IDE to USB - HDD won;t Initialize

[chris_shadez]

Bought a IDE/SATA to USB connector device to recover data from an old dead laptop.
The 2.5" IDE HDD successfully boots up and shows as Disk 2 but can't intialize to get the data...

The device boots up, was able to name/set it as "Disk 2" but is failing to "initialize,"
It shows as;
Disk 2
Unknown
18.63GB
Not initialized

If i try to initialize as either GPT or MBR, i get errors

 

[DataMedic]

It would appear that the drive is failing to initialize and is going into safe mode (used for technician access). Likely the drive has firmware corruption, or bad read/write heads. If the data is important, you'll want to seek out a data recovery company. There isn't much you can do to fix this yourself unless you're willing to invest tens of thousands in equipment.

 

[DataMedic]

And just for future reference, if you're trying to recover data from a drive the last thing you should do is initialize it. That actually writes a new partition table to the drive, overwriting the existing one. It's a quick way to further complicate a data recovery situation.

 

[fzabkar]

What does CrystalDiskInfo or HD Sentinel tell you about the drive?

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
http://www.hdsentinel.com

Was the drive protected by a password?

The reported capacity is consistent with a 20GiB drive (18.63GB = 20.0GiB). Is that what it is?

Can you see sector 0 or the partitions with DMDE (freeware disc editor)?

http://dmde.com

 

[chris_shadez]

Not needed to intialize a used HDD before so was confused there too
Drive is from a very old laptop, more info on the drive and laptop in this thread
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2423427/ata-ide-usb-sata-cable-caddy.html

Crystal disk info

 

[fzabkar]

HD Sentinel should tell you if a HDD password is active. That's the most likely problem AISI. Look for "security" related settings.

As for SMART, the drive has an unknown number of reallocated sectors. The normalised value of the Reallocated Sector Count has fallen from 100 to 92, but the raw value of the attribute remains at 0. Also, the Reallocation Event Count is showing 415 (= 0x19F) events.

BTW, I don't know of any tool that can set up a password challenge via USB.

 

[chris_shadez]

As posted in the other threat linked above, it's my fathers' old work laptop and to his memory, it had no password to logon.

Here's a report from HD sentinel. As for what to do with it... don't know? what would you advise me to do with the program? Cannot see where it shows if it is password protected, but would not have and issue with that in through Kali
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard Disk Summary
Hard Disk Number,2
Interface,SAT Standard USB/ATA
Vendor Information,"VID: 152D, PID: 2338"
Hard Disk Model ID,IC25N020ATDA04-0
Firmware Revision,DA3OA70A
Hard Disk Serial Number,63063L35988
Total Size,19077 MB
Power State,Active

ATA Information
Hard Disk Cylinders,38760
Hard Disk Heads,16
Hard Disk Sectors,63
ATA Revision,ATA/ATAPI-5 T13 1321D version 3
Total Sectors,39070080
Bytes Per Sector,512
Buffer Size,1806 KB
Multiple Sectors,16
Error Correction Bytes,4
Unformatted Capacity,19077 MB
Maximum PIO Mode,4
Maximum Multiword DMA Mode,2
Maximum UDMA Mode,100 MB/s (5)
Active UDMA Mode,100 MB/s (5)
Minimum multiword DMA Transfer Time,120 ns
Recommended Multiword DMA Transfer Time,120 ns
Minimum PIO Transfer Time Without IORDY,240 ns
Minimum PIO Transfer Time With IORDY,120 ns
ATA Control Byte,Valid
ATA Checksum Value,Valid

Acoustic Management Configuration
Acoustic Management,Not supported
Acoustic Management,Disabled
Current Acoustic Level,Default (00h)
Recommended Acoustic Level,Default (00h)

ATA Features
Read Ahead Buffer,"Supported, Enabled"
DMA,Supported
Ultra DMA,Supported
S.M.A.R.T.,Supported
Power Management,Supported
Write Cache,Supported
Host Protected Area,Supported
Advanced Power Management,"Supported, Enabled"
Advanced Power Management Level,Minimum power consumption without standby (128)
Extended Power Management,Not supported
Power Up In Standby,Supported
48-bit LBA Addressing,Not supported
Device Configuration Overlay,Supported
IORDY Support,Supported
Read/Write DMA Queue,Not supported
NOP Command,Supported
Trusted Computing,Not supported
64-bit World Wide ID,Not supported
Streaming,Not supported
Media Card Pass Through,Not supported
General Purpose Logging,Not supported
Error Logging,Supported
CFA Feature Set,Not supported
CFast Device,Not supported
Long Physical Sectors (1),Not supported
Long Logical Sectors,Not supported
Write-Read-Verify,Not supported
NV Cache Feature,Not supported
NV Cache Power Mode,Not supported
NV Cache Size,Not supported
Free-fall Control,Not supported
Free-fall Control Sensitivity,Not supported

SSD Features
Data Set Management,Not supported
TRIM Command,Not supported
Deterministic Read After TRIM,Not supported

