Failed hard drive can be read for a few minutes then fails

[tristpinsm]

Hi,
A boot drive recently failed on me: I noticed lag when accessing the filesystem, and after rebooting the OS refused to load. I've booted to a liveUSB and the disk shows up and can be read by recovery software, but after a few minutes any attempt to read from it results in 'input/output' error.

All the partitions show up in /dev/sd*, but it doesn't get mounted by Ubuntu. I tried running ddrescue on the boot partition, but after copying a few hundred MB all subsequent reads fail. Similarly, I could open gparted and see the partition table but after a few minutes it would also complain of input/output errors. I've done this a handful of times and it seems pretty reliable.

I've read of the so-called 'freezer technique', and since my drive seems to fail as a result of extended use, I'm wondering if getting it very cold might make it usable for long enough to recover my data. But I'm obviously hesitant at the idea of putting the already sensitive hardware under such intense stress, as well as the risk of condensation. I guess this should be a last-ditch attempt, but is there anything else I can try before that? And if I do eventually go the freezer way, can anyone recommend how long to leave it in there? I would think the less cold it gets, the less risk of condensation. How long should it be chilled for me to hope for some improvement?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there tristpinsm,

Sometimes, I/O(input/output) error could be caused by faulty cables. So, in case you haven't tried that, it may be a good idea to try using different cables(both SATA and power ones) and attach the drive to a different SATA port.
In case the issue persists, I guess the HDD has some mechanical flaw.

I wouldn't really recommend this freezer method.

D_Know_WD

 

[tristpinsm]

Hi there tristpinsm,

Sometimes, I/O(input/output) error could be caused by faulty cables. So, in case you haven't tried that, it may be a good idea to try using different cables(both SATA and power ones) and attach the drive to a different SATA port.
In case the issue persists, I guess the HDD has some mechanical flaw.

I wouldn't really recommend this freezer method.

D_Know_WD

Thanks for the advice. I have moved the disk to another machine and the problem persists, so I guess cables aren't the issue. I've been able to run ddrescue in starts and stops, which is a slow process, but it looks like the rescued data is accumulating. I'm just worried that this might degrade the drive further... I guess I'll save the freezer method for that eventuality.

Any other ideas?

 

[quantumnet]

Something similar happened to me and I was left with recovering data in minute amounts, so I would say stick with that.

I'd also suggest to stay away from the freezer method. Condensation can form on the platter when brought out of the freezer resulting in read errors which might degrade the drive even more.

 

[hang-the-9]

Let the ddrescue run, with some drives it can take a week to go through and get what it can. You have a bad drive, without taking it to a professional data recovery place, you will only be able to get so much after running into errors even with ddrescue, which is a very good tool to run.