Is my external hard drive recoverable?

dr1nkus · 2017-06-08 20:44:02

Hi, again! I kept a broken Sony Vaio for replacement parts. The former owner claimed that the motherboard was dead, so I proceeded and tested the hard drive in an enclosure.
This was like a year ago, so I don't remember much of the operation, but what I do remeber is that I had to go CHKDSK /R on Windows to get it running for the first time.

Fast forward to the present time, I plugged the drive into my BL box and:

1) No filesystem (gksu gparted, delete, create FS=NFTS).
Gparted showed a notice saying it cannot read the filesystem --and yes, I've already installed ntfs-3g.

2) Thunar shows:

Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /media/martin/VAULT: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/sdb1" "/media/martin/VAULT"' exited with non-zero exit status 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/Output error
Failed to read $AttrDef, unexpected length (-1 != 2560).
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Input/Output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

Apparently there's no other way than Windows.

I ran CHKDSK /F and then CHKDSK /R in CMD and I got this: https://pastebin.com/5gw5pZu7

According to a few Windows tutorials, I had to reboot TWICE. That's what I did.

No results.

Back to BL I tried ntfsfix and e2fsck:

martin@JAZZCORE:~$ sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb
Mounting volume... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
NTFS signature is missing.
Trying the alternate boot sector
Unrecoverable error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
martin@JAZZCORE:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda
fsck from util-linux 2.25.2
e2fsck 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014)
/dev/sda está en uso.
e2fsck: No se puede continuar, se finaliza.


martin@JAZZCORE:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sdb
fsck from util-linux 2.25.2
e2fsck 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014)
ext2fs_open2(): Número mágico incorrecto en el superbloque
fsck.ext2: Superbloque es inválido, intentando los bloques de respaldo...
fsck.ext2: Número mágico incorrecto en el superbloque mientras se intentaba abrir /dev/sdb

El superbloque no se ha podido leer o no describe un sistema de ficheros ext2/ext3/ext4 válido.
Si el dispositivo es válido y contiene realmente un sistema de ficheros ext2/ext3/ext4
(y no uno de intercambio, ufs u otra cosa), entonces el superbloque está
corrompido y podría intentarse ejecutar e2fsck con un superbloque alternativo:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <dispositivo>
 o
    e2fsck -b 32768 <dispositivo>

Nothing seems to work. Is it time to say goodbye to my 300GB fellow, or is it anything else I can try?

Have a nice day.

DeepDayze · 2017-06-08 21:05:34

If there is nothing on it that is worth saving then why not attempt a format? You can also try to use testdisk or photorec if you do want to recover important files.

IMO that drive may be beyond repair.

dr1nkus · 2017-06-08 22:51:57

DeepDayze wrote:

IMO that drive may be beyond repair.

You may be right.

So, the drive is empty, indeed. I'm just doing this for the lulz to hear your 'best practises'.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-06-09 06:26:47

What does SMART have to say?

https://packages.debian.org/jessie/smartmontools

martix · 2017-06-11 18:53:13

Well, according to my experience, if it's about an ntfs file system (which it is), windows tools are the best choice (even if linux tools mentioned above are a great choice for certain situations).

I would not give up on the hdd yet. First I'd suggest the windows tool called dmde data recovery. If it does not work, there are some more to try.

dr1nkus · 2017-06-12 15:34:40

DeepDayze wrote:

You can also try to use testdisk

Here are the results of testdisk, may throw some light on the issue.
Unluckily, I cannot understand the output by myself.

https://pastebin.com/nqhYy8EZ

@Head_on_a_Stick I've never used smartmontools before. For what I've learned just recently, it consists of two tools (smartctl and smartd). What's the way to go from here?

and @matrix, thanks for the tip, I'll try that next.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I don't want to recover any information on that HDD, just format and use it again (in the case it's not damaged). I couldn't do that so far.

