Chkdsk says it's a RAW drive!

[mm]

The message said, roughly.

You have a RAW drive. Chkdsk will not work with a RAW drive.

This used to be a FAT32 drive that ran winME, and chkdsk used to work
on it. Wha' happened?

Can a HDD go bad just sitting around, like batteries do?


Details:
I haven't used my IBM Thinkpad 600E for a couple years. For the last
3 months I've been searching for the power cord, which should have
been on the floor right next to the computer. Impatient, I took the
drive out of the computer, verrry easy to do, and connected it via a
Rosewill RCW618 SATA/IDE adapter cable, and the directory structure
was there, and some files, and I could copy them, but many files
seemed not to be there, or couldn't be read. I tried .jpg files
especially because it's easy to tell if they "work". Some appeared
quickly, others seemed not to appear at all, and one showed up after
minutes I think, after first only the top quarter of the picture
showed, and I had gone to an entirely different program for ten
minutes, and came back to find the picture fully displayed.

But eventually the "F: drive" dropped off the list of drives in
Windows Explorer!! I could unplug it and plug it back in, but this
time it came and went faster.

So I tried other hardware, a 2 1/2 inch enclosure that I'd never used
before. Again I could see the directory structure, and lists of files
with their lengths, etc. but many were missing.

So even now the drive works a little but chkdsk says it's a RAW drive.

Any suggestions as to how to get my data off.

Thanks a lot.


FTR, I already copied 3 years ago all the .jpg files to another
computer which is backed up. All I really would like is the email t
that I sent and got on a trip I took, since I plan to got there again,
and really only a couple addresses, which I can eventually replace,
but maybe there are things I've forgotten.

 

[Arno]

The message said, roughly.

You have a RAW drive. Chkdsk will not work with a RAW drive.

This used to be a FAT32 drive that ran winME, and chkdsk used to work
on it. Wha' happened?

Can a HDD go bad just sitting around, like batteries do?

Yes. The surface magnetization weakens over time.
Electrolyte capacitors go bad. Lubrication fluid
may leak or go bad. HDDs are unsuitable as a
long-term storage or archival medium.

Details:
I haven't used my IBM Thinkpad 600E for a couple years. For the last
3 months I've been searching for the power cord, which should have
been on the floor right next to the computer. Impatient, I took the
drive out of the computer, verrry easy to do, and connected it via a
Rosewill RCW618 SATA/IDE adapter cable, and the directory structure
was there, and some files, and I could copy them, but many files
seemed not to be there, or couldn't be read. I tried .jpg files
especially because it's easy to tell if they "work". Some appeared
quickly, others seemed not to appear at all, and one showed up after
minutes I think, after first only the top quarter of the picture
showed, and I had gone to an entirely different program for ten
minutes, and came back to find the picture fully displayed.

But eventually the "F: drive" dropped off the list of drives in
Windows Explorer!! I could unplug it and plug it back in, but this
time it came and went faster.

Sounds like a lot of retries needed to read.

So I tried other hardware, a 2 1/2 inch enclosure that I'd never used
before. Again I could see the directory structure, and lists of files
with their lengths, etc. but many were missing.

So even now the drive works a little but chkdsk says it's a RAW drive.

Chkdsk, like many other MS "tools" is of atrocously bad
quality. Ignore whatever it sais, it is misleading.

Any suggestions as to how to get my data off.

Thanks a lot.

FTR, I already copied 3 years ago all the .jpg files to another
computer which is backed up. All I really would like is the email t
that I sent and got on a trip I took, since I plan to got there again,
and really only a couple addresses, which I can eventually replace,
but maybe there are things I've forgotten.

Ordinarily, I would suggest professional data recovery from a
reputable (!) outfit. (Lots of fraudulent and incompetent
ones out there...).

In this case, locate the specific files, and try to copy them
a dozend times or so. If that does not work, then professional
data recovery is the only chance and it is a slim or really
expensive (>> 1000 EUR/USD) one.

But quite frankly, your chances are slim. Better prepare to
deal with not getting this data and think about what to do
differently next time.

Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

The message said, roughly.

