should I stay or should I go?

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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elsie
Posts: 6
Joined: 18 May 2012, 14:06

should I stay or should I go?

#1 Post by elsie »

Hi guys, pretty new to testdisk. I am trying to make a 2 TB western digital drive come back to life. It is spinning , test disk can see it but cant read it. I am currently running the 'analyze' command and have been waiting for 2 days. It is still only at 20% , surely this cannot be normal?
Also, every tie the 'Analyze cylinder' number changes the 'read error' number changes to the exact same number of the analyze cylinder. does this mean that every single block is a read error on my disk?
does this mean i will have to wait for 7 days and then it will say , sorry buddy, there is a read error?
my question is , should i continue analyzing or should I just send the disk off to a specialist? am I out of my league?
please help, it has been 6 weeks i have been trying to fix this disk. Im completely deflated and out of ideas.
thank you

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remy
Posts: 457
Joined: 25 Mar 2012, 10:21
Location: Strasbourg, France.
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Re: should I stay or should I go?

#2 Post by remy »

Was the WD disk in an external enclosure ? If yes, is the scan done from the enclosure ? or in sata direct connection, or with another sata/usb adaptator ?

elsie
Posts: 6
Joined: 18 May 2012, 14:06

Re: should I stay or should I go?

#3 Post by elsie »

It is in the case on a usb connection. I have stopped the analyze because i calcu,ated that it would be next wednesday that it would get through the disk. 2 TB with one partition is a lot to get through. every block says read error.

the strange thing is that i have 3 computers, mac lion, windows xp and linux mint on an old g5. it can see the disk on linux and windows but cannot see it on my mac and my mac is a new machine?

elsie
Posts: 6
Joined: 18 May 2012, 14:06

Re: should I stay or should I go?

#4 Post by elsie »

I have a sata cable and a lacie sata card that is in my windows machine but it wont see it. i dont know what difference a sata cable is than a usb other than speed?

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remy
Posts: 457
Joined: 25 Mar 2012, 10:21
Location: Strasbourg, France.
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Re: should I stay or should I go?

#5 Post by remy »

Question was just because WD disks often are encrypted and need to be in their enclosure.

I think your disk has a head crash or similar failure. It's probably too late, until you contact a professionnal lab'. :(

EDIT : where are you from ?

elsie
Posts: 6
Joined: 18 May 2012, 14:06

Re: should I stay or should I go?

#6 Post by elsie »

I am from the UK but I live in Pennsylvania. why do you ask?

elsie
Posts: 6
Joined: 18 May 2012, 14:06

Re: should I stay or should I go?

#7 Post by elsie »

i have the exact same drive here with me, is it difficult to swap the disk? Im sure it cant be that difficult as someone does it at the repair shop/ clean room. Or is it fatal?

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remy
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Location: Strasbourg, France.
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Re: should I stay or should I go?

#8 Post by remy »

elsie wrote:I am from the UK but I live in Pennsylvania. why do you ask?
In cas I know a good lab' in your region. There are probably labs, but I don't know them.

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remy
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Re: should I stay or should I go?

#9 Post by remy »

elsie wrote:i have the exact same drive here with me, is it difficult to swap the disk? Im sure it cant be that difficult as someone does it at the repair shop/ clean room. Or is it fatal?
Exact same drive : do you mean same model or same model with same firmware, same part-number, same PCB, fully compatible donor ?

When you say "swap the disk" you mean : swap the platters ? Impossible in DIY mode. If platters alignement is lost your data are lost. No way to recover even by professionnal. If screw presure is lost, extremely difficult to recover. If PCB swap is done without specific chips unsold / resold potential damage done inside the disk.

My advice : found a Cie specialised in DR (I mean : one that is doing only that, not informatic reseller) and ask them a diagnostic and a quote. It should be free if they are serious. Then, decide what to do : pay, or decide to very probably loose your datas and the second disk.

I won't explain more, because i think it's quite Offtopic in testdisk/photorec forum ;)

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