerist” … his instructions are easy to follow.



https://community.wd.com/t/wd-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-in-my-computer/6787/22

try connecting it to A laptop ,or a pc in a internet cafe

qoute ;
I used the second user profile on my computer I created yesterday with the help of an apple person as a test to make my iPod function properly (control panel>users>create new-“test”-make sure it is an administrator). This user has only the basics so that may have helped the software sort through all the confusion. I attached the drive again and it still said the same but after waiting a few minutes and bringing up the WD smartware program it rescanned the drive itself and found the files. It asked if I wanted to scan and fix and I said yes. Now it is telling me that it may have been removed while copying files. I don’t believe this to be the case, but I could be wrong I suppose. I made sure to remove the drive after clicking the remove safely thing.

Anyway, i have went back to the other user, my original, (i have decided to keep “test”, aparently it is quite useful) and reattached the drive and it works fine now. with the one exception that the cord is still ultra sensitive and will disconnect easily when wiggled or sometimes i think even looked at to intently!



https://community.wd.com/t/wd-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-in-my-computer/6787/38


wd support forum

https://community.wd.com/c/wd-external-drives/external-drives-for-pc



https://community.wd.com/t/my-book-external-hard-drive-not-working/243734




https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-fix-external-drive-blinking-but-not-detectable-issue/

Thanks for your continued suggestions. For reference sake I've found a video of a hard drive which is making the same sound, only perhaps a little slower but that is probably because it's a different make etc:

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/490366/Hard+drive+not+working,+making+clicking+sound.

One of the suggestions in that thread appears to be that it's having difficulty reading the platters, but I've no idea if there's any quick fix to that? I'm guessing not.


I had wondered could it be a power issue of sorts but I've tried the hard drive with three different laptops and two different cables. It "clicks" three times then stops attempting to read on all. I also connected it to the USB port on a TV and the TV appears to continually "force" it to keep trying to read, as in the "clicking" keeps going even after three attempts, but alas it is never found. I'm reluctant to leave it connected for a prolonged period of time in case it causes even more damage to it.

degsie

If you are curious as to why it is clicking and assuming you are happy it has given up the ghost, you could carefully take the cover off and plug it and watch it do it's thing. I've even seen youtube videos where the heads can be moved to the home position and the user managed to get it working for just enough time to retrieve data!

smuggler.ie

I guess this would be one of the last attempts...

riclad

i had an old sata drive 250gig ,
the only way i could use it or acess the data ,was by plugging in a y cable,

y cable has 2 usb a , one input usb socket .
plug 2 usb cables into 2 pc usb ports .
turn on pc.wait 2 minutes for os to load up ,windows 7, 10 etc
plug wd drive into usb lead socket.

output voltage is the same, using a y cable Increase,s the power avaidable if the drive wants to use it to boot up



https://superuser.com/questions/1022764/is-there-any-danger-when-connecting-a-usb-y-cable



Technically, there is pretty much zero risk of anything bad happening. Just don't use Y-cables via an unpowered USB Hub. Plug the connectors straight into the computer's USB ports.

"is there any danger of overloading the drive this way?"

Using a Y-cable doesn't increase the Voltage, it only makes more current available, so it's all good. The drive will take as much current as it needs.

standard pc usb out is 500ma
using 2 usb a cables will provide more power if the drive needs it.

y usb costs 3-4 euro

2male usb a , 1 female usb connector Usb a on the end of the y .

i don,t know if this is work,
i do,nt think theres any risk in trying it


i went to youtube search hardrive stuck heads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Y7BniaRXg
from user DIY Perks


i might be the drive heads are stuck on the platter , so the drive cannot spin up,
to acess the data on the drive .

note the actions in the video,
are a last Resort ,only to be done if you have the tools,
if you were do this wear plastic gloves, to avoid causing any static electricity damage to the hd pcb.

riclad

Heres one http://www.cables.ie/computer/peripherals/usb-cables/usb-cable-dual-power-2-x-type-a-male-to-a-female.html

Firblog

Would there be anything to be said for another mass using the old stick it in the freezer for a night? Out of 10+ times think it worked for me once..

degsie

There's a lot of urban codology around hdd recovery. The best cure is prevention. Backup...backup....backup.

riclad

Yes the hard drive freeze trick can work,
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/112050/recovering-data-from-a-damaged-hard-drive-the-freezer-trick

place the drive inside 3 sealed plastic bags,
you do not want any ice getting onto the drive pcb.
causing a short circuit.


quote


(1) "Place the hard drive on a smooth surface. Grab the ends and physically spin the whole unit around", "just spinning the unit sharply along the axis of the blades" and (2) "In situations where the head has crashed, you can temporarily get it up and running by turning the drive upsidedown. Keep the drive upsidedown while you back up your files.")


AS A last resort
The most awesome recovery I managed to date was to open a drive and unstick the spindle with a screwdriver and pliers. Shockingly, it ran for a few hours while I recovered most of the data. I didn't even use a cleanroom.

As always it depends of the failure. I tried the freezing method a couple of times successfully. The hard driver is getting hot about 50-80°C if you cool it down for about 10°C, some sectors can be successfully read. Modern hard drivers are reallocating failed sectors transparently. Therefore it is always good to analyse the status of your drive with smartctl (smartmontools).

with free storage mega and google drive,
its easy to backup files , at some point every hardrive will stop working.

fryup

Firblog wrote: »

Format the drive, it will then be recognised by windows, then you can run the data recovery software which will recover the 'deleted' files. I normally use getdataback which normally works when you tell it that the drive was formatted.

is that completely free? or just the first 1gb ?

riclad

i Find recuva free to be very effective at recovering file,s .
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
if you format the drive use the quick format mode .
not a full format.