S.M.A.R.T. Details
Off-line Data Collection Status,Never Started
Self Test Execution Status,Successfully Completed
Total Time To Complete Off-line Data Collection,645 seconds
Execute Off-line Immediate,Supported
Abort/restart Off-line By Host,Not supported
Off-line Read Scanning,Supported
Short Self-test,Supported
Extended Self-test,Supported
Conveyance Self-test,Not supported
Selective Self-Test,Not supported
Save Data Before/After Power Saving Mode,Supported
Enable/Disable Attribute Autosave,Supported
Error Logging Capability,Supported
Short Self-test Estimated Time,2 minutes
Extended Self-test Estimated Time,27 minutes
Last Short Self-test Result,Never Started
Last Short Self-test Date,Never Started
Last Extended Self-test Result,Never Started
Last Extended Self-test Date,Never Started

Security Mode
Security Mode,Supported
Security Erase,Supported
Security Erase Time,24 minutes
Security Enhanced Erase Feature,Not supported
Security Enhanced Erase Time,Not supported
Security Enabled,Yes
Security Locked,Yes
Security Frozen,No
Security Counter Expired,No
Security Level,High

Serial ATA Features
S-ATA Compliance,No
S-ATA I Signaling Speed (1.5 Gps),Not supported
S-ATA II Signaling Speed (3 Gps),Not supported
S-ATA Gen3 Signaling Speed (6 Gps),Not supported
Receipt Of Power Management Requests From Host,Not supported
PHY Event Counters,Not supported
Non-Zero Buffer Offsets In DMA Setup FIS,Not supported
DMA Setup Auto-Activate Optimization,Not supported
Device Initiating Interface Power Management,Not supported
In-Order Data Delivery,Not supported
Asynchronous Notification,Not supported
Software Settings Preservation,Not supported
Native Command Queuing (NCQ),Not supported
Queue Length,Not supported

Disk Information
Disk Family,Travelstar 30GN
Form Factor,"2.5"" "
Capacity,"20 GB (20 x 1,000,000,000 bytes)"
Number Of Disks,2
Number Of Heads,3
Rotational Speed,4200 RPM
Rotation Time,14.29 ms
Average Rotational Latency,7.14 ms
Disk Interface,Ultra-ATA/100
Buffer-Host Max. Rate,100 MB/seconds
Buffer Size,2048 KB
Drive Ready Time (typical),? seconds
Average Seek Time,12.0 ms
Track To Track Seek Time,2.5 ms
Full Stroke Seek Time,23.0 ms
Width,70.0 mm (2.8 inch)
Depth,100.0 mm (3.9 inch)
Height,9.5 mm (0.4 inch)
Weight,99 grams (0.2 pounds)
Acoustic (Idle),2.3 Bel
Acoustic (Min performance and volume),2.7 Bel
Acoustic (Max performance and volume),2.9 Bel
Required power for spinup,940 mA
Power required (seek),2.3 W
Power required (idle),1.0 W
Power required (standby),0.3 W
Manufacturer,Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Manufacturer Website,http://www.hgst.com
_________________________________________________________

In the Overview, it also states, Quote>

The drive tried to examine and reallocate data sector(s) 415 times. The examined data area is perfect.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.

It is recommended to continuously monitor the hard disk status.
________________________________________________________________________________________
S.M.A.R.T.

 

[fzabkar]

Security Enabled,Yes
Security Locked,Yes
Security Frozen,No
Security Counter Expired,No
Security Level,High

Your drive is protected by an ATA password.

 

[chris_shadez]

Ah ok thanks.
Question is, how can i use this disk in a way where i can enter possible passwords?
Would have expected a password prompt alert to enter the disk, as you would with password protected flash drives or zip files through the OS (windows 8.1)

edit - expected the drive to show up as when any external disk is plugged in

when plugged into a Linux pc, disk management shows partitioning as "Not Partitioned" And ofcourse, won't show it in My Computer

As in the other thread, the laptop when used with an external monitor, does show a password prompt on bootup but does not allow BIOS to be entered either too, to boot through an external device OS.
Entering a password also does not seem possible, it won't show the digits typed/being typed as asterisks as usually expected.

He still works with the same company/job as when laptop was in use, their IT tech had no luck with it so left it with him as a dead end.

Guess it's a dead end issue and laptop is gone for good. Just would have been nice to recover photo's of the old projects, nothing important.

 

[fzabkar]

There are tools such as MHDD, Victoria for Windows, hdparm.

However, be aware that an HDD password that was created via BIOS will probably be in the form of keyboard scan codes rather than ASCII.

See http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=614&p=1620

You can send the password as hexadecimal numbers as in the following example:

hdparm --security-unlock $(printf '\x38\x3A\xD8\x63\x57\xC4\x98\x74\xB0\xD7\x91\x9C\x20\xAF\x88\x73\xCC\x74\xD0\xE9\x60\x37\x07\x4D\xA8\x24\x39\x23\x42\x25\xA8\x5F') /dev/ice

Replace "/dev/ice" with your actual device name, eg /dev/sdb.