Last edited by dr1nkus (2017-06-12 15:36:35)

dr1nkus · 2017-06-12 17:35:17

UPDATE:

CANNOT format HDD as NTFS on BL through GParted, as I posted originally.
CAN format HDD as EXT4 (breaks Windows compatibility) or FAT32 (file size limit of ~4GB, theoretically that wouldn't be a limitation, but the reality is I'm hoping for the best outcome --no restrictions of any kind). HOWEVER...!
If HDD is formatted as FAT32, Windows 7 won't read it (neither File Manager nor Disk Management shows the unit).
Back to BL, plugged it in (FAT32), no rw for user, can only copy to/from with root.
Also tried formatting the FAT32 disk as NTFS even knowing it would throw an error, with no luck. I thought Disk Management in Windows would recognize the disk -although 'damaged'- and offer to format as NTFS. GParted does not complete the NTFS operation and falls back to FAT32.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-06-12 18:25:49

dr1nkus wrote:

@Head_on_a_Stick I've never used smartmontools before.

Me neither

What's the way to go from here?

I like to use https://www.startpage.com/ when I need to find out how to use software that I am unfamiliar with — why not try that?

There is also this general guide:

https://xkcd.com/627/

hth

martix · 2017-06-14 22:55:00

dr1nkus wrote:

I don't want to recover any information on that HDD, just format and use it again (in the case it's not damaged). I couldn't do that so far.

Oh, I see. I thought it's about recovery too. Anyhow it indeed looks like the symptoms of a beginning hardware failure (pay attention whether there are any strange noises while the hdd is working). I read about Smartmontools and there are also some similar tools on Windows, but to be honest I did not find anything particular useful when I was looking for something similar.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-06-15 06:06:36

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.

martix · 2017-06-22 11:04:38

Wanting to resurrect an old hdd I found a simple and useful tool called CrystalDiskInfo (windows). It was correctly showing that the hdd is in bad condition. I knew that. However there was a concrete "red" point: Reallocated sector count. At least I have direction now.

I read about Spinrite ''(not freeware), MHDD and Victoria. There are some useful manufacturer diagnostic tools as well (although they do not do what Spinrite does). There is also an article on lifewire called 14 free hard drive testing tools. Wanted to give Victoria a try, it looks a bit outdated though.

dr1nkus · 2017-07-16 00:29:05

martix wrote:

dr1nkus wrote:
I don't want to recover any information on that HDD, just format and use it again (in the case it's not damaged). I couldn't do that so far.
pay attention whether there are any strange noises while the hdd is working

Nope, nothing noticeable.
Gonna get a Windows box so I can check the rest of the software.
Thanks for the input, I'll post again as soon as something new comes up.

Last edited by dr1nkus (2017-07-16 00:32:57)

martix · 2017-07-16 03:21:36

Meanwhile I did mess around a bit and I'd suggest Spinrite (it does not need windows but dos). The bios has to be set to IDE in order to get it working correctly. There is a similar tool called HDD Regenerator. I did run it and it took four days. However the HDD still did not work right after that. I also read about other users having mixed experiences with HDD Regenerator (and if it's about recovery, there is a useful windows tool called getdataback).

KrunchTime · 2017-07-31 20:55:47

I can't believe how frequently people seem to have issues with external hard drives; go read reviews on Amazon. I can't wait until external SSDs drop in price (currently $730 for a 2TB Samsung SSD on Amazon) so we can be done with the inferiority of external HDDs.

Last edited by KrunchTime (2017-07-31 20:56:28)

martix · 2017-08-01 01:03:55

^That's true! I just checked two popular brands (same sizes) on amazon and it was interesting to notice the difference:

One less than 10% bad reviews, the other (a bit cheaper) one 15% (less than four stars).

It's kind of shocking. I mean if there are over six thousand sales and around ten percent really bad complains (quote: Complete Failure at Seven Months; My drive failed after only 5 weeks; DEFECTIVE OUT OF THE BOX; Died on me after 4 months... seems to be a hit or miss; Buyers beware! Died after 6 weeks; One of the two drives failed before it arrived, and it wouldn't mount to my computer. The second drive failed 5 months later, and I lost important data; Purchased this item 9 months ago. There have been no accidents and I have taken great care of the drive, but as a few days ago the disk is corrupted and unreadable - and so on and so forth...)

I expected less, maybe around 2-3%. Some manufacturers really do not seem to care... (In my case it was NOT the manufacturer though as I accidentally dropped it to the floor and even after that I could save all the data). From all the drives I made good experiences with Toshiba, but there are other good ones too. As mentioned above, it can be useful to read customer reviews.

