Another knackered HD

  • Thread starter Thread starter anern
  • Start date Start date
A

anern

Hi, Sorry if this ground has been thoroughly covered but :

Anyone got good URLS for physical HD repair ?
Do you HAVE to have a clean room for once only recovery ?

Sequence of events (approx)
100% CPU use, system process (RED in Taskmanger) reboot to fix
[REBOOT]Unable to find kernal.DLL
[REBOOT]Access to FAT partition (disk has FAT & NTFS parts) OK then Disk
error
[REBOOT]BIOS reports DISK error, but drive detected
[REBOOT]Failure of BIOS to recognise drive (at all)
FDISK reports no fixed disks
It's a HITACHI 10Mb DK23BA-10 2.5in Laptop drive, sabotage a possibility,
the machine has not been physically abused during operation. The drive still
spins up.
I did run the Hitachi utility on it but I can't remember weather it picked
up the drive or not, I seem to recall a non-specific drive failure error.
Will run again if it's important.

Will bios ignore drive if it can't read anything from it ? (Virus doing
LowLevel format-like activity - but drive actually OK)

Cheers for any Help.
 
I did run the Hitachi utility on it but I can't remember weather it picked
up the drive or not, I seem to recall a non-specific drive failure error.
Will run again if it's important.
Click to expand...

hmmm?
 
Philo says `hmmmm`, can you blame him ?. Do you want to try to rescue your
drive, or throw it in the bin ? Run the hitachi drive test tools on it. If
they say the drive has recoverable errors, you can fdisk\reformat it and
start again. best wishes..J
 
anern said:
Hi, Sorry if this ground has been thoroughly covered but :

Anyone got good URLS for physical HD repair ?
Do you HAVE to have a clean room for once only recovery ?

Sequence of events (approx)
100% CPU use, system process (RED in Taskmanger) reboot to fix
[REBOOT]Unable to find kernal.DLL
[REBOOT]Access to FAT partition (disk has FAT & NTFS parts) OK then Disk
error
[REBOOT]BIOS reports DISK error, but drive detected
[REBOOT]Failure of BIOS to recognise drive (at all)
FDISK reports no fixed disks
It's a HITACHI 10Mb DK23BA-10 2.5in Laptop drive, sabotage a possibility,
Click to expand...
Yeah they've gone and shrunk it sown to a tiny capacity - presumably you
mean 10 GB?
the machine has not been physically abused during operation. The drive
still
spins up.
I did run the Hitachi utility on it but I can't remember weather it picked
up the drive or not, I seem to recall a non-specific drive failure error.
Will run again if it's important.
Click to expand...
Thats essential - how else are you supposed to diagnose the drives own
outputs. If you have another laptop of the same type then you could try
swapping drives just to rule out any controller or cable faults. If you
don't have another identical laptop then you could buy one of those adapters
that allows use of a 2.5" drive with a standard desktop machine IDE
controller - they're quite cheap and that would allow you to istall it as a
secondary drive in your desktop machine and the data may be able to be
copied off that way. As for undertaking any mechanical repairs - forget it.
If its an electrical PCB fault you may be able to rectify that by swapping
the board with another from an identical drive but other than that, if you
REALLY need the data of it then it means a visit to the data reclamation
specialists with a wheelbarrow full of money.
Will bios ignore drive if it can't read anything from it ? (Virus doing
LowLevel format-like activity - but drive actually OK)
Click to expand...
No, normally machines will still detect the actual HDD characteristics and
model, even if its completely empty/new/unpartitioned etc. My suggestion
above of connecting it via an adapter to a desktop machine should sort this
out.

Paul
 
Paul Murphy said:
anern said:
Hi, Sorry if this ground has been thoroughly covered but :

Anyone got good URLS for physical HD repair ?
Do you HAVE to have a clean room for once only recovery ?