You have a RAW drive. Chkdsk will not work with a RAW drive.

This used to be a FAT32 drive that ran winME,
and chkdsk used to work on it. Wha' happened?

Someth8ing got corrupted in the directory structures.

Can a HDD go bad just sitting around,
Yes.

like batteries do?

Nothing like the effect with batterys.

You can get a semiconductor failure or the failure
of a pcb trace or dry joint just sitting around.

Details:
I haven't used my IBM Thinkpad 600E for a couple years. For the last
3 months I've been searching for the power cord, which should have
been on the floor right next to the computer. Impatient, I took the
drive out of the computer, verrry easy to do, and connected it via a
Rosewill RCW618 SATA/IDE adapter cable, and the directory structure
was there, and some files, and I could copy them, but many files
seemed not to be there, or couldn't be read. I tried .jpg files
especially because it's easy to tell if they "work". Some appeared
quickly, others seemed not to appear at all, and one showed up after
minutes I think, after first only the top quarter of the picture
showed, and I had gone to an entirely different program for ten
minutes, and came back to find the picture fully displayed.

Thats evidence that the drive is having problems reading the sectors.

But eventually the "F: drive" dropped off the list of drives in Windows Explorer!!

Because the drive has a warmup fault.

I could unplug it and plug it back in, but this time it came and went faster.

So I tried other hardware, a 2 1/2 inch enclosure that I'd never
used before. Again I could see the directory structure, and
lists of files with their lengths, etc. but many were missing.

So even now the drive works a little but chkdsk says it's a RAW drive.

Because the corruption has involved the directory structures now.

Any suggestions as to how to get my data off.

You may find that putting the drive in a plastic bag and putting it in
the freezer will allow you to get the data off the drive quickly before
it warms up. You may have corrupted the directory structures too
much now and you may find that is not visible to Win again.

Thanks a lot.

FTR, I already copied 3 years ago all the .jpg files to another
computer which is backed up. All I really would like is the email t
that I sent and got on a trip I took, since I plan to got there again,
and really only a couple addresses, which I can eventually replace,
but maybe there are things I've forgotten.

Try freezing the drive.

 

[mm]

Thank you, Arno and Rod for replying.

Someth8ing got corrupted in the directory structures.


Nothing like the effect with batterys.

I was sort of kidding.

You can get a semiconductor failure or the failure
of a pcb trace or dry joint just sitting around.


Thats evidence that the drive is having problems reading the sectors.
Okay.


Because the drive has a warmup fault.
Okay!!



Because the corruption has involved the directory structures now.


You may find that putting the drive in a plastic bag and putting it in
the freezer will allow you to get the data off the drive quickly before
it warms up. You may have corrupted the directory structures too
much now and you may find that is not visible to Win again.

Well, that's a great idea and it's still worth a try.

Try freezing the drive.

Maybe after the freezer I can even put it in a little cooler or a
couple layers of thick paper bag with some blue-ice or something that
will keep it cool longer. (wrapped to keep condensation away from the
drive.) OTOH, I've narrowed it down to only 2 or 3 files I really
want, which should go quickly.

I'll try this tomorrow. Thanks a lot.


FTR 've narrowed it down to two basic files that I really want, the
Outbox and the Address book. And I've found a few of the addresses
in the inbox, when they wrote back to me.

I found everything from the Inbox on my regular desktop computer,
because I didn't delete anyting from the server when using the
laptop, so it would all go to my desktop too when I got home. Next
time, from now on whenever I use a laptop, I'll send a copy to myself
of everything I send.

 

[Man-wai Chang]

Maybe after the freezer I can even put it in a little cooler or a

couple layers of thick paper bag with some blue-ice or something that
will keep it cool longer. (wrapped to keep condensation away from the
drive.) OTOH, I've narrowed it down to only 2 or 3 files I really
want, which should go quickly.

Be careful of condensation when you take the drive out of the freezer! I
would not recommend this.


