S.M.A.R.T capability fail

[ozconvicted]

hi

Driver Description WDC WD32 00BPVT-00ZEST0 USB Device (external hdd)

Problem with this device is that has started working very slow, but only after I plugged it on a notebook that had booting problems, also some hardware problems . I tried several software's so far trying to diagnose the hdd for bad sectors and not only.
One of the software's I used it's called Hdd Regenerator, the result was a fail, the end message displayed by the program after 6 hours of scanning
was just another error. So I remembered to check on the western digital home page for help, were I ended up downloading an utility called
" Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows " which shortly after starting it indicates that the drive doesn't have the s.m.a.r.t capability enabled..

I underline that the hdd has data on it, I don't want to lose.

Thank you

 

[zdbc13]

Is it plugged into the drive bay of the laptop or with a usb? If it's internal you may have to turn on SMART in the bios before it will read the data.

 

[Hawkeye22]

The enclosure may be dead as data lifeguard isn't even showing the drive's serial#. If possible, I'd try removing the drive from the enclosure and attach it directly to the motherboard (or insert into a new enclosure), then try your utilities on it.

 

[ozconvicted]

Since the hdd got messed up supposedly by the troubled laptop where it was indeed connected into the drive bay before, in the purpose of some data transfer, I have removed it and plugged it back into its original hdd EXTERNAL case which I have it connected it now thought USB on a tower pc where I am trying to fix it using tools provided by Western Digital and also other soft's, the last one I tried in the last few hours its called " smartmontools " which is operated through " cmd " and seems to have some commands that would naturally activate the " s.m.a.r.t. capability ", or so I read about.. however it doesn't seem to be a very useful tool in my case as it doesn't respond very well to the commands which I carefully took from their own website. Other then this I can't get over the basic command that it's supposed to select the partition in order to use the tool, which in my case it is displayed as " g: ". In the readme.txt text of " smartmontools " it is specified in order to run the " s.m.a.r.t. capability " activation command it only requires to be in the partition, ex: C: or D: or G: -run command which sadly doesn't apply in this case.. Another solution I thought would fix the problem was to backup all the important data from the hdd which is around 40 gb and simply format the hdd, re-write the firmware on it, crush it to the walls, stump on it or cut it with a chain saw, which of course can't be done simply because w/e the issue with this HDD is, backing up 40 gb will take enough time for the ice caps to meltdown ..

Hawkeye22: I checked the enclosure with another hdd, turned out to be working flawlessly

zdbc13; the " s.m.a.r.t. capability " in the bios it is enabled, but this only applies for the main hdd, or so I read..

this is the tool I am playing with hopping to solve the riddle ..

many thanks for the time you ppl spent reading this post, trying to help me out..

Looking forward to read more suggestions. Many 10x in advanced.

 

[ozconvicted]

Additional info about the external hdd, that might help to find a solution.

 

[ozconvicted]

Is it possible to re-write the firmware of the hdd .. ?

 

[ozconvicted]

I am still trying to find a solution to the problem, In case I will manage to fix it, hopefully the info will help other users..

Having the EXTERNAL HDD connected to the tower pc for so long I noticed the SMART capability somehow loaded into the showing area of FinalWire ( Everest - old name ) indicating something new, however the SMART does NOT remain enabled there, it appears and disappears from the area where its indicated.

So here is what software's I used so far trying to fix the problem :

1. the standard check disk tool offered by the os.
2. a freeware tool called " smartmontools "
3. another freeware called " HDD Regenerator "
4. tools provided by Western Digital, downloaded from official websites
5. one more freeware named " HDD Health "
6. also hard disk sentinel, registered version ( all futures available )

Currently I am trying something heavier called " Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Management Console ", it seems to be a more professional way to fail ... at least. I will post the results when it will finish scanning .

Question : Changing the external hdd partition from " Primary " to " Logical " can result in data loss ?

Looking forward to read more suggestions and answers

 

[fzabkar]

Data LifeGuard has trouble communicating with certain SATA controllers or drivers.
Smartmontools is more versatile in this regard.

That said, your problems are due to an excessive number of bad sectors. Problematic attributes include Reallocated Sector Count, Reallocation Event Count, Current Pencing Sector Count and Seek Error Rate.

If you want your data, then clone your drive with a tool (eg ddrescue) that understands how to work with bad sectors. Avoid SpinRite and HDD Regenerator. Data recovery professionals will tell you that these programs are drive killers. They will only accelerate the failure of weak heads.

 

[ozconvicted]

Is it possible to clone only the DATA part of a hdd ? or its always cloned the full drive ?

 

[fzabkar]

Ddrescue clones the full drive, or a range of sectors that you specify. It cannot differentiate between data and OS files.

If you have a particular damaged file that you desperately want to recover, then try Bad Block Copy for Windows:
http://alter.org.ua/soft/win/bb_recover/

 

[ozconvicted]

Excluding torrent's is there any way of downloading DDrescue ?
I been trying to google for it, unfortunately all I find are dump files and bit's of the software, not a complete thing..

Thanks

 

[fzabkar]

I haven't had the need to use ddrescue, but the following resources should answer your questions:

Clone a failing Windows hard disk with ddrescue on Ubuntu Rescue Remix:
http://keystoneisit.blogspot.com/2011/08/clone-failing-windows-hard-disk-with.html

Ubuntu Rescue Remix:
http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/Download

Ddrescue maintains a logfile. You would need to specify a drive other than the source or destination drive for this log.

 

[zdbc13]

Thanks fzabkar, good stuff.....

 

[ozconvicted]

Worked like a charm .
Thank you really much fzabkar ! and to everybody trying to help out !

How can I lock this topic ?

 

[zdbc13]

Choose a best answer and the moderators will close it for you.

 

[ozconvicted]

Unfortunately I started this topic as Discussion and not as a Question, which disables the " choose best answer " option..
I tried to re-edit the very first massage from the topic and only pick the Question tab and doesn't work, is there any other way around ?

 

[fzabkar]

If you leave it open, someone may come by with a better solution.

 

[ozconvicted]

How can I close this thread ?