Data recovery from an almost dead hard drive

[Yash Jugran]

My WD Elements Hard Drive shows up on the computer after about 5 minutes and displays the contents even later. The data is taking forever to copy. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Try defragmenting the data.

 

[trekzone]

You may need to scan your drive using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility to check and possibly fix errors on your hard drive's media.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Yash Jugran,

Defragmentation will be a good thing to start with. After that you can run the WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to check out the overall HDD's health.
Another reason for such issue may be related to the connection, namely USB cable and ports. So you can try using different ones.

WD DLG tool: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&lang=en

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD

 

[Ijack]

I'd recommend that you copy any important data off the disk, or clone it to another drive, before starting defragmentation. If it is about to fail then the extra activity of defragmentation will probably kill it.

 

[fzabkar]

It sounds like your drive may be on its last legs. You should clone it, sector by sector, using a tool such as ddrescue.

However, to prepare your drive for cloning, you should apply the "slow fix" in the following thread.

http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29187&start=20

http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?t=998&p=4345#p4345

 

[Yash Jugran]

Hi,

This is what I get 🙁

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD10JMVW-11AJGS0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WX51E43CNRT1
Firmware Number: 01.01A01
Capacity: 1000.20 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 11-Cable Test::Read diagnostics sector error!
Test Time: 21:33:17, October 15, 2014

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD10JMVW-11AJGS0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WX51E43CNRT1
Firmware Number: 01.01A01
Capacity: 1000.20 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 11-Cable Test::Read diagnostics sector error!
Test Time: 21:33:49, October 15, 2014

 

[fzabkar]

Your drive appears to be a Passport, not a My Book as I originally thought. There are DIY methods you could use, but it would involve converting your drive to SATA mode.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Have you tried connecting it with another cable as I previously mentioned. This could be a cause for the issue.

Check this out(error code 11): http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11711

Let me know if that helps,
D_Know_WD