Clicking Seagate 2TB Barrcuda, is it really all over? Really need your advice.

[Jon1962]

Dear friends, really need your advice. I have a 2TB barracuda internal HDD which is experiencing clicking problems. It clicks for about 10 seconds after boot up and then stops clicking. There are no grinding sounds. HDD is undetectable in Bios and windows does not boot up.

It happened 2 days ago when my computer hung and I did a dirty restart by switching off and then on. After being unable to access my bios, I restarted it a few times and the HDD started to click. I tried booting it up a few times to try my best to fix it after which I left it alone and stopped using it.

After trawling the net for info, I am really worried about the platter scratching as I have very precious family memories inside. What are the chances of platter scratching and making any form of recovery? I am prepared to send it to a professional firm..

It was my fault for not backing up and I truly learnt my lesson this time around. If it helps, my HDD has about 300 GB empty. Around 3.5 years old - I did not drop the drive.

 

[Jon1962]

To your first most recent question, my answer: imminent and finally platter damage probably led to slow transfer speeds; your 2nd question, my answer -- that HD will never to 100% imaged.

I know the HDD will never be 100% imaged as there is a scratch on the platter, but will we be able to image fully, the undamaged parts of the platters and recover what is left of it? If so, what will determine the recoverable % of the whole HDD?

 

[RolandJS]

The undamaged portion may be imaged, however...
data recovery is going to be similar to San Andreas movie; before the big Event, people, in groups, were living in defined houses, labeled houses, with family names. Now, picture no more house addresses, houses standing and houses not standing, pretend the last names of all the people you know - evaporated, no more names. Got the picture? Now, go find them and reGroup them. That's often how data recovery is going to be.

 

[Jon1962]

The undamaged portion may be imaged, however...
data recovery is going to be similar to San Andreas movie; before the big Event, people, in groups, were living in defined houses, labeled houses, with family names. Now, picture no more house addresses, houses standing and houses not standing, pretend the last names of all the people you know - evaporated, no more names. Got the picture? Now, go find them and reGroup them. That's often how data recovery is going to be.

I can take the time to regroup and rename them. However i'd like to know if the files can be accessed and will they be recovered properly and are they usable?

 

[RolandJS]

"I can take the time to regroup and rename them. However i'd like to know if the files can be accessed and will they be recovered properly and are they usable?" There is no answer to those questions upfront, the answer will come during and after any and all DIY recovery attempts or during and after data recovery specialist's attempts.

 

[bhennings]

Damage on platters cannot be fixed. Where there is damage, there is potentially data loss. It is possible the damage occurred in an unused are of the hard drive, which would be lucky. There is also a possibility that you may end up with a decent number of pics that are partially recovered. Hard drives don't write files all nice and neat in one are on a platter. Oh no, they can spread a single file out to multiple surfaces on other platters in the drive. So, if a larger file (like a JPG or raw photo) has parts of it saved on 3 different platter surfaces, and there is damage on one of those surfaces, only about 66% of the file may be recovered.

A likely reason for the slow progress is that they had to put a new set of read/write heads in the drive, as the old ones caused the damage in the first place. Hard drives are very finicky, and it can sometimes take multiple sets to find one that is compatible, kind of like dating: may take a few tries to find a good match. Even finding a good fit can still mean it will run slower, similar to driving your car on a spare donut tire. You wouldn't/shouldn't drive very fast with one on your car.

The recovery company you are using should be able to verify the pics are functional, and should be able to tell you how many they were able to fully recover. I would be sure to ask this.

 

[Jon1962]

Damage on platters cannot be fixed. Where there is damage, there is potentially data loss. It is possible the damage occurred in an unused are of the hard drive, which would be lucky. There is also a possibility that you may end up with a decent number of pics that are partially recovered. Hard drives don't write files all nice and neat in one are on a platter. Oh no, they can spread a single file out to multiple surfaces on other platters in the drive. So, if a larger file (like a JPG or raw photo) has parts of it saved on 3 different platter surfaces, and there is damage on one of those surfaces, only about 66% of the file may be recovered.

