Cannot access hard drive - Hard drive will not initialize

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Lmcc87

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Oct 17, 2013
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Hi,

I have looked at several hundred threads online and tried many things to try and fix this to no avail so my last resort is asking you guys for advice on my specific issue.

Running windows 7 ultimate, I have an external hardrive which is not recognised in my computer, I can see it in device manager and disk management. In disk management its status on the far left is 'Unknown' followed by 'Not Initialized' when I right click and try and initialize using MBR or GPT options I get the error 'The system cannot find the file specified'

I don't know much about diskpart but having run it and trying several things which I fully don't understand I have typed 'list disk' and can see the disks connected to the computer. Now the disk in question is online but shows a size of '0B' which could not be correct as there is probably 200GB on the disk in question.

Can anyone help me in getting windows to see this disk as I have important info and old photos which I need to get off of it?

Many thanks in advance
 
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Lmcc87

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There never was a driver for it, it always worked on XP vista and 7 without driver. Its USB2.0 so I have read on iomegas website there is no driver for usb2.0 drives, just uses the generic windows driver?
 
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Lmcc87

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Oct 17, 2013
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ok so I downloaded this application and was able to create a new mbr which windows would not let me do.

I am no further on with this and now in disk management when I right click on the disk I can no longer click initialize, it is greyed out.

Any ideas, anyone?
 
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Lmcc87

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Thanks for the reply. I downloaded the 2 programs you stated below and both do not see the drive. Just the '0B' size and free through list disk in disk part and an unknown not initialized status in disk management. What would this now tell you? Many thanks



 
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Lmcc87

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Oct 17, 2013
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Ok I can now see the drive in HD Sentinel. The drives title has question mark to the far left hand side where a good drive a green tick, the health and and temp bars have questions marks also.

In the overview box I get this message,

'The status of the hard disk is unknown.
This USB storage device does not provide more information about itself. Anyway, it can be tested for problems by Disk -> Surface test function.'

If I go to surface test the disk is not in the drop down to select it.

What would this tell you bud?

Thanks


 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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ISTM that the drive does in fact have internal problems, possibly a damaged firmware module.

What do UVCView or USBDeview tell you?

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/b/a/eba1050f-a31d-436b-9281- 92cdfeae4b45/UVCView.x64.exe
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_IDs/UVCView.x86.exe

The usual advice would be to remove the drive from its enclosure and retest it via a SATA port on your computer's motherboard. However, some USB powered drives integrate the USB electronics on the HDD PCB, in which case a SATA test would not be possible. UVCView should tell us if this is the case, though.

What is the model number of your drive?
 
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Lmcc87

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USBdeview tells me its connected but wont show a serial number.

USB device viewer doesn't tell me much but here is exactly what it says which is a lot less than other devices connected:

---===>Device Information<===---
*!*ERROR: no String Descriptor for index 11!

ConnectionStatus:
Current Config Value: 0x01 -> Device Bus Speed: High
Device Address: 0x01
Open Pipes: 2

===>Endpoint Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x07
bDescriptorType: 0x05
bEndpointAddress: 0x81 -> Direction: IN - EndpointID: 1
bmAttributes: 0x02 -> Bulk Transfer Type
wMaxPacketSize: 0x0200 = 0x200 max bytes
bInterval: 0x00

===>Endpoint Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x07
bDescriptorType: 0x05
bEndpointAddress: 0x02 -> Direction: OUT - EndpointID: 2
bmAttributes: 0x02 -> Bulk Transfer Type
wMaxPacketSize: 0x0200 = 0x200 max bytes
bInterval: 0x00

===>Device Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x12
bDescriptorType: 0x01
bcdUSB: 0x0200
bDeviceClass: 0x00 -> This is an Interface Class Defined Device
bDeviceSubClass: 0x00
bDeviceProtocol: 0x00
bMaxPacketSize0: 0x40 = (64) Bytes
idVendor: 0x059B = Iomega Corporation
idProduct: 0x0470
bcdDevice: 0x0000
iManufacturer: 0x01
*!*ERROR: no String Descriptor for index 1!
iProduct: 0x0B
*!*ERROR: no String Descriptor for index 11!
iSerialNumber: 0x03
*!*ERROR: no String Descriptor for index 3!
bNumConfigurations: 0x01



The actual SN on the front of the drive is 5SX1H5AK, PN: 9EV134-500, FW: SD03

I can take the drive out of the enclosure but I would need to buy separate sata power and data cables as I have none to test with.

Thanks for this info pal, it is much appreciated



 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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The drive is a regular SATA drive. Typically these drives can be recovered by clearing SMART and the G-list, but you need to do this via the drive's serial terminal port.

More information at the HDD Oracle forum:

http://www.hddoracle.com/
http://malthus.mooo.com/

You'll need to buy a cheap TTL adapter.
 
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Lmcc87

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Oct 17, 2013
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Ok I have done a lot of learning tonight about TX RX and the terminal port and was going to attempt to make my own cable but I've no connections to put on the end of the cable so I have bought one.

So you when I receive what exactly do I need to do, I've done a bit of searching on HDD Oracle but can't find anything for my drive specifically. Could you explain how I can do this or point me to a general area that covers my drive?

Thanks again



 
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Lmcc87

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Oct 17, 2013
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So I got my cable and tried peforming the usual commands and here is what I get;

F3 T>/2

F3 2>Z

Spin Down Complete
Elapsed Time 0.145 msecs
F3 2>U

Error 1009 DETSEC 00006008
Spin Error
Elapsed Time 11.629 secs
R/W Status 2 R/W Error 84150180
F3 2>

Am I correct in thinking it seems like the drive will not spin up? I have heard it spin before recently when trying things with it.
 
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Lmcc87

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Oct 17, 2013
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Ok, when it powers up when doing what with the TTL cable? What do you think I should be doing with this cable? I thought you were pointing me in the direction of carrying out these commands when you told me to buy one above. Thanks



 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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When the drive powers up, it sends diagnostic information to the terminal port. Sometimes these messages can help diagnose the actual problem. I don't profess to know how to interpret all these messages, but some messages reflect common problems, eg the "pending bug". There are professional data recovery people at HDD Guru or http://www.hddoracle.com who may be able to advise you, although most are usually not very helpful.

Are we to understand that the drive reports the DETSEC error without any intervention by you? If so, then I would clean the contacts (on the PCB) between the PCB and the HDA. You can use a soft pencil eraser.

Otherwise, the following forum threads would suggest that your drive has a head/media fault, assuming that it does in fact spin up.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Error+1009+DETSEC+00006008%22+site%3Ahddguru.com
http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?t=19704&start=
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http://www.forum.salvationdata.com/viewtopic.php?f=23%26t=2235
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http://www.forum.salvationdata.com/viewtopic.php?f=23%26t=1054
 
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