Unresponsive HDD Friend DESPERATELY needs file

[Artemis]

ive used the freezer technique with positive results twice. drives were like 8 yr old 5400 cheapos and didnt have anything to worry about except saving time by quick cloning em but i did get boot where before there was bsod. (shrugs)
(no expert here just redneck hobby type input fwiw)

As I explained (I thought clearly) in my post about the freezer technique, it worked with older drives that were machined less precisely, or if the controller board became overheated. With modern drives the contraction of metal caused by freezing the drive causes the read/write heads to operate inaccurately if at all. I have used the freezer technique myself as a last resort on older drives, with mixed results, on three occasions it did give me 10-20 minutes of up time, but most of the time it made no difference.

With the fault that was described at the start of the thread, and the fact that the drive can be physically seen in an O/S but it's file structure is unreadable, freezing the drive will only make the issue worse, especially considering it is a modern WD 'Black' drive i.e. an enterprise class high availability drive, that is designed for 24/7 operation. The design tolerances on these drives are even finer, freezing the drive will cause a mechanical error on a drive of this design - to add to the physical errors it is already suffering from.

[megabyteme]

So, what became of the disk's data?

[...]The drive's most likely problem is some bad sectors at the start of the drive, enough to corrupt the MBR and/or the the partition table. At this point I would suggest Spinrite as an option for refreshing the drive, but you have not recovered the data from the drive, and there is a chance that the drive will fail completely during Spinrite's operation, leaving you with the aforementioned paperweight. Although I have had some success with Spinrite in the past, the fact that the data on this drive is crucial means that I cannot recommend Spinrite in this case.

I have a copy of Spinrite and am waiting for a day when events seem to be more in my favor than against me. :pray: I have discussed the issue with my friend, and he understands that we have done just about everything possible. He's wise enough to know sometimes Old Yeller dies at the end...

EDIT- In related troubleshooting news, my suspicion was correct regarding the processor not cooling properly. I cleaned the heatsink and fan, scraped off old thermal paste, and have been running the machine for the past 48 hours off a USB thumb drive with a full screen video playing in constant loop. It hasn't missed a beat. Sadly, the file is worth FAR more than the machine...

[mitymek]

nm

[Artemis]

As to the related troubleshooting news, a CPU getting hot should not affect a hard drive. If the ambient temperature in the room caused a thermal overload that would be a different matter, but I have had servers get seriously hot without it affecting the hard drive(s) and eventually C.O.P. will shut the system down if it gets too toasty on a modern system board.

That being said, it introduces the possibility that it was the controller board on the hard drive that was affected by a thermal buildup (unlikely, but a possibility) in which case you can A. replace the controller board with an identical one. There are only 4-6 micro screws and one ribbon cable connecting the board to the drive or B. try the freezer method if your friend cannot justify the cost, especially since there are no guarantees. I would however, if you are considering it, make the freezer option the very last thing on your list.

[megabyteme]

VERY interesting. My thought was that overheating of the processor caused wonky info to be written to the drive making it unreadable. Not the case? I saw something very similar once when a motherboard died a slow death.

[Artemis]

VERY interesting. My thought was that overheating of the processor caused wonky info to be written to the drive making it unreadable. Not the case? I saw something very similar once when a motherboard died a slow death.

Another possibility that causes hard drive corruption, and that isn't usually part of the diagnostic routine with a faulting hard drive is faulty RAM. Since you have been running a burn-in test over 24 hours with video playing constantly that is a very unlikely scenario in this case, I am just mentioning this as another contributing factor to hard drive corruption. The fact that there is no file structure at all when you try to read the drive is far more likely to be bad sectors on the drive than corrupted data being written to the drive. The data in the MBR is not updated or normally altered during hard drive operation and partition table information is only updated if there is a change in the partitions themselves.

On an MBR based hard drive the MBR and MPT (Master Partition Table, usually just called the partition table) comprise the first 64k of the drive, i.e. a very small area, that is why I am saying the most likely cause is bad sector(s) in this area of the drive. It is accessed every time the computer is started so is in constant use unlike other areas of the drive. It isn't the only cause, but based on the scenario you have given it is the most likely, other possible reasons for the drive not being accessed have been listed but decrease in likelihood.

What I would do at this point is use an analysis tool like Partition Guru to check the drive and if the partition tables can be recovered, it is a powerful repair and recovery tool in situations like this and as I suggested run Spinrite. The caveat was that there is no guarantees at this point that you are going to get the data off the drive, but if your friend accepts this, then I would be analysing the drive with these diagnostic tools long before I stuck it in a freezer.

An aside to this, if you setup and install new systems on a regular basis, think about initialising them using the GPT (GUID) system rather than MBR. It has several advantages including the fact it can handle more than four primary partitions, will recognise drives larger than 2TB and most importantly it has a backup of the partition table stored in another partition on the drive.

[megabyteme]

On an MBR based hard drive the MBR and MPT (Master Partition Table, usually just called the partition table) comprise the first 64k of the drive, i.e. a very small area, that is why I am saying the most likely cause is bad sector(s) in this area of the drive. It is accessed every time the computer is started so is in constant use unlike other areas of the drive. It isn't the only cause, but based on the scenario you have given it is the most likely, other possible reasons for the drive not being accessed have been listed but decrease in likelihood.

Unfortunately, this system was let to run-and-crash for quite awhile before I was asked to help. It is the one PC he owns that I did not build for him, and I think he was just hesitant to "bother" me. If it weren't for this file he probably would not have asked. Silly of him since he is both a quality electrician AND plumber. He helps us A LOT. He could have one of my kidneys if his body could withstand the toxicology.

What I would do at this point is use an analysis tool like Partition Guru to check the drive and if the partition tables can be recovered, it is a powerful repair and recovery tool in situations like this and as I suggested run Spinrite. The caveat was that there is no guarantees at this point that you are going to get the data off the drive, but if your friend accepts this, then I would be analysing the drive with these diagnostic tools long before I stuck it in a freezer.

I am going to go back through with some of the diagnostic tools such as Partition Guru just to make sure I didn't fumble on my earlier attempts. Every one of the programs recommended here seems worth retrying. Spinrite looks to be a fire-and-forget-it type weapon not to be used unless.

An aside to this, if you setup and install new systems on a regular basis, think about initialising them using the GPT (GUID) system rather than MBR. It has several advantages including the fact it can handle more than four primary partitions, will recognise drives larger than 2TB and most importantly it has a backup of the partition table stored in another partition on the drive.

While I have had very good success repairing and building PCs, I only do so for a few people who I am indebted to these days. I tried to start a repair business at one point and all I heard from people who should have been supportive was the sound of one hand clapping. They are welcome to suffer through their brother-in-law's friend's cousin's former roommate and/or Dell as those entities got brought up enough to hurt my feelings when I needed the work.

[pootystomp]

If you're in the states, Geeksquad has a data recovery division in Kentucky. I have used this service to retrieve info off of a drive that I acquired through a purchase of a business. It is $250 deposit and I paid $250 after they decided it was a level 2 issue. I think it can be as much as $1000 if they have to remount the disc into a new drive. They were able to recover 98% of my drive and I had a good experience working with them.

[megabyteme]

I appreciate the rec, pooty. I discussed the option of sending the drive out with him and he said he did not want to do that. I'm going to do everything possible before giving up. Good experience; unfortunate that the data is so irreplaceable.

[mitymek]

point easy recovery pro at that bad boy yet? (ontrack if i recall correctly). should ignore all the acronyms at the front and give you a list of files like porn.jpg etc etc. drag em off and then try format or whatever.