--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.36.2
^ ^ 23:56:01 up 4 days 6:01 1 user load average: 1.04 1.04 1.00
ä¸å€Ÿè²¸! ä¸è©é¨™! ä¸æ´äº¤! ä¸æ‰“交! ä¸æ‰“劫! ä¸è‡ªæ®º! è«‹è€ƒæ…®ç¶œæ´ (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa

 

[mm]

Be careful of condensation when you take the drive out of the freezer! I
would not recommend this.

Thanks for the warning. At this point I have nothing to lose**.

My memory is not what it used to be in two ways.

1) Late last night I realized I had known about this method 10 or 15
years ago, but forgot. Just now I realized I think I used it once and
it worked. (and still I forgot about it!) I'm glad Rod reminded me.

2) In the opposite direction, late last night doing general file
maintenance, I came across an xxcopy log file for this very computer,
where I copied 4 gigs to the F: drive. Now I just have to find this
F: drive! It might be a spare drive in an usb external enclosure. I
have two of these but don't use them anymore.

I won't have time to look, or to chill my drive, until tomorrow.

**I also forgot to say that -- I don't know if this has anything to do
with it, but in a reversion from 60 years old to teenage, I used the
laptop 3 years ago to crack open a pistachio nut, while it wss
running. Not hitting the nut but squeezing it against the table. The
nut went flying across the room and I never found it. The computer
worked fine until I tried to restart it. Then I had to run chkdsk for
60 hours, about 5 or 10 minutes for each error it found, until it
worked again. Something like 500 bad sectors out of a million. (The
numbers don't add up but I've forgotten the details of this too.)
After that, I used the computer for about 30 hours over 3 months and
everything worked fine.

Then I stopped using it until I couldnt' find the cord and took the
harddrive out this week. I don't know if the earler crash I created
was responsible for the failure this week or not.

Thanks all

 

[Man-wai Chang]

with it, but in a reversion from 60 years old to teenage, I used the

laptop 3 years ago to crack open a pistachio nut, while it wss
running. Not hitting the nut but squeezing it against the table. The
nut went flying across the room and I never found it. The computer
worked fine until I tried to restart it. Then I had to run chkdsk for

What a way of killing a hard disk! Some hard disks could take 300 G
(gravity) when powered off. Not sure about the one in your notebook!

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.36.2
^ ^ 00:26:01 up 4 days 6:31 1 user load average: 1.00 1.01 1.00
ä¸å€Ÿè²¸! ä¸è©é¨™! ä¸æ´äº¤! ä¸æ‰“交! ä¸æ‰“劫! ä¸è‡ªæ®º! è«‹è€ƒæ…®ç¶œæ´ (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for the warning. At this point I have nothing to lose**.

My memory is not what it used to be in two ways.

1) Late last night I realized I had known about this method 10 or 15
years ago, but forgot. Just now I realized I think I used it once and
it worked. (and still I forgot about it!) I'm glad Rod reminded me.

2) In the opposite direction, late last night doing general file
maintenance, I came across an xxcopy log file for this very computer,
where I copied 4 gigs to the F: drive. Now I just have to find this
F: drive! It might be a spare drive in an usb external enclosure. I
have two of these but don't use them anymore.

I won't have time to look, or to chill my drive, until tomorrow.

**I also forgot to say that -- I don't know if this has anything to do
with it, but in a reversion from 60 years old to teenage, I used the
laptop 3 years ago to crack open a pistachio nut, while it wss
running. Not hitting the nut but squeezing it against the table. The
nut went flying across the room and I never found it. The computer
worked fine until I tried to restart it. Then I had to run chkdsk for
60 hours, about 5 or 10 minutes for each error it found, until it
worked again. Something like 500 bad sectors out of a million. (The
numbers don't add up but I've forgotten the details of this too.)
After that, I used the computer for about 30 hours over 3 months and
everything worked fine.

Then I stopped using it until I couldnt' find the cord and took the
harddrive out this week. I don't know if the earler crash I created
was responsible for the failure this week or not.

More likely it was just a coincidence that the bads developed
at about the same time that you used it on the nut.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

The message said, roughly.

You have a RAW drive. Chkdsk will not work with a RAW drive.

This used to be a FAT32 drive that ran winME, and chkdsk used to work
on it. Wha' happened?

You need to clone your drive ASAP, sector by sector, and then use data
recovery software on your clone, if necessary.

