[SOLVED] Hard Drive Failed

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May 1, 2020
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Windows is on my C drive which is an SSD and is completely fine. My D drive, which had most of my programs and everything else was a spanned volume consisting of two 1TB HDD's. The first of those two HDD's seems to have failed, it is still detected in the bios, disk management, and in SeaTools but it fails the generic short test in seatools and windows does not show any D drive.

So my questions are first: What should I try to try and get the data off the dead drive?
and second: If it is not possible to repair the dead drive, how can I create a new volume with only the functional HDD to be my new D: drive in windows without reformatting it? So that I can at least keep half of my data.
 
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But again, you have not once asked or considered what is wrong with the drive itself. Data recovery is almost entirely about fixing the failed hard drive in order to get the data back. For all you know it could be a very simple problem. I understand that hardware is probably not your specialty, and from a pure software perspective there is no way to fix it, so let someone else who knows about hardware chime in.

Data recovery is decidedly NOT about fixing the failed drive its about salvaging what MAY be readable from the platters. Very often it involves removing the platters in a clean room environment, placing them into a functional device, and salvaging whatever data can be salvaged.

What USAFRet is too humble to tell you...
May 1, 2020
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How was this "spanned"?

Generally, data spanned across 2 drives, all is gone when one of them fails.
All data. There is no "half".
Well it wasnt like a raid array or anything. I am assuming that a spanned volume just fills up the first drive and once that one is full it starts using the second one. So there may be some corrupted data that was in between but most of the data on the working drive should be recoverable I think.
 

USAFRet

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Well it wasnt like a raid array or anything. I am assuming that a spanned volume just fills up the first drive and once that one is full it starts using the second one. So there may be some corrupted data that was in between but most of the data on the working drive should be recoverable I think.
"i'm assuming"...

Spanned is exactly "RAID 0".
Data spanned across both drives.

How was this created?
Storage spaces? Something else?
 
May 1, 2020
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"i'm assuming"...

Spanned is exactly "RAID 0".
Data spanned across both drives.

How was this created?
Storage spaces? Something else?
Just in the disk management tool in windows. I had only the one drive originally, once that filled up a bought another 1TB hdd and created a spanned volume with both drives.
 
The first drive would have the $MFT. That's the NTFS metafile which contains the file/folder information. Without the MFT the best you can hope for is to find your files via a raw scan. However, there will be no file names and no guarantee that fragmented files will be recovered intact.

What does CrystalDiskInfo's SMART report tell you?
 

USAFRet

Titan
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https://superuser.com/questions/404197/windows-7-disk-management-spanned-volume-vs-striped-volume
"A spanned volume is a partition that has been "stretched" across two disks. If either one of those disks fails then ALL data on the partition, that is data from the spanned volume regardless of what disk they are on, is lost"

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-one-large-volume-using-multiple-hard-drives-windows-10
" both Spanned and Striped volumes do not use parity, which means they the don't provide fault tolerance — if one drive fails you will lose the data on all hard drives "



This is specifically what proactive backups are for.
 
May 1, 2020
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https://superuser.com/questions/404197/windows-7-disk-management-spanned-volume-vs-striped-volume
"A spanned volume is a partition that has been "stretched" across two disks. If either one of those disks fails then ALL data on the partition, that is data from the spanned volume regardless of what disk they are on, is lost"

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-one-large-volume-using-multiple-hard-drives-windows-10
" both Spanned and Striped volumes do not use parity, which means they the don't provide fault tolerance — if one drive fails you will lose the data on all hard drives "



This is specifically what proactive backups are for.
I understand that a spanned volume is not "safe" in the case of hard drive failure. Which is why I asked how some data can be recovered. I didnt really come for unhelpful hindsite comments like "should have made a backup". I simply asked what can be done about it.
 

USAFRet

Titan
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If, as you stated initially, it was the "first" drive that died...that physical drive held the $MFT.
Without that, the best you'll get is file fragments. Maybe a couple of those will be a whole complete file.
Maybe something like thumbnails from the Temp folder.

You're not getting back anything major.


How? Try Autopsy. If it finds anything, you will need some other physical drive to recover to.
 
If, as you stated initially, it was the "first" drive that died...that physical drive held the $MFT.
Without that, the best you'll get is file fragments. Maybe a couple of those will be a whole complete file.
Maybe something like thumbnails from the Temp folder.

You're not getting back anything major.
I would think that the OP should be able to recover any contiguous file that existed on the second drive, provided that it has a signature that is recognised during a raw scan. The absence of an MFT would mean the loss of file and folder names, not necessarily file content. I believe that your recommended tool (Autopsy) relies on PhotoRec which is an excellent file carving tool.
 
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Out of curiosity mainly, I decided to take a quick peak inside. I had already tried pretty much everything else and I'm not paying to have it recovered as the data is not that important to me. The plate is in perfect condition and the head is not stuck and is resting in the parked position (not over the plate). When I plug it in, it spins for a few seconds, then makes a very slight clicking noise and two loud beeps and then shuts off. It does this everytime I plug it in no matter what position, on it's back, side or whatever. It doesnt make the loud "click of death" noise I have heard on other drives so I have no clue what is wrong with it.
 

