Need help backing up data from drive that constantly hangs from bad sectors.

[fuzzybabybunny]

I have an external USB 3.0 500GB HDD.

Here's what SMART says:

When I try to read from the disk, it'll read happily except for some random times when the read rates rapidly drop down to slower than 500KB/s and eventually after a minute the entire drive and file explorer becomes unresponsive and the only thing I can do is unplug the drive.

Because of this, I have no way of getting my data off the drive using Windows Explorer.

- I have no way of hooking the drive up internally because all I have is a laptop.

- I've used Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier but it still causes the drive to hang when copying files.

- Using RUC, I can prevent the drive from hanging by immediately clicking on "skip" every time a file seems to take longer to read than normal. If I'm not sitting there manually clicking on skip, the program just stays on the file, "copying" at 0 KB/s, until the entire drive just hangs and the whole process needs to be restarted.

- So it seems that the hanging is due to the file manager being stupid and not realizing that if it's stuck at 0 KB/s for > 5 seconds it needs to just move onto the next file.

- I'm running HDD Regenerator so I'll see what it says.

- I've run Windows disk repair and check on it

Any other tips for getting my data off this drive before I smash it in the ground?

 

[nanaki333]

try booting from something like Hiren and trying some of those utilities? windows is such a wuss when it comes to bad HDDs. i've been able to grab more data booting in to one of the many recovery options with Hiren though.

when you ran the windows disk repair, did you do /F /R?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, boot into Linux and do a 'dd' to another drive with dd conv=sync,noerror. It'll ignore read errors and grab everything it can.

The downside is, if you had some data on those corrupted blocks, well... like Master Splinter said, "Then it is gone."

 

[Elixer]

I think ddrescue would do the trick, it can also retry the bad blocks X times if you wish.

 

[nerp]

SpinRite. Buy it. Steve Gibson is legit. If Spinrite can't fix it, nothing can.

 

[Elixer]

SpinRite. Buy it. Steve Gibson is legit. If Spinrite can't fix it, nothing can.

No way, that would fubar the drive even more, job #1 is clone it ASAP.
Then, you can send the drive to pros (who wouldn't touch spinrite with a 10 foot pole) if you really need the files recovered.

 

[grimpr]

Boot from linux live cd and use ddrescue.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Unfortunately my Linux won't detect my external USB drive.

sudo lsusb

simply hangs forever

It doesn't show up in

fdisk

 

[Binky]

You might have better luck connecting the drive directly without the external enclosure. Usually you just remove it from the case, forcefully if necessary. Although, this may void any warranty.

Whatever you do, try to copy the data before doing anything that would write to the drive.

 

[hal2kilo]

SpinRite. Buy it. Steve Gibson is legit. If Spinrite can't fix it, nothing can.

Spinrite is still around. Holy, old fart.

 

[nerp]

Spinrite is still around. Holy, old fart.

Yep. And it keeps getting updated. Works with SSDs, too.

 

[VirtualLarry]

SpinRite's not going to do jack for a "USB Mass Storage Device". Sorry.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You might have better luck connecting the drive directly without the external enclosure. Usually you just remove it from the case, forcefully if necessary. Although, this may void any warranty.

Whatever you do, try to copy the data before doing anything that would write to the drive.

Just be aware than many (most?) WD "MyBook" external HDDs, implement transparent encryption in the USB controller chip. Which makes recovery... very difficult.

 

[tcsenter]

Yep. And it keeps getting updated. Works with SSDs, too.

It hasn't been updated since 6.0 released in 2004.

 

[blankslate]

Best bet is to find someone who will let you borrow an old PC with a bios created around 2006-2008. Trying SpinRite on newer BIOS/UEFI systems can wreck data on the drive.

Then use the linux utilities and/or Hiren utilities to grab data from non-corrupted sectors. After that is done try SpinRite on the drive to see if it can at least temporarily make the bad sectors readable.

SpinRite can help drives that have issues speaking from personal experience.


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[nerp]

SpinRite's not going to do jack for a "USB Mass Storage Device". Sorry.

