Is my hard drive failed?

Hi Jason,

Yes, it looks as if this HDD is failing, but you may still be able to retrieve your data.

Your image is Very helpful.

This WD drive is still recognized by the OS as Disk 1, but there is no partition recognized and the space is unallocated and size misread.
I wold keep it attached to your desktop directly, and don't write anything to the drive or initialize or format it.

Try the Easues Partition Master Free Edition, which may re establish the partition making your data visible. Here is their web site.

www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

If that doesn't work they also have a very good Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition, which can re establish the partition, or recover your data. (ample space on your other Disk 0 if needed). The Free edition is good for 1 GB of data, with the Commercial Edition costing $69.95 for unlimited recovery. Here is that link:

www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/


There are several other Data Recovery software programs available costing $50 and up, but this is highly thought of and many of the folks on Tom's Hardware recomend it. But there are others to choose from.

Your My Book may be hardware encrypted. That's why the partition information is being reported as jibberish.

Is there an Initio INIC-1607E chip on the USB-SATA bridge board inside the original enclosure? If so, then this chip is responsible for 128-bit AES encryption. Therefore, to recover your data, you will need the original enclosure.

You can verify whether the data are encrypted by viewing sectors 0 and 1 with a disc editor. If sector 1 has a repeating pattern of 16 bytes, then these will be encrypted zeros.

You could use DMDE:

DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery Software):
http://softdm.com/

I went to a local Data Recovery service center and briefly described my situation. The rep. said since I plug the original internal hard drive (that was inside the external enclosure) via a new external enclosure and later directly to desktop, the PCB board is probably burnt. In this scenario, a physically data recovery is required and it will cost $750 to $2000.....something I can't afford at the moment.

@John, I've tried running both software you mentioned. The Easues Partition Master Free won't work. The Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free scan my disk for more than 24 hours and still scanning....I ended up stop the scanning.

@fzabkar, I can't recognize the INIC-1607E chip you mentioned. All I can tell is a little circuit board (about 7cm x 7cm). Can the free edition of DMDE let me view the sector 0 and 1 on my disk? If yes, I will give it s shot. I really hope it's just the encryption that blocks me from accessing the data and there is a way to access it other than using the original enclosure. The hard drive simply won't be recognized with its original enclosure and that's why I disassemble it.

- Jason

Can you show me a detailed photo of the USB-SATA bridge board? There should be a large square chip. It is the CPU for that board.

I don't know what the data recovery rep saw, but if the drive spins up and identifies itself with its correct model number and full native capacity, then its own PCB is probably OK. How does BIOS identify your drive?

If the drive spins up but behaves as if it has bad sectors or bad heads, then the problem could actually be a board fault. AIUI, the PCB has a Marvell 88i6745-TFJ1 MCU. If so, then this makes the drive a member of the Tornado family. This family is known for board faults that mimic head or media symptoms. Unfortunately the board has a vacant location at U12, which means that its unique, drive specific "adaptive" data are internal to the MCU. These data would need to be transferred to the donor PCB. Other boards store the adaptives in an 8-pin serial flash memory chip at U12, in which case a "ROM" transfer is a relatively easy job.

Here is a photo of your drive's PCB (not the bridge board):
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5140/5579149954_4c6cea63...

As for your question regarding DMDE, yes, the free version will allow you to view the sector data.

Hi, fzabkar,
Here is the photo of the circuit board. I hope the quality is not too blurry or dark for you to see.


When I plug the bad hard drive into a new enclosure, the indicator light didn't flash as when I plug in a good drive. Not sure if it's indicating that the bad hard drive is not spinning?

Whether I plug the bad hard drive via a new enclosure or directly to the desktop PC, it's recognized as "Unallocated 22.43 GB" disk. In BIOS, it's indicated as WDC ROM MODEL-SPIDER with 24 GB of capacity. In any case, the hard drive is not correctly recognized as a 500 GB hard drive.

So, if the hard drive is encrypted or not, what kind of options do I have to restore the data other than spending $1000 dollars for physical data recovery?

Thanks,
Jason

Hi Jason,

If Fzabkar doesn't think it's related to encryption, why not place it back in it's enclosure with it's original PZB board, and try the DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery Software) program to see if you can get any data recovered? The commercial data reocvery programs like Easeus Data Recovery Wizard or the TenorShare Data Recovery program are ~$50-70 and still may not work.

john_VanKirk, the problem is that the hard drive itself has a fault. Therefore, the OP will not have access to the data, whether encrypted or not, until the HDD is repaired. The actual problem may be a fault in the Marvell MCU, which is a common problem with the Tornado models, or it may be an internal HDA fault such as a bad head, bad media, or bad preamp.

Best answer selected by jasonxps410.