Samsung HD103SI hard-drive fail.

[Matador El]

My external hardrive failed 1 and a half years after use.Its not under warranty anymore.

Basically it boots up,and is detected but cannot be accessed.The pop-up window says the drive cannot be access until formatted.

I removed the drive from the case,and connected it to the computer with no change.

I downloaded Seagate tools for window and the drive failed every test.
DFT for windows shows the fail for Smart check,but a pass for "read error check".The status of the test is failure.

Is there any way to recover the data on my own?Or if I format the harddrive will it be recoverable or is that just a system glitch?

I cannot run Seagate tools for dos since I don't have a cd-rom.


Any help with salvaging the contents of the hard-drive or the harddrive itself will be helpful.Thanks.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

"Is there any way to recover the data on my own?"
Definitely not.

"I cannot run Seagate tools for dos since I don't have a cd-rom".
That wouldn't help anyway since SeaTools for DOS cannot test USB storage devices.
That's why they have the Windows version.

"Any help with salvaging the contents of the hard-drive"
Only one option - - a professional data-recovery service - but be prepared for a shock when they quote you a price.

Lesson: you should have backed up the contents of that drive to another hard drive or to blank DVD media.
Always backup any data that you cannot easily replace.

 

[fzabkar]

@Matador, what does CrystalDiskInfo report for your drive?

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

When you say that you had no luck connecting the drive to your computer's motherboard, was the drive visible in BIOS?


When you say that the drive "boots up", do you mean that it spins up?

 

[Matador El]

"I cannot run Seagate tools for dos since I don't have a cd-rom".
That wouldn't help anyway since SeaTools for DOS cannot test USB storage devices.
That's why they have the Windows version.

I removed the hard drive from the casing and connected it directly to my computer.

@fzadkar,I will try that when I get home.
I wasn't clear,I meant that I had no luck in getting it to work after removing it from the case and connecting it to the motherboard.

Yes,it spins up.

 

[Matador El]

Crystal disk info
Every option is Blue in the results.But relocated sectors is red.Current pending sector count is yellow.The health status of the drive is "bad".Temperature is 18 degrees Celsius.

 

[fzabkar]

@Matador, your drive is seriously ill. One or more heads/surfaces are probably degraded.

IMHO your only DIY opportunity would be to clone your drive, sector by sector, using a tool that understands how to work around bad media (eg ddrescue) and then run data recovery software against the clone.

Ddrescue can perform multipass cloning. It clones the easy sectors on the first pass, and attempts the more difficult ones on subsequent passes. It can also clone your drive in reverse, thereby disabling lookahead caching. It keeps a log, allowing it to resume after an interruption.

http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Ubuntu Rescue Remix:
http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/

Install Ubuntu Rescue Remix to a Flash Drive:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-ubuntu-rescue-remix-to-a-flash-drive/

Clone a failing Windows hard disk with ddrescue on Ubuntu Rescue Remix:
http://keystoneisit.blogspot.com/2011/08/clone-failing-windows-hard-disk-with.html

 

[Matador El]

Thanks fzabkar,I have been trying to install this application,but I don't know how,None of the downloaded files are launchable.I'm on Windows 7.

 

[fzabkar]

It appears that your drive may be bogging down when accessing bad sectors. You can examine the drive's diagnostic report via its serial terminal interface. You can also disable read retries and reallocation. This will give you a better chance of recovering your data. You will need to purchase a TTL adapter.

More information at the HDD Oracle:

http://www.hddoracle.com

 

[fzabkar]

I should add that I'm not familiar with Samsung's terminal commands, so I don't know which commands are the appropriate ones for your model. If you can't get ddrescue to work, then DIY data recovery will be difficult. :-(