Some freeware cloning tools are ...

HDclone: http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html
dd_rescue: http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
ddrescue: http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Comparison between ddrescue and dd_rescue:
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue

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. Ddrescue maintains a log, which means it can resume
after an interruption, such as when your drive hangs or goes AWOL.

Cloning tools such as Acronis do not understand how to work around bad
sectors. This makes them effectively useless. Don't be tempted to use
CHKDSK in repair mode. It will most likely exacerbate the file system
damage.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddrescue#Recovery-oriented_variants_of_dd
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk

The following is a GNU ddrescue example from Wikipedia:

# first, grab most of the error-free areas in a hurry:

ddrescue -n /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

# then try to recover as much of the dicey areas as possible:

ddrescue -r 1 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Arno]

**I also forgot to say that -- I don't know if this has anything to do
with it, but in a reversion from 60 years old to teenage, I used the
laptop 3 years ago to crack open a pistachio nut, while it wss
running. Not hitting the nut but squeezing it against the table. The
nut went flying across the room and I never found it. The computer
worked fine until I tried to restart it. Then I had to run chkdsk for
60 hours, about 5 or 10 minutes for each error it found, until it
worked again. Something like 500 bad sectors out of a million. (The
numbers don't add up but I've forgotten the details of this too.)
After that, I used the computer for about 30 hours over 3 months and
everything worked fine.

Then I stopped using it until I couldnt' find the cord and took the
harddrive out this week. I don't know if the earler crash I created
was responsible for the failure this week or not.

Wups, sounds likely. If you got a large number of defects, then
you damaged the head assembly, no other way to get that outcome
from mechanical shock.

Personal rule-of-thumb: Treat a running HDD like a raw egg,
only more careful, because cleaning up when it breaks is a whole
lot more messy.

Arno

 

[Arno]

You need to clone your drive ASAP, sector by sector, and then use data
recovery software on your clone, if necessary.

Some freeware cloning tools are ...

HDclone: http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html
dd_rescue: http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
ddrescue: http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Comparison between ddrescue and dd_rescue:
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue

Nice! I have meant to write something like ddrescue for some
time, yet never found the time (or pressing need) so far.

Arno

 

[mm]

I forgot that after that, I reinstalled Win ME, and then two pieces of
software, like maybe Adobe Reader and something else imporant, before
the computer worked completely. That is, everything I tried to do
worked.

Wups, sounds likely. If you got a large number of defects, then
you damaged the head assembly, no other way to get that outcome
from mechanical shock.

Do you think that's consistent with running chkdsk for 60 hours**,
reinstalling winME and the other software, and then working fine for
30 hours?

**Every time it found a bad sector, it did a lot of testing and then
copying the data somewhere else, and when I watched it took about 5
(or was it 10) minutes when it found an error. The errors tended to
be in groups.

Personal rule-of-thumb: Treat a running HDD like a raw egg,
only more careful, because cleaning up when it breaks is a whole
lot more messy.

I'm normally very careful with everything. A couple weeks earlier, I
failed to see a step, tripped and fell and all my efforts were devoted
to keeping the laptop from hitting the ground. And the computer
worked fine after that. I don't know what happened with the nuts. I
had a whole bag and had eaten them all day, and there were about 8
left that didn't open enough and so I couldn't pry them open.
Pistachios are a lot stronger than peanuts and there was really no
chance I could break the shell, but still I tried it.

But I"m sure that's what damaged the disk. I had no problems at all
before then, and it's not surprising it worked for the rest of that
session, since on the road I only use 2 or 3 programs and they were
already loaded. And it wouldn't start the next time I tried, the
next day.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The message said, roughly.

You have a RAW drive. Chkdsk will not work with a RAW drive.

This used to be a FAT32 drive that ran winME, and chkdsk used to work
on it. Wha' happened?

Can a HDD go bad just sitting around, like batteries do?


Details:
I haven't used my IBM Thinkpad 600E for a couple years. For the last

It's a Thinkpad? You wouldn't have had a boot password implemented on it
would you?

