[SOLVED] Any chance at data recovery?

[NightHawkRMX]

Ok, so I have a WD3200AAKS 320gb SATA SSD.

It was from a PC I had before I ever knew what a backup was, so dont lecture me there.

It has Vista on it with some pictures, which I want to backup.

When I try to boot my PC with its plugged in I get a bios screen with a spinning wheel. So I uninstalled the drive and plugged it in after the PC booted via USB.

At first I saw the partitions with proper names and was able to click into one partition and see data. It looked like I could copy a tiny bit of data to my working hdd, but the speed was literally like 400kb/s and then it froze. No data actually copied.

Now I see the partitions with improper names but cannot access them. Trying to open a partition just freeze the PC.

How to fix? Any chance?

 

[USAFRet]

Obtain a USB dock.
Power up the PC, and only connect this old drive after the system is up and running.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Sprry if im being confusing but i did.

I uninstalled the drive and plugged it in after the PC booted, via USB.

And heres what happens.

At first I saw the partitions with proper names and was able to click into one partition and see data. It looked like I could copy a tiny bit of data to my working hdd, but the speed was literally like 400kb/s and then it froze. No data actually copied.

Now I see the partitions with improper names but cannot access them. Trying to open a partition just freeze the PC.

 

[fzabkar]

Use HDDSuperTool or WDMarvel to apply the WD "slow fix". Then use HDDSuperClone to clone the HDD, sector by sector.

WDMarvel is not free, but a one month licence is cheap. It also runs under Windows. The other tools are free but Linux based.

The "slow fix" patches the firmware to disable background processes, read retries and the like. This stabilises the drive so that it can be cloned. Hopefully the heads are all still in working order, although one or more may be "weak".

One other possibility is a PCB fault. Does your PCB have a Marvell 88I6745-TFJ1 MCU? If so, then this chip is known to suffer from "head mimic" faults, ie the drive will produce symptoms similar to a head failure.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Is hddsupertool free?

Does your PCB have a Marvell 88I6745-TFJ1 MCU?

Ill check tomorrow. What is it with marvell and sucking. Their early sata 3 controllers sucked aswell...

This drive is from 2009 btw.

 

[mdd1963]

You should be able to plug it into a standard SATA port, just hop into your BIOS to make sure your current (2019!) drive is still selected as the boot drive in "Boot Device Priority" settings within BIOS...

Maybe your old drive went to the top somehow, so naturally it never booted with Vista and the modern chipset of whatever you are using.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

You should be able to plug it into a standard SATA port, just hop into your BIOS to make sure your current (2019!) drive is still selected as the boot drive in "Boot Device Priority" settings within BIOS...

Maybe your old drive went to the top somehow, so naturally it never booted with Vista and the modern chipset of whatever you are using.

No, thats not it. There is no possability to boot from it as it is not uefi.

Ssd is set to top of boot order.

I think the system is just waiting for the hdd to respond. It will eventually get into repairing hard disk screen and never complete.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Use HDDSuperTool

Made myself a ubuntu live cd and booted. The issue is when i go to install hddsupertool it just goes to 20% and then doesnt finish. Just goes back to install.

The cloning software worked tho.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Drive is still not fixed. I am revisiting this since i need a hard drive rn.
https://ibb.co/bRSqSgV
Here is the board.

When I spin it up it does click like a stuck head. Is this controller the issue or is it an actual stuck head?

 

[USAFRet]

Drive is still not fixed. I am revisiting this since i need a hard drive rn.

Is the data on this physical drive absolutely critical?
You mentioned a 'clone'....does this data live elsewhere?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Nope, this data isn't backed up anywhere. This drive dates back too well before I knew how to backup data.

There are many pictures on this drive i would like to recover.

The cloning software opened, but i cannot open the hddsuper tool to make the drive work so i can back it up.

It is most definatily the firmware issue since the drive sounds like a stuck head and has a simmilar marvell controller to the one mentioned above.

 

[USAFRet]

Nope, this data isn't backed up anywhere. This drive dates back too well before I knew how to backup data.

There are many pictures on this drive i would like to recover.

The cloning software opened, but i cannot open the hddsuper tool to make the drive work so i can back it up.

It is most definatily the firmware issue since the drive sounds like a stuck head and has a simmilar marvell controller to the one mentioned above.

Nothing has worked so far.

If you really wish to recover this data, you need to stop screwing with it, and pay someone to try to recover it.
The physical drive is of no consequence, your data is.