Need Help Recovering iOmega Ext. HDD

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ds_k7

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Apr 19, 2015
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I've run into a bit of a snag trying to get some data off an old (~5 yrs) iOmega Prestige Portable 500GB HDD (model no. 31922800). The USB connection port has physically broken off from the controller module in the casing which connects to the HDD's SATA power and data ports.

I have a SATA-to-USB adapter cable which I have used in the past to connect SATA HDD's to my computer as external drives, but when I removed this iOmega HDD (which, as it turns out, is a Samsung HDD) from the case and plugged it in, my computer popped up with a notification stating that the HDD needed to be formatted before it could be used (Win 8).

I suspect that the controller also acts as a protection key, but I honestly am just guessing at this point. I have searched and searched, and short of purchasing a complete replacement for the drive and scrapping it for parts, I can't find JUST the controller for sale.

I've documented this process with pictures and uploaded them to an imgur album here. All parts and serial numbers are shown, so I'm hoping one of you gurus might know something I don't and can help me find what I'm looking for.

Thanks for reading!
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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ds_k7

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Apr 19, 2015
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Thanks for the info, fzabkar. Here's what I've got on sector 0

LBA:0 block: 0
000: 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C 8E C0 8E D8 BE 00 7C BF 00 3.}...|}.}...|..
010: 06 B9 00 02 FC F3 A4 50 68 1C 06 CB FB B9 04 00 .......Ph.......
020: BD BE 07 80 7E 00 00 7C 0B 0F 85 0E 01 83 C5 10 ....~..|..&.....
030: E2 F1 CD 18 88 56 00 55 C6 46 11 05 C6 46 10 00 .....V.U.F...F..
040: B4 41 BB AA 55 CD 13 5D 72 0F 81 FB 55 AA 75 09 .A..U..]r...U.u
050: F7 C1 01 00 74 03 FE 46 10 66 60 80 7E 10 00 74 ....t..F.f`.~..t
060: 26 66 68 00 00 00 00 66 FF 76 08 68 00 00 68 00 &fh....f.v.h..h.
070: 7C 68 01 00 68 10 00 B4 42 8A 56 00 8B F4 CD 13 |h..h...B`V.9...
080: 9F 83 C4 10 9E EB 14 B8 01 02 BB 00 7C 8A 56 00 x...~.......|`V.
090: 8A 76 01 8A 4E 02 8A 6E 03 CD 13 66 61 73 1C FE `v.`N.`n...fas..
0a0: 4E 11 75 0C 80 7E 00 80 0F 84 8A 00 B2 80 EB 84 N.u..~....`.....
0b0: 55 32 E4 8A 56 00 CD 13 5D EB 9E 81 3E FE 7D 55 U2.`V...].~.>.}U
0c0: AA 75 6E FF 76 00 E8 8D 00 75 17 FA B0 D1 E6 64 .un.v....u.....d
0d0: E8 83 00 B0 DF E6 60 E8 7C 00 B0 FF E6 64 E8 75 ......`.|....d.u
0e0: 00 FB B8 00 BB CD 1A 66 23 C0 75 3B 66 81 FB 54 .......f#.u;f..T
0f0: 43 50 41 75 32 81 F9 02 01 72 2C 66 68 07 BB 00 CPAu2....r,fh...
100: 00 66 68 00 02 00 00 66 68 08 00 00 00 66 53 66 .fh....fh....fSf
110: 53 66 55 66 68 00 00 00 00 66 68 00 7C 00 00 66 SfUfh....fh.|..f
120: 61 68 00 00 07 CD 1A 5A 32 F6 EA 00 7C 00 00 CD ah.....Z2...|...
130: 18 A0 B7 07 EB 08 A0 B6 07 EB 03 A0 B5 07 32 E4 . .... .... ..2.
140: 05 00 07 8B F0 AC 3C 00 74 09 BB 07 00 B4 0E CD ...9..<.t ......
150: 10 EB F2 F4 EB FD 2B C9 E4 64 EB 00 24 02 E0 F8 ......+..d..$...
160: 24 02 C3 49 6E 76 61 6C 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 $..Invalid parti
170: 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61 62 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 tion table.Error
180: 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 loading operati
190: 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E ng system.Missin
1a0: 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 g operating syst
1b0: 65 6D 00 00 00 63 7B 9A B3 0C A1 33 00 00 00 04 em...c{a...3....
1c0: 05 00 07 FE FF FF 00 01 00 00 00 4E 44 07 00 00 ...........ND...
1d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
1e0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
1f0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA ..............U.

I'm not sure what it means, personally, but is there a way to undo the encryption? Or is that akin to hacking a government-level secured system? heh
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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It's not encrypted. Instead it appears that the Iomega firmware is configured for a sector size of 4096 bytes.

The numbers in sector 0 are telling us that there is a single partition beginning at sector 1 with a size of 121916928 (= 0x7444e00) sectors. This corresponds to 62GB.

0x7444e00 x 512 bytes = 62.4GB

When the drive is inside the enclosure, the capacity is ...

0x7444e00 x 4096 bytes = 499.4GB

You essentially have a 4Kn file system on a 512e physical drive. That's why Windows cannot make sense of it.

The solution is to reinstall the drive in its original enclosure, or find a similar 4Kn enclosure.

I think there may be data recovery tools that understand how to recover data from a situation such as yours, but I'm not sure.
 
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ds_k7

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Apr 19, 2015
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This is getting a little far beyond my realm of knowledge, I'm afraid. And to think I grew up with computers....sigh, I should have majored in CS instead of ME.

I'll try to make better sense of the problem and look around for some data recovery tools. Thanks for your help!


Update: After doing a bit of research, I think I'm beginning to understand the problem.

The drive is formatted with a sector sizes corresponding to 4096 Kb (which is the NTFS standard I think), but sector 0 of the drive is telling Windows that the drive is supposed to be formatted with sector sizes corresponding to 512 Kb. Is that a correct interpretation of it?

If so, would it be possible to rewrite sector 0 so that it correctly identifies to windows what the sector size is?


Second update: It does not seem likely.
For example, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 (with certain hotfixes installed) support 512e format drives (but not 4Kn),
Click to expand...

Since this drive is apparently formatted using 4Kn, my Win7 system won't be able to read it because Windows assumes it's using a 512 Kb sector size file system. Does that mean the bridge board that was in the HDD enclosure acted as an "emulating layer"?

I'm getting a lot of this from this specific section of the Wikipedia article on Advanced Format:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format#512e

Many host computer hardware and software components assume the hard drive is configured around 512-byte sector boundaries. This includes a broad range of items including chipsets, operating systems, database engines, hard drive partitioning and imaging tools, backup and file system utilities as well as a small fraction of other software applications. In order to maintain compatibility with legacy computing components, many hard disk drive suppliers support Advanced Format technologies on the recording media coupled with 512-byte conversion firmware. Hard drives configured with 4096-byte physical sectors with 512-byte firmware are referred to as Advanced Format 512e, or 512 emulation drives.
Click to expand...
 
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