Sequence of events (approx)
100% CPU use, system process (RED in Taskmanger) reboot to fix
[REBOOT]Unable to find kernal.DLL
[REBOOT]Access to FAT partition (disk has FAT & NTFS parts) OK then Disk
error
[REBOOT]BIOS reports DISK error, but drive detected
[REBOOT]Failure of BIOS to recognise drive (at all)
FDISK reports no fixed disks
It's a HITACHI 10Mb DK23BA-10 2.5in Laptop drive, sabotage a
Click to expand...
possibility,
Yeah they've gone and shrunk it sown to a tiny capacity - presumably you
mean 10 GB?
the machine has not been physically abused during operation. The drive
still
spins up.
I did run the Hitachi utility on it but I can't remember weather it picked
up the drive or not, I seem to recall a non-specific drive failure error.
Will run again if it's important.
Click to expand...
Thats essential - how else are you supposed to diagnose the drives own
outputs. If you have another laptop of the same type then you could try
swapping drives just to rule out any controller or cable faults. If you
don't have another identical laptop then you could buy one of those adapters
that allows use of a 2.5" drive with a standard desktop machine IDE
controller - they're quite cheap and that would allow you to istall it as a
secondary drive in your desktop machine and the data may be able to be
copied off that way. As for undertaking any mechanical repairs - forget it.
If its an electrical PCB fault you may be able to rectify that by swapping
the board with another from an identical drive but other than that, if you
REALLY need the data of it then it means a visit to the data reclamation
specialists with a wheelbarrow full of money.
Will bios ignore drive if it can't read anything from it ? (Virus doing
LowLevel format-like activity - but drive actually OK)
Click to expand...
No, normally machines will still detect the actual HDD characteristics and
model, even if its completely empty/new/unpartitioned etc. My suggestion
above of connecting it via an adapter to a desktop machine should sort this
out.

Paul
Click to expand...
Sorry, yea the drive is 10Gb, Ran Hitachi's utility and it detected the
drive (not detected by BIOS)
When the machine was switched on, lots of seeking with loud periodic tick
(whack more like) went on for a bit then stopped
when I tried autodetect in BIOS, this happened again, the same, no drive
detected.
Booted from Hitachi Floppy, Run Quick Test, says defective sectors, chose
repeair defective sectors, askes for serial number (When the util detects
the drive, the serial number is blank, Is any part of the HD hardware
flashable ?) I stick in one of the numbers off the bottom of the drive
(there are two : H9AC100917,3892A873 niether marker S/N) Does some more
seeking, reports Failure code 0x75, Defective Device, Component failure.
Technical result code 75736688.
I've replaced the drive with a 40Gb model and this has given no trouble for
months.I interpret this as OK controller and cable.
The drives got 4months of development work on it (Yes, now I backup
obsessively !)

I'd really appreciate any help.
 
Hi A. I think you`ve proved it`s scrap, and ALWAYS backup work you can`t
replace. I think most guys backup to second or spare hard drives. sorry
about your loss. best wishes..J
 
anern said:
Paul Murphy said:
anern said:
Hi, Sorry if this ground has been thoroughly covered but :

Anyone got good URLS for physical HD repair ?
Do you HAVE to have a clean room for once only recovery ?

Sequence of events (approx)
100% CPU use, system process (RED in Taskmanger) reboot to fix
[REBOOT]Unable to find kernal.DLL
[REBOOT]Access to FAT partition (disk has FAT & NTFS parts) OK then
Disk
error
[REBOOT]BIOS reports DISK error, but drive detected
[REBOOT]Failure of BIOS to recognise drive (at all)
FDISK reports no fixed disks
It's a HITACHI 10Mb DK23BA-10 2.5in Laptop drive, sabotage a
Click to expand...
possibility,
Yeah they've gone and shrunk it sown to a tiny capacity - presumably you
mean 10 GB?
the machine has not been physically abused during operation. The drive
still
spins up.
I did run the Hitachi utility on it but I can't remember weather it picked
up the drive or not, I seem to recall a non-specific drive failure error.
Will run again if it's important.
Click to expand...
Thats essential - how else are you supposed to diagnose the drives own
outputs. If you have another laptop of the same type then you could try
swapping drives just to rule out any controller or cable faults. If you
don't have another identical laptop then you could buy one of those adapters
that allows use of a 2.5" drive with a standard desktop machine IDE
controller - they're quite cheap and that would allow you to istall it as a
secondary drive in your desktop machine and the data may be able to be
copied off that way. As for undertaking any mechanical repairs - forget it.
If its an electrical PCB fault you may be able to rectify that by
swapping
the board with another from an identical drive but other than that, if
you
REALLY need the data of it then it means a visit to the data reclamation
specialists with a wheelbarrow full of money.
Will bios ignore drive if it can't read anything from it ? (Virus doing
LowLevel format-like activity - but drive actually OK)
Click to expand...
No, normally machines will still detect the actual HDD characteristics
and
model, even if its completely empty/new/unpartitioned etc. My suggestion
above of connecting it via an adapter to a desktop machine should sort this
out.

