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Dead(ish) drive advice?

C

ChRoNo16

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
1,586
Ive got an old WD 2tb drive thats acting dead, no clicking or funny sounds, just read errors and if im making the drive work hard, it drops off the face of the planet.



Any ideas on things that could save it or make it somewhat useful?

Also any ideas to get what data is there right now off of it?
 
empty the drive replace it there is no making it reliable you could turn it it into a clock.
 
ChRoNo16 said:
Ive got an old WD 2tb drive thats acting dead, no clicking or funny sounds, just read errors and if im making the drive work hard, it drops off the face of the planet.
Click to expand...

I'd just check three things first before replacing it.

First, try to wipe the drive with dban, the vendor's software, or badblocks within a Live CD.

Second, different cables for power and data.

And, if you can, through the jumper or the vendor's tool, drop the SATA speed one notch. Say, from sata 3 to sata 2.

Edit - and if you want to try to backup the drive first, dd-rescue on a Linux live CD is what I use to get the whole drive image off and then dd it back onto a healthy drive before trying to to chkdsk etc
 
Aside from the backing up. Sure wipe if possible. And if changing the cables fixes the drive sure continue using it. I still could not trust it and for data sanitation I would disassemble it save the magnets maybe the spindle motor and spacers then wipe the platters with the magnets or take tin snips to them maybe sand them or burn them with a torch.
 
Lunas said:
Aside from the backing up. Sure wipe if possible. And if changing the cables fixes the drive sure continue using it. I still could not trust it and for data sanitation I would disassemble it save the magnets maybe the spindle motor and spacers then wipe the platters with the magnets or take tin snips to them maybe sand them or burn them with a torch.
Click to expand...

I've been meaning to try this with 3 HDDs that I couldn't wipe with dban. Does it take long to do that?
Figure I need to buy those super-small screw drivers too, cuz I doubt I have the tools on hand right now :p
 
Mav451 said:
I've been meaning to try this with 3 HDDs that I couldn't wipe with dban. Does it take long to do that?
Figure I need to buy those super-small screw drivers too, cuz I doubt I have the tools on hand right now :p
Click to expand...
drill through the screw mounts and rivets.
 
Agromahdi123 said:
drill through the screw mounts and rivets.
Click to expand...
No rivets and I did not have torx drivers (t4 and t8)when I took my first drive apart a small flat head and a wire cutter to grip the head can work too typically there are 10 on the metal cover 2 under the stickers once removed the cover should come off to reveal 8 on the spindle holding the platters which will be made of aluminum or glass.
 
Actually I may have fixed the drive- weird right? so the backstory is I have a mountain mods u2-ufo case, and a long time ago I had a power supply fire, the fan had failed and the PSU overheated and smoked itself pretty bad, well this drive was mounted about 6 inches above it. It used to kind of work, but under stress would disappear, so last night i figured what the hell, ill take the PCB off the bottom and clean it and see if I can recover data off of it. well so far it has been running in a reformat cycle for 20 hours just fine without dropping so I may have fixed it. Maybe the drive errors had to do with it losing power. idk. Will be fun to see what happens from here.
 
ChRoNo16 said:
Actually I may have fixed the drive- weird right? so the backstory is I have a mountain mods u2-ufo case, and a long time ago I had a power supply fire, the fan had failed and the PSU overheated and smoked itself pretty bad, well this drive was mounted about 6 inches above it. It used to kind of work, but under stress would disappear, so last night i figured what the hell, ill take the PCB off the bottom and clean it and see if I can recover data off of it. well so far it has been running in a reformat cycle for 20 hours just fine without dropping so I may have fixed it. Maybe the drive errors had to do with it losing power. idk. Will be fun to see what happens from here.
Click to expand...
So the controller on the drive has been smoked and overheated... yeah so it is formatting i would not use that drive... It could fail tomorrow or a year from now you will never know. I stand by my previous statements take it apart use the bits for craft products or recycle the drive. As a hard drive it is not worth the risk to use that drive even if you had replaced the drive controller with a new one.

If you are dead set on using that drive i suggest using it in a enclosure as a mobile to carry non important data from one pc to another. Spinning drives are not useful for installing games most people like ssd for that. You could use it as a mirror drive but again it will fail.
 
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