You sure about that?

 

[VirtualLarry]

You sure about that?

The USB Mass Storage Protocol lacks low-level commands for TRIM, Secure Erase, and reading Temp., what makes you think it contains enough low-level commands to do what SpinRite needs to do?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The USB Mass Storage Protocol lacks low-level commands for TRIM, Secure Erase, and reading Temp., what makes you think it contains enough low-level commands to do what SpinRite needs to do?

Does this mean that ddrescue on Linux won't work if I have this HDD as a USB external? Like I said, I've only got a laptop.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Does this mean that ddrescue on Linux won't work if I have this HDD as a USB external? Like I said, I've only got a laptop.

Should work. I'm not aware of ddrescue claiming to work any low-level "magic" like SpinRite.

 

[tcsenter]

Spinrite will likely take more than 24 hours on a drive that large if there are that many bad sectors pending, subjecting the drive to a lot more stress.

 

[Elixer]

Yep. And it keeps getting updated. Works with SSDs, too.

Huh? It still is on V6 which was released 2004ish IIRC, and as for "working" on SSDs, that would make no sense.

The way spinrite works on a HD is impossible with a SSD they are totally different, unless we are talking simple corruption of the FAT which testdisk (and other programs) could fix just as easily, and doesn't cost $90.

As VirtualLarry said, it is also highly doubtful that USB based devices would work either, the controllers are just not the same as a IDE/SATA one.

For the OP, I suppose the best way to handle this with only a laptop available is swap out the laptop's storage device with the external's, boot a linux pendrive with ddrescue on it, and then you need another device that ddresecue can write to. Hopefully, the device isn't encrypted.

 

[hal2kilo]

Huh? It still is on V6 which was released 2004ish IIRC, and as for "working" on SSDs, that would make no sense.

The way spinrite works on a HD is impossible with a SSD they are totally different, unless we are talking simple corruption of the FAT which testdisk (and other programs) could fix just as easily, and doesn't cost $90.

As VirtualLarry said, it is also highly doubtful that USB based devices would work either, the controllers are just not the same as a IDE/SATA one.

For the OP, I suppose the best way to handle this with only a laptop available is swap out the laptop's storage device with the external's, boot a linux pendrive with ddrescue on it, and then you need another device that ddresecue can write to. Hopefully, the device isn't encrypted.

Now that sounds about right. The word spin in spinrite should give you a clue. Plus the last update was about when people were thinking about SSDs.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Should work. I'm not aware of ddrescue claiming to work any low-level "magic" like SpinRite.

Well, the issue is that currently when I try and copy files the drive hangs because the system keeps on trying to read a file and just gives up.

I hear the normal intermittent clicking sound of the head as it tries to read the file, sometimes grabbing a byte here and there, but then the clicking goes away while the main motor continues to whir. It's almost like the drive tries to read the file and then just finally gives up and parks the head, while keeping the motor on, leading to a permanent hang that can only be solved by restarting the drive.

I would imagine that once ddrescue reaches those problem sectors it would encounter the same read issues and cause the drive to hang as well? Or does ddrescue just read in a fundamentally different way?

 

[tcsenter]

I would imagine that once ddrescue reaches those problem sectors it would encounter the same read issues and cause the drive to hang as well? Or does ddrescue just read in a fundamentally different way?

Any good drive cloning/imaging utility should have an option to ignore or skip bad sectors (or alternatively, to set the number of read attempts). The drive might simultaneously be trying to reallocate bad sectors on it's own because the # of them logged has met or exceeded the manufacturer's programmed limit.

Try a cloning/imaging utility, not from Windows but a bootable version.

 

[blankslate]

Huh? It still is on V6 which was released 2004ish IIRC, and as for "working" on SSDs, that would make no sense.

It makes sense if the read only option is used for SpinRite on an SSD. That just verifies that all the space that a formatted SSD should have available can be read by an OS before installing one. Maybe it's an unnecessary step but all it cost was a bit of my time.
I did that before installing an SSD in a laptop. Having no problems with it.


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