KrunchTime · 2017-08-01 06:09:32

The best external hard drive I've ever owned was something called the Firefly. That thing never failed me and was still working when I got rid of it. I got rid of it because my needs were outgrowing the capacity. I had an Iomega...I should have known better from their click-of-death Zip drives. That drive would just stop working in the middle of file transfers and then I couldn't reconnect to it. Absolute worse external hard drive I've ever owned. I now have a Buffalo external drive. The drive itself is great but the case was made of cheap plastic and has cracked in two places. The case seems like it's ready to come apart in halves. I'm trying to find another candidate to replace it, but I don't get warm fuzzies reading the reviews on Amazon and I don't have the money for a comparable SSD.

Last edited by KrunchTime (2017-08-01 06:10:06)

KrunchTime · 2017-08-01 20:00:15

^ Thank you for that. I actually came upon that about 2 or 3 days ago when I was researching the most reliable external hard drives. Link to main hard drive data and stats page from Backblaze: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/hard-drive-test-data.html.

Scroll about a third of the way down on this page for annualized hard drive failure rates covering the period 04/2013 - 12/2016; stats for 30 different drives.

20170801-01 edit:
I'm not sure how useful the above info is for portable/external hard drives, as you also have to contend with the circuitry built into the enclosures.

So, I did a bit of sleuthing and discovered that Hitachi's portable hard drives are called Touro. And...drum roll...they're made by Western Digital. You just can't win.

See the bottom of the page about WD manufacturing the Touro drives.
http://www.touropro.com/en/product/touro-s/index.html

Last edited by KrunchTime (2017-08-01 21:30:19)

martix · 2017-08-01 21:57:36

@earlybird I can confirm those experiences with Seagate. It's interesting though that those Hitachi HGST Touro external (I'm talking only about external 2,5 drives here) hard drives received relatively bad reviews on amazon. I just checked the 2 TB version, 125 reviews, all in all only three and a half stars (13% one star rating). This is not really convincing as there are other brands with four and a half stars (which is a big difference imo). Btw those Touros received only three and a half for the 4 TB version too.

Sometimes it's a bit funny to read those one star reviews (like: "I HATE MYSELF THAT BOUGHT THIS STUPID HARD DRIVE. IT'S JUST CRASHED EASILY BY NO REASON 6 MONTH LATER."; Well, for no frills storage I was quite happy with it. Until it died after 3 months. It just kept making the dreading 'clunk' noise). This is hilarious:

Andrea, my darling, could you please elaborate a bit more?

KrunchTime · 2017-08-01 22:04:21

martix wrote:

It's interesting though that those Hitachi HGST Touro external (I'm talking only about external 2,5 drives here) hard drives received relatively bad reviews on amazon.

Maybe because they're made by WD...see my post prior to yours.

martix · 2017-08-02 14:10:41

Hmmm, indeed:
"Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) manufactures computer hard drives. There are 3 main ranges: Hitachi Travelstar, Hitachi Deskstar, and Hitachi Ultrastar. On March 7, 2011 Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was purchased by Western Digital Corporation. Due to concerns of a duopoly of WD and Seagate Technology by the EU Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, Hitachi's 3.5" HDD division was sold to Toshiba. The transaction was completed in March 2012."

If I understand this correctly, there are no more Hitachi hard disk drives... For heaven's sake, how can you sell your HDD division, when exactly this market-segment is booming (and you have a well established brand name too)!?

So what is left (big players)? WD, Toshiba, Seagate...

#1 2017-06-08 20:44:02

Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#2 2017-06-08 21:05:34

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#3 2017-06-08 22:51:57

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#4 2017-06-09 06:26:47

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#5 2017-06-11 18:53:13

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#6 2017-06-12 15:34:40

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#7 2017-06-12 17:35:17

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#8 2017-06-12 18:25:49

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#9 2017-06-14 22:55:00

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#10 2017-06-15 06:06:36

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#11 2017-06-22 11:04:38

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#12 2017-07-16 00:29:05

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#13 2017-07-16 03:21:36

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#14 2017-07-31 20:55:47

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#15 2017-08-01 01:03:55

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#16 2017-08-01 06:09:32

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#17 2017-08-01 20:00:15

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#18 2017-08-01 21:57:36

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#19 2017-08-01 22:04:21

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

#20 2017-08-02 14:10:41

Re: Is my external hard drive recoverable?

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