A possible bricked disk

Waldo Pepper · 21-11-2011, 20:12

A friend of mine has given me a disk he backed images up to whilst abroad.

One of those 2.5 inch USB hard disk drives that required power from more than one USB connector.

I can see the disk under Device Manager as an IBM<whatever>, it goes ding ding when I plug it into the IDE to USB device so the USB interface is being recognised. However the drive does not appear in Explorer but appears under Win7 as not being initialised. XP recognises it's there but won't assign a drive letter.

I assume the drive side is bricked as it reports as having no space.

I have a similar drive that simply refuses to do anything unless there is sufficient power (and uses a keyboard plug for the power), however his being an old IDE 6GB drive scratches and scrapes before retiring if the power from the USB is not applied first.

Is this about as bad as it can get? Knoppix doesn't see the drive either.

I have three different IDE to USB interfaces at hand that work with an old 250GB IDE drive I have handy, but none work with his.

Any help appreciated.

**Kymmy** · 21-11-2011, 20:27

Do you have a 2.5 to 3.5 ide adaptor? That way you can totally discount power and/or USB/driver issues

qasdfdsaq · 21-11-2011, 21:23

Sounds like Windows is seeing the drive fine. Not initialised means Windows thinks there is no MBR. The data on the drive is probably all there and intact, but Windows just doesn't know how to locate it. You'll want to run a data recovery program.

v0id · 21-11-2011, 22:59

Have you tried it in a different computer/and or another USB caddy?

Lord Nikon · 22-11-2011, 16:26

Try removing the drive PCB and looking at the contacts on the back which connect to the head array, clean them with something only mildly abrasive (I use a fiberglass pencil) and reassemble. I have salvaged data from a few drives that way, if it works back the data up to a DVD or two and suggest strongly that he replace the drive. If it doesn't work you've still lost nothing by trying.

Waldo Pepper · 22-11-2011, 20:28

I have tried all my adapters with different disks I have around and PC's and all work fine until I plug his dodgy disk in. It recognises it as an IBM disk, but has no info on it. It won't assign a drive letter.

qasdfdsaq · 24-11-2011, 10:18

Drive letters have no bearing on the health of a disk. You can have 20 drive letters assigned to a broken disk or none to a perfectly healthy one.

Right now Windows won't assign a drive letter because there are no partitions to assign them to, like I said, your MBR is buggered. Use data recovery software.

AdamD · 24-11-2011, 20:30

Is it worth trying a powered usb hub?

My newer 250GB 2.5" USB drive wouldn't work on my computer and did exactly as you described, until I bought a powered hub, then it worked fine.

DaiNasty · 24-11-2011, 21:54

It can't hurt to try but I'm with 'qas' on this one. You need recovery software that will bypass windows failing to find the MFT(s)

Waldo Pepper · 28-11-2011, 18:29

Can anyone recommend a suitable disk recovery program?

roger skillin · 28-11-2011, 18:49

http://lifehacker.com/5237503/five-b...recovery-tools

Waldo Pepper · 28-11-2011, 19:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by roger skillin

http://lifehacker.com/5237503/five-b...recovery-tools

None will see the disk. Thanks anyway.

DaiNasty · 28-11-2011, 19:48

One of the best is GetDataBack for NTFS. Sadly it's rather expensive.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

It might be worth trying the free demo, just to see if it will read the disk.

budwieser · 30-11-2011, 19:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waldo Pepper

A friend of mine has given me a disk he backed images up to whilst abroad.

One of those 2.5 inch USB hard disk drives that required power from more than one USB connector.

I can see the disk under Device Manager as an IBM<whatever>, it goes ding ding when I plug it into the IDE to USB device so the USB interface is being recognised. However the drive does not appear in Explorer but appears under Win7 as not being initialised. XP recognises it's there but won't assign a drive letter.

I assume the drive side is bricked as it reports as having no space.

I have a similar drive that simply refuses to do anything unless there is sufficient power (and uses a keyboard plug for the power), however his being an old IDE 6GB drive scratches and scrapes before retiring if the power from the USB is not applied first.

Is this about as bad as it can get? Knoppix doesn't see the drive either.

I have three different IDE to USB interfaces at hand that work with an old 250GB IDE drive I have handy, but none work with his.

Any help appreciated.

You Have A PM.

Waldo Pepper · 01-12-2011, 18:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

One of the best is GetDataBack for NTFS. Sadly it's rather expensive.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

It might be worth trying the free demo, just to see if it will read the disk.

Thanks anyway, but that won't see the disk either.