Paul
Click to expand...
Sorry, yea the drive is 10Gb, Ran Hitachi's utility and it detected the
drive (not detected by BIOS)
When the machine was switched on, lots of seeking with loud periodic tick
(whack more like) went on for a bit then stopped
when I tried autodetect in BIOS, this happened again, the same, no drive
detected.
Booted from Hitachi Floppy, Run Quick Test, says defective sectors, chose
repeair defective sectors, askes for serial number (When the util detects
the drive, the serial number is blank, Is any part of the HD hardware
flashable ?) I stick in one of the numbers off the bottom of the drive
(there are two : H9AC100917,3892A873 niether marker S/N) Does some more
seeking, reports Failure code 0x75, Defective Device, Component failure.
Technical result code 75736688.
I've replaced the drive with a 40Gb model and this has given no trouble
for
months.I interpret this as OK controller and cable.
The drives got 4months of development work on it (Yes, now I backup
obsessively !)

I'd really appreciate any help.
Click to expand...
The makers will know what that code indicates so it may be worth contacting
them about it, otherwise I'd suggest the old trick of wrapping it in an
antistatic bag and then sealing it in a zip-lock plastic bag (to help keep
moisture out) and putting it in the fridge for few hours. Then remove it and
connect it (as the only device) to the secondary channel on a desktop
machine (via a 2.5" -> 3.5" IDE adapter) and see how it goes in such a
configuration. As soon as its recognised don't delay in copying any data
from it right away as when it warms up it may fail again. The fact it's
currently "almost" being detected by the machine (and is being detected by
the makers util software) means not all hope is lost. What ever you do don't
attempt to write anything to it until you've copied any data from it that
its willing to release.

Paul
 
The drives got 4months of development work on it (Yes, now I backup
obsessively !)
Click to expand...

Given this, I'd not do anything more to the drive, rather
packing it up carefully and contacting some data recovery
agencies.
 
anern said:
Hi, Sorry if this ground has been thoroughly covered but :

Anyone got good URLS for physical HD repair ?
Do you HAVE to have a clean room for once only recovery ?

Sequence of events (approx)
100% CPU use, system process (RED in Taskmanger) reboot to fix
[REBOOT]Unable to find kernal.DLL
[REBOOT]Access to FAT partition (disk has FAT & NTFS parts) OK
then Disk
error
[REBOOT]BIOS reports DISK error, but drive detected
[REBOOT]Failure of BIOS to recognise drive (at all)
FDISK reports no fixed disks
It's a HITACHI 10Mb DK23BA-10 2.5in Laptop drive, sabotage a
possibility,
the machine has not been physically abused during operation.
The drive still
spins up.
I did run the Hitachi utility on it but I can't remember
weather it picked
up the drive or not, I seem to recall a non-specific drive
failure error.
Will run again if it's important.

Will bios ignore drive if it can't read anything from it ?
(Virus doing
LowLevel format-like activity - but drive actually OK)

Cheers for any Help.
Click to expand...

anern, having bad sector problems with a HITACHI DK23BA-20 (IBM
Thinkpad).
Do u have a link to the Hitachi utility you mention ? tks.
 
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