Whats wrong with this drive?

[Bassyhead]

A relative gave me this WD800BB (80GB, 2MB cache) drive that is out of warranty. The contents disappeared out of the blue with no warning. Here's what I've tried:

BIOS - detects drive
Disk Management (WinXP) - doesn't show up
Partition Magic 7.0 - "Init failed: Error 100. Partition table is bad" (program exits)
Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - detects drive, "Cable Test::Read diagnostics sector error!" (cables are good), SMART ok
Western Digital Data LifeGuard Tools - detects drive, partition table is blank
GetDataBack for NTFS - all sectors bad
FIXMBR / FIXBOOT - failed, "unrecoverable" drive errors
Freezer trick - no help

The least I'd like to do is get some pictures off the drive (not resorting to data recovery services). Even better would be getting the drive working (even if it needs a low level format). I don't know exactly what is wrong with the drive. SMART checks out and it makes all the normal sounds when it starts up (I also have the same drive but 8MB cache so I can compare). Any ideas?

 

[Kernel32]

i don't think you'll get your data back. However, if there is any chance it is still usable...you're best bet is to do a low level format on the drive which basically writes zeros to all sectors. I believe the Data Lifegard tools will do that. if not, you can find other utilities that will. Is it detected by the bios?

 

[Bassyhead]

Originally posted by: Kernel32
i don't think you'll get your data back. However, if there is any chance it is still usable...you're best bet is to do a low level format on the drive which basically writes zeros to all sectors. I believe the Data Lifegard tools will do that. if not, you can find other utilities that will. Is it detected by the bios?

Yes, the BIOS, WD tools and GetDataBack all detect it fine

 

[Kernel32]

Yea, then i'd try the low level format

 

[birdpup]

I see you have attempted recovery with GetDataBack. Here are other possibilities you can try. My recommendation is to attempt recovery of your data and then dispose of the drive. If the drive has failed now, it will fail again. This drive's lifespan is over.

Data Recovery Programs
1) R-Studio
2) Runtime's GetDataBack
3) Ontrack's Easy Recovery Pro
4) Quetek
5) File Scavenger
6) HDD Regenerator
7) TestDisk

Rescue Disks
UBCD4Win
BartPE
Knoppix

Hard Drive Related Products
Norton Ghost
Partition Table Doctor and Super Fdisk
DIY DataRecovery and iRecover
Acronis
Future Systems Solutions
Partition Recovery
Paragon Software

 

[Bassyhead]

I can't even get it to write zeros. I guess it's toast.

 

[Bassyhead]

Any last recommendations?

 

[Jeff7]

DBAN?


Also, Everest. Under its Storage section is an icon for SMART. In there, select the drive, right-click, Copy, and paste the results back here, unless you see anything outright failing - then post just that info.

 

[birdpup]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
DBAN?

Also, Everest. ...

I added those two utilities to my list today. Thank you for pointing them out.
Hard Drive, Partition, and Data Recovery and Diagnostic Resources

 

[Bassyhead]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
DBAN?


Also, Everest. Under its Storage section is an icon for SMART. In there, select the drive, right-click, Copy, and paste the results back here, unless you see anything outright failing - then post just that info.

As I said, the WD tools reported SMART passed. Here's the results from Everest:

ID Attribute Description Threshold Value Worst Data Status

01 Raw Read Error Rate 51 200 200 0 OK: Value is normal
03 Spin Up Time 21 119 95 3125 OK: Value is normal
04 Start/Stop Count 40 99 99 1563 OK: Value is normal
05 Reallocated Sector Count 140 200 200 0 OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 51 200 200 0 OK: Value is normal
09 Power-On Time Count 0 95 95 4292 OK: Always passing
0A Spin Retry Count 51 100 100 0 OK: Value is normal
0B Calibration Retry Count 51 100 100 0 OK: Value is normal
0C Power Cycle Count 0 99 99 1555 OK: Always passing
C4 Reallocation Event Count 0 200 200 0 OK: Always passing
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 1 200 65535 OK: Always passing
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 200 253 0 OK: Always passing
C8 Write Error Rate 51 200 200 0 OK: Value is normal

 

[Jeff7]

No read or write errors, no reallocated sectors, no seek errors....the only one that looks weird is the Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count, at 65535.
First Google result on that, a page at Sourceforge, says:
"An offline uncorrectable sector is a disk sector which was not readable during an off-line scan or a self-test. This is important to know, because if you have data stored in this disk sector, and you need to read it, the read will fail."

I'm not exactly sure what an offline scan is though. Anyway, another search result:

"Offline uncorrectable sector count means the number of (bad) sectors that cannot be reallocated."


And another relevant posting:

"Its one hosed drive. Get your data off of it ASAP and chuck it into the
garbage at your first convience. "

I don't know why it's considered passing though.
If it's detected and reporting SMART data, the system is obviously able to interact with it...maybe download Knoppix, burn it to a CD, and see if it can access the drive. Maybe you can copy the data to a USB drive, or over the network from there.