A likely reason for the slow progress is that they had to put a new set of read/write heads in the drive, as the old ones caused the damage in the first place. Hard drives are very finicky, and it can sometimes take multiple sets to find one that is compatible, kind of like dating: may take a few tries to find a good match. Even finding a good fit can still mean it will run slower, similar to driving your car on a spare donut tire. You wouldn't/shouldn't drive very fast with one on your car.

The recovery company you are using should be able to verify the pics are functional, and should be able to tell you how many they were able to fully recover. I would be sure to ask this.

Currently the hdd is about 75% imaged and will likely take another week or so. I am also concerned about my video files, mostly around 1-2gb large. May I know if there is a chance that it is unrecoverable? Probably due to the scratch being on crucial system area?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Damage on platters cannot be fixed. Where there is damage, there is potentially data loss. It is possible the damage occurred in an unused are of the hard drive, which would be lucky. There is also a possibility that you may end up with a decent number of pics that are partially recovered. Hard drives don't write files all nice and neat in one are on a platter. Oh no, they can spread a single file out to multiple surfaces on other platters in the drive. So, if a larger file (like a JPG or raw photo) has parts of it saved on 3 different platter surfaces, and there is damage on one of those surfaces, only about 66% of the file may be recovered.

A likely reason for the slow progress is that they had to put a new set of read/write heads in the drive, as the old ones caused the damage in the first place. Hard drives are very finicky, and it can sometimes take multiple sets to find one that is compatible, kind of like dating: may take a few tries to find a good match. Even finding a good fit can still mean it will run slower, similar to driving your car on a spare donut tire. You wouldn't/shouldn't drive very fast with one on your car.

The recovery company you are using should be able to verify the pics are functional, and should be able to tell you how many they were able to fully recover. I would be sure to ask this.

Currently the hdd is about 75% imaged and will likely take another week or so. I am also concerned about my video files, mostly around 1-2gb large. May I know if there is a chance that it is unrecoverable? Probably due to the scratch being on crucial system area?

The only people that can answer that question are the ones doing the recovery. And even then the answers won't be known until the imaging and, at a minimum, the initial scan, is complete.

 

[Jon1962]

Damage on platters cannot be fixed. Where there is damage, there is potentially data loss. It is possible the damage occurred in an unused are of the hard drive, which would be lucky. There is also a possibility that you may end up with a decent number of pics that are partially recovered. Hard drives don't write files all nice and neat in one are on a platter. Oh no, they can spread a single file out to multiple surfaces on other platters in the drive. So, if a larger file (like a JPG or raw photo) has parts of it saved on 3 different platter surfaces, and there is damage on one of those surfaces, only about 66% of the file may be recovered.

A likely reason for the slow progress is that they had to put a new set of read/write heads in the drive, as the old ones caused the damage in the first place. Hard drives are very finicky, and it can sometimes take multiple sets to find one that is compatible, kind of like dating: may take a few tries to find a good match. Even finding a good fit can still mean it will run slower, similar to driving your car on a spare donut tire. You wouldn't/shouldn't drive very fast with one on your car.

The recovery company you are using should be able to verify the pics are functional, and should be able to tell you how many they were able to fully recover. I would be sure to ask this.

Currently the hdd is about 75% imaged and will likely take another week or so. I am also concerned about my video files, mostly around 1-2gb large. May I know if there is a chance that it is unrecoverable? Probably due to the scratch being on crucial system area?

The only people that can answer that question are the ones doing the recovery. And even then the answers won't be known until the imaging and, at a minimum, the initial scan, is complete.

What will happen after they finish imaging the drive? Can you take me through the process?

 

[DR_Luke]

We've been imaging a Seagate ST3000DM001 since last November and just started the file system recovery procedures today. For us, we virtually reconstruct the file structure and save the data out into two folders (with the original file and folder names, when possible), good and damaged. The good folder are files that don't contain any damaged sectors while the damaged folder contains the files that have at least one sector that was not read correctly. We then generate an HTML file listing, showing what was recovered and allow the client to decide if they want to pay for the recovery.

