[SOLVED] Getting files off a dying HDD that freezes

[kujen]

I have a 3TB storage drive that suddenly started getting thousands of pending sectors, and hundreds of reallocated sectors. Lots of errors in the event viewer about bad blocks and master file table corruption. Running checkdisk, the ETA says it would take over 2 days. So I haven’t fully run check disk yet and stupidly powered the PC off a few times while it was running.

When I try to copy files over to another drive, it hangs and freezes. It is not my OS drive but still freezes everything up. Sometimes it seems to become disconnected, as it still shows in “my computer” but it stops showing info like how much space it has. And the event viewer says “Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued."
How can I get the files off of this HDD if it keeps freezing when the files are being read?

 

[USAFRet]

How can I get the files off of this HDD if it keeps freezing when the files are being read?

Invent a time machine, go back to before the drive started acting up, and institute a good daily backup plan.
Seriously.

There is no magic to make a mostly unreadable drive...readable.
You could maybe do a forensic clone/copy off to a different physical drive, and then read whatever uncorruppted stuff results.

Several Windows tools have that option. Macrium, EaseUS Todo.
dd in Linux.

 

[fzabkar]

CHKDSK is data destructive if it is run against a drive that has head/media problems. The best DIY option would be to clone the drive with ddrescue or HDDSuperClone, then run data recovery software against the clone.

That said, your drive will probably fail during the cloning process. I strongly advise that you not power down the drive after cloning has started, as the drive may cease to be detected. This is because it needs to load its firmware from a reserved area on the platters, and this process may fail if the primary head becomes too weak.

 

[kujen]

CHKDSK is data destructive if it is run against a drive that has head/media problems. The best DIY option would be to clone the drive with ddrescue or HDDSuperClone, then run data recovery software against the clone.

That said, your drive will probably fail during the cloning process. I strongly advise that you not power down the drive after cloning has started, as the drive may cease to be detected. This is because it needs to load its firmware from a reserved area on the platters, and this process may fail if the primary head becomes too weak.

How can I verify that the drive head is failing? I don’t hear any clicking or unusual noises. The 10% of checkdisk that did run seemed to make some previously inaccessible files accessible again. They used to give me an error when I tried to access them - now they just take forever as it hangs.

If I clone, the only other drive I have big enough is a 10TB which is also inside the PC. Can I clone the drive into that without harming the data that is already on it? Will it bring bad sectors with it?

 

[USAFRet]

You'd have to spawn off a 3TB partition to "clone" into.
And I certainly wouldn't do that without a good copy of ALL the data that exists on the 10TB.

Not because this theoretical clone process will bring along "bad sectors" (it won't)...but rather that are a multitude of missteps that could be made in the process, making the data on the 10TB also gone.

 

[kujen]

Would it be recommended to remove the drive from the PC and hook it up to the same/different PC via a SATA to USB adapter cable or external enclosure?

I just would like a way to try to copy the files off without it freezing up Windows. I think there may be programs on there that were trying to run. I know I had some Windows apps and games on it. And maybe if Windows saw it as a new or external drive it would help?

I actually had to reinstall Windows because it kept freezing up due to the bad HDD and I was having to force shutdown, which corrupted my user profile somehow. I got a few files off but then it kept locking up.

 

[USAFRet]

Would it be recommended to remove the drive from the PC and hook it up to the same/different PC via a SATA to USB adapter cable or external enclosure?

Yes.