Yousuf Khan

 

[mm]

It's a Thinkpad? You wouldn't have had a boot password implemented on it
would you?

Yousuf Khan

No, I didn't. Thank you.

 

[Arno]

I forgot that after that, I reinstalled Win ME, and then two pieces of
software, like maybe Adobe Reader and something else imporant, before
the computer worked completely. That is, everything I tried to do
worked.

Do you think that's consistent with running chkdsk for 60 hours**,
reinstalling winME and the other software, and then working fine for
30 hours?

Entirely possible. The disk was dying at that point though.
Disks do not reocer from this type of mistreatment.

**Every time it found a bad sector, it did a lot of testing and then
copying the data somewhere else, and when I watched it took about 5
(or was it 10) minutes when it found an error. The errors tended to
be in groups.

Sounds like multiple head-crashes to me.

I'm normally very careful with everything. A couple weeks earlier, I
failed to see a step, tripped and fell and all my efforts were devoted
to keeping the laptop from hitting the ground. And the computer
worked fine after that. I don't know what happened with the nuts. I
had a whole bag and had eaten them all day, and there were about 8
left that didn't open enough and so I couldn't pry them open.
Pistachios are a lot stronger than peanuts and there was really no
chance I could break the shell, but still I tried it.

But I"m sure that's what damaged the disk. I had no problems at all
before then, and it's not surprising it worked for the rest of that
session, since on the road I only use 2 or 3 programs and they were
already loaded. And it wouldn't start the next time I tried, the
next day.

Fits. I had one disk dropped in shipping, which took about 4
weeks to die. But die they do after suffering mechanical damage.

Arno

 

[mscotgrove]

[...]
**I also forgot to say that -- I don't know if this has anything to do
with it, but in a reversion from 60 years old to teenage, I used the
laptop 3 years ago to crack open a pistachio nut, while it wss
running.  Not hitting the nut but squeezing it against the table.  The
nut went flying across the room and I never found it.  The computer
worked fine until I tried to restart it.  Then I had to run chkdsk for
60 hours, about 5 or 10 minutes for each error it found, until it
worked again.  Something like 500 bad sectors out of a million. (The
numbers don't add up but I've forgotten the details of this too.)
After that,

I forgot that after that, I reinstalled Win ME, and then two pieces of
software, like maybe Adobe Reader and something else imporant, before
the computer worked completely. That is, everything I tried to do
worked.

I used the computer for about 30 hours over 3 months and
everything worked fine.  
Then I stopped using it until I couldnt' find the cord and took the
harddrive out this week.  I don't know if the earler crash I created
was responsible for the failure this week or not.
Wups, sounds likely. If you got a large number of defects, then
you damaged the head assembly, no other way to get that outcome
from mechanical shock.

Do you think that's consistent with running chkdsk for 60 hours**,
reinstalling winME and the other software, and then working fine for
30 hours?

Entirely possible. The disk was dying at that point though.
Disks do not reocer from this type of mistreatment.

**Every time it found a bad sector, it did a lot of testing and then
copying the data somewhere else, and when I watched it took about 5
(or was it 10) minutes when it found an error.   The errors tended to
be in groups.

Sounds like multiple head-crashes to me.

I'm normally very careful with everything.  A couple weeks earlier, I
failed to see a step, tripped and fell and all my efforts were devoted
to keeping the laptop from hitting the ground.  And the computer
worked fine after that.  I don't know what happened with the nuts.  I
had a whole bag and had eaten them all day, and there were about 8
left that didn't open enough and so I couldn't pry them open.
Pistachios are a lot stronger than peanuts and there was really no
chance I could break the shell, but still I tried it.
But I"m sure that's what damaged the disk.  I had no problems at all
before then, and it's not surprising it worked for the rest of that
session, since on the road I only use 2 or 3 programs and they were
already loaded.   And it wouldn't start the next time I tried, the
next day.

Fits. I had one disk dropped in shipping, which took about 4
weeks to die. But die they do after suffering mechanical damage.