After 6 months of recovery, I sure hope that we got $700 worth of data recovered. We mirrored 99.99% of the drive, so we should be pretty good. But it is completely up to the client.

Out of curiosity, which lab is working on the drive now?

 

[Jon1962]

We've been imaging a Seagate ST3000DM001 since last November and just started the file system recovery procedures today. For us, we virtually reconstruct the file structure and save the data out into two folders (with the original file and folder names, when possible), good and damaged. The good folder are files that don't contain any damaged sectors while the damaged folder contains the files that have at least one sector that was not read correctly. We then generate an HTML file listing, showing what was recovered and allow the client to decide if they want to pay for the recovery.

After 6 months of recovery, I sure hope that we got $700 worth of data recovered. We mirrored 99.99% of the drive, so we should be pretty good. But it is completely up to the client.

Out of curiosity, which lab is working on the drive now?

Thanks for sharing! Wow, that is 6 months of work, and why did it take so long? Was there any platter damage?

How long does the file system recovery procedure take and by mirroring 99.99% of the drive, does it also mean 99.99% of data is recovered? If one sector isn't read correctly, is the file (e.g a jpeg or mp4) then considered unreadable?

It is CBL Tech in Australia

 

[Jon1962]

after a successful imaging, is there a chance that the data is unreadable due to system area damage? Are there any algorithms or software that can decipher it?

 

[DR_Luke]

That doesn't make any sense. if the system areas are damaged, you cannot image the drive until you fix them. If you've imaged the drive, you may be able to access the data directly or with the help of a data recovery program.

 

[Jon1962]

That doesn't make any sense. if the system areas are damaged, you cannot image the drive until you fix them. If you've imaged the drive, you may be able to access the data directly or with the help of a data recovery program.

that was what i thought, but apparently my data was truncated, unable to be read and needs an algorithm to help read it.

 

[RolandJS]

"...if the system areas are damaged, you cannot image the drive until you fix them..." Dr.Luke, would this be a possible work-around: usb or dvd boot Puppy Linux or anything similar and use the file manager to copy data folders and files?

 

[DR_Luke]

"...if the system areas are damaged, you cannot image the drive until you fix them..." Dr.Luke, would this be a possible work-around: usb or dvd boot Puppy Linux or anything similar and use the file manager to copy data folders and files?

No, as the system files (assuming that we are talking about the hard drive's files in the service tracks) are needed in order for the drive to come ready and ID on any computer.

 

[Jon1962]

"...if the system areas are damaged, you cannot image the drive until you fix them..." Dr.Luke, would this be a possible work-around: usb or dvd boot Puppy Linux or anything similar and use the file manager to copy data folders and files?

No, as the system files (assuming that we are talking about the hard drive's files in the service tracks) are needed in order for the drive to come ready and ID on any computer.

In this case, how can we get the system files ready?

 

[Jon1962]

what are some of the software available out there to translate the data? Will it be successful?

 

[Jon1962]

sorry to bring my thread up again as I have some queries to check with you brothers here.

The DR firm managed to image my drive but the result is in raw data form and is not readable as the files are all messed up. They said they are unable to read the data properly. Is there any recommendations anyone can make? Thank you once again for any advice. if it helps, my file format is in NTFS.

 

[RolandJS]

Unless Dr. Luke has a better solution, I'm afraid your folders and files have reached the Final Curtain, from which there is no Encore. A similar unfortunate data loss happened to me long ago, and that loss led me to begin and continue a backup routine even to this day. I understand your loss!

 

[DR_Luke]

There was an offer by someone on your post on hddguru on July 5th. Why haven't you taken him up on his offer?

 

[Jon1962]

i have contacted him, he wasn't able to help unfortunately..

 

[DR_Luke]

i have contacted him, he wasn't able to help unfortunately..

Then your data is unrecoverable.