USAFRet

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You opened it up to expose the platters?
Well...thats the end of that one. Fridge magnet donor.

"perfect condition" to the eyeball is not clean room perfect.
And a dodgy platter surface (all of them?) is not the only thing that can go wrong.
 
May 1, 2020
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You opened it up to expose the platters?
Well...thats the end of that one. Fridge magnet donor.

"perfect condition" to the eyeball is not clean room perfect.
And a dodgy platter surface (all of them?) is not the only thing that can go wrong.
I assumed you would most likely say that. Again I didn't come for expert advice like "go back in time and make a backup" or "opening a hard drive is bad." A clean room is not some magical environment where hard drives can live and frolic, it is just that a clean room. My house is not so filthy that literally two seconds of exposure is going to brick a hard drive. And you were the one who previously said "all data is lost" anyway. If you don't have any idea as to what is wrong with the the hard drive then your input is not helpful.
 
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Uh, yes, absolutely it is. At any rate this entire discussion is now moot since there is nothing left to recover.
you realize that that is exactly what is done by professionals who you send your hard drive to for recovery right? Most of them just use the desk in their office, some have a small glass container they put it in which is open to the air and does practically nothing. There was never any data for you to recover anyway, so the situation for you hasn't changed at all. There is still an unsolved problem of what is wrong with this hard drive. Which is what I am after more than the data anyway. If you don't have any helpful ideas as to what the problem could be then don't comment.
 
Three things here:

#1: Real professionals use class 100 clean rooms (or equivalent). It doesn't matter one whit what is wrong with the drive. It's no longer usable. Replace it and continue on.
#2: These forums are open to anyone at any time, you do not have any say in who does, or does not comment.
#3: You would do well to modify your attitude or your welcome could become worn out in a very short time.
 
May 1, 2020
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Three things here:

#1: Real professionals use class 100 clean rooms (or equivalent). It doesn't matter one whit what is wrong with the drive. It's no longer usable. Replace it and continue on.
#2: These forums are open to anyone at any time, you do not have any say in who does, or does not comment.
#3: You would do well to modify your attitude or your welcome could become worn out in a very short time.
#1 No one here has even once tried to think of an idea which salvages the bad hard drive or the data on it, only to recover partial data from the good hard drive which is still fully functional, so again, even if opening the hard drive for 2 seconds did completely ruin it (it didn't), nothing has changed whatsoever.
#2 I had a legitimate question and you have done nothing to try and answer it because you don't know the answer. All you have done is leave unhelpful comments. You are free to comment and I am free to tell you that your comment was unhelpful.
#3 I don't care if you ban me because I made this account yesterday it took approximately 5 seconds to create.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Given your initial description:
"Spanned drives and the first drive failed"....there is zero chance of full data recovery, even what theoretically lives on the "second drive".
The actual file table ($MFT) lived on the first drive of the set.

Without that...the best you can recover is file fragments. Maybe a very few complete files if they were small and lived 100% on the second drive. But those would be small and few.

Sorry if data recovery does not work like you (and apparently many others) think it should.
There is no magic bullet.

I'll not mention the real solution.
 
May 1, 2020
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Given your initial description:
"Spanned drives and the first drive failed"....there is zero chance of full data recovery, even what theoretically lives on the "second drive".
The actual file table ($MFT) lived on the first drive of the set.

Without that...the best you can recover is file fragments. Maybe a very few complete files if they were small and lived 100% on the second drive. But those would be small and few.

Sorry if data recovery does not work like you (and apparently many others) think it should.
There is no magic bullet.

I'll not mention the real solution.
But again, you have not once asked or considered what is wrong with the drive itself. Data recovery is almost entirely about fixing the failed hard drive in order to get the data back. For all you know it could be a very simple problem. I understand that hardware is probably not your specialty, and from a pure software perspective there is no way to fix it, so let someone else who knows about hardware chime in.
 
May 1, 2020
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From that, there is no clicky that would have fixed a physically dead or dying drive.
Im not looking for a clicky, I am looking for physical ways to fix the physical problem with the drive. I am familiar with the basic parts of a hard drive, how it works, and the typical problems. I have ruled out the usual ones like a stuck head or bad motor. Which is why I have now asked for people who know about hard drives for ideas on what else the problem could be. Yet all you seem interested in is how to get a few files off the still working drive, which I could obviously do myself by running any recovery software.
 
May 1, 2020
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If it was a "still working drive", we wouldn't be having this conversation.
The only drive you have mentioned recovery files from is the still working drive. Not the failed one, which is why I have no idea why we are having a conversation about how to get files off a working drive, I know how to do that. I'm asking about the broken one, you are the one who refuses to talk about the broken one.
 
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