Arno

I technique I use for failing drives is incremental imaging. The main
emphasis to to try and create a viable 'DD' type image, but putting as
little stress as possible on a drive. A white paper I wrote is
http://www.cnwrecovery.com/html/incremental_imaging.pdf

Once you have partial image, treat it like a normal DD file image

Michael

 

[Arno]

I technique I use for failing drives is incremental imaging. The main
emphasis to to try and create a viable 'DD' type image, but putting as
little stress as possible on a drive. A white paper I wrote is
http://www.cnwrecovery.com/html/incremental_imaging.pdf

Once you have partial image, treat it like a normal DD file image

Michael

In principle, the approach is sound, but I like the way ddrescue
does it with an additional metadata file better (I think, only
learned about it today). The problem is that with your approach
of encoding the sector status "inline" you can run into collisions
with the data actually on the disk. Then you could have endless
restries when in fact a good read was performed.

Disadvantage is that you need more sotage space and a filesystem
with large file capability. The later is less of a problem on
Linux, ext3 has a 2TB file size limit, ext4 has 16TiB.
You may still have to combine two currently largest drives
in a RAID0 or append mode array to do this for a currently
largest drive.

But yes, definitely do fast, no retry, passes first. For modern
drives that do a lot of retires by themselves, it may also be good
to do superincreasing skips (e.g. 2^k sectors with k increased
by 1 each time a read fails) with possible backwards reading
to find the end after the skip has been successful or better
in a second pass. Or there may be ways to convince the firmware
to lay off on the retries, but that will require special software.

Arno

 

[mm]

You need to clone your drive ASAP, sector by sector, and then use data
recovery software on your clone, if necessary.

Some freeware cloning tools are ...

HDclone: http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html
dd_rescue: http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
ddrescue: http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Comparison between ddrescue and dd_rescue:
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue

Thank you. I'm slowly going through all this stuff.

As to my current problem, I came across a log file, with my other
partition copy log files, which referred to winME, and the laptop was
the only winME I had. So

It said it was copied to the F: drive and tonight I checked one of my
two 3 1/2" HD enclosures and found it.

Using the enclosure, it didn't work anymore -- so much for no-brand 10
dollar enclosures -- but the HDD, connected just with a Rosewill
IDE/SATA cable, worked fine** and I have my files now. (At least the
one I tried to get so far) But all the suggestions I got will serve me
well in the future.

**Almost perfectly. But at first with Windows Explorer the two
partitions didn't show up in the left column when I clicked on My
Computer, even though all the other partitions did. But they did show
up on the right side. Then when I clicked on the first of the two
partitions in the drive on the right side, both partitions showed up
in the column on the left. Very strange, IMO.

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. Ddrescue maintains a log, which means it can resume
after an interruption, such as when your drive hangs or goes AWOL.

Cloning tools such as Acronis do not understand how to work around bad
sectors. This makes them effectively useless. Don't be tempted to use
CHKDSK in repair mode. It will most likely exacerbate the file system
damage.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddrescue#Recovery-oriented_variants_of_dd
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk

The following is a GNU ddrescue example from Wikipedia:

# first, grab most of the error-free areas in a hurry:

ddrescue -n /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

# then try to recover as much of the dicey areas as possible:

ddrescue -r 1 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

I'm rereading this and will read those two links too.

Thanks a lot. And thanks everyone

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The message said, roughly.

You have a RAW drive. Chkdsk will not work with a RAW drive.

This used to be a FAT32 drive that ran winME, and chkdsk used to work
on it. Wha' happened?

Can a HDD go bad just sitting around, like batteries do?

Another thing that needs to be asked, did you check the SMART status of
this drive? Interestingly a friend of mine recently started seeing the
same message on one of his external USB drives, that all of a sudden his
drive was listed as "raw". However, in his case, the message appeared
more abruptly. It was working fine one day, and then the next day he
turned it on, and it said it was raw. I told him to find a partition
recovery program, but then I put the drive on one my own machines. My
machine was running HD Sentinel, and it immediately showed a big red
drive, I looked at the warnings and it said it had over 1300
unrecoverable sectors!! Obviously this drive was toast even before the
raw message showed up, but only thing is that my friend didn't have any
way of knowing it, since he wasn't running a SMART monitoring program on
his system.

Yousuf Khan