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Disk not recognized

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(@b_chris21)
Posts: 1
New Member
Topic starter
 

Hi all,

i bought USB 3.0 to IDE/ SATA Adapter for recovering data from a corrupted disk.

Even though the disk works and spins, it is not recognized neither in Linux (ubuntu, kali linux), nor in Windows nor in MAC. In fdisk -l or in mount nothing is shown. In dmesg too, no log recorded when usb is plugged in.

Any ideas? Is there a case that the controller panel of the disk is faulty?

I am thinking of buying a same but used HDD and replace the platter. Do you think it is a good idea?

Thanks a lot

 
Posted : 22/12/2016 3:47 pm
Bunnysniper
(@bunnysniper)
Posts: 257
Reputable Member
 

I am thinking of buying a same but used HDD and replace the platter. Do you think it is a good idea?

Thanks a lot

Yes, it is. KrollOntrack and others business modell is to have a warehouse with millions of spare parts for hard drives. A physical Linux with no entry in dmesg is a very strong indicator that the disc itself is not recognized.

Good luck finding your spare parts at ebay.*

best regards,
Robin

 
Posted : 22/12/2016 4:39 pm
jpickens
(@jpickens)
Posts: 130
Estimable Member
 

Do some research though if you want to use a new logic board on the drive. Make sure the model numbers and other info match up closely or it may fail. I ran into this once.

 
Posted : 22/12/2016 8:18 pm
(@mscotgrove)
Posts: 938
Prominent Member
 

Swapping hardware modules is not simple and the chances are extremely high that you will destroy your data forever.

Each drive is unique which makes board swapping likely to fail. Platter swapping is much more complex, requires clean room and special tools to ensure that platters do not rotate relative to each other. It is also easy to damage the heads. ie don't go there.

If the disk drive cannot be seen as a physical drive, send it to a specialised hardware recovery company

 
Posted : 22/12/2016 10:41 pm
JaredDM
(@jareddm)
Posts: 118
Estimable Member
 

I am thinking of buying a same but used HDD and replace the platter. Do you think it is a good idea?

Thanks a lot

Yes, it is. KrollOntrack and others business modell is to have a warehouse with millions of spare parts for hard drives. A physical Linux with no entry in dmesg is a very strong indicator that the disc itself is not recognized.

Good luck finding your spare parts at ebay.*

best regards,
Robin

No, it's not a good idea to try this. I work in data recovery full time at one of Kroll's competitor companies, and I can honestly tell you we almost never platter swap drives. The reason is, is that it's one of the riskiest things to do and even with professional equipment it is very hard to get some drives working afterward.

There is a very good chance that the issue is actually related to the firmware of the drive. If it's not clicking then I'd say that's about a 75% chance. In which case you'd be now just adding another layer of issues on top of the existing problem.

Even if it is the read/write heads that have failed, we wouldn't platter swap it, we'd replace the HSA (head stack assembly) in place. Moving platters leads to all sorts of issues. We've even gone as far as to cut out and remove motor bearings in place rather than platter transplant in some cases because the success rate is much higher that way.

Don't do it. If you do try this yourself, it'll only end one of two ways

1. You ruin all hope of the data ever being recovered and waste a bunch of money on recovery efforts trying to get back what's truely gone.
2. You make recovery much more difficult and a case that would have been $450 now costs you $2K or more.

 
Posted : 22/12/2016 11:37 pm
JaredDM
(@jareddm)
Posts: 118
Estimable Member
 

Do some research though if you want to use a new logic board on the drive. Make sure the model numbers and other info match up closely or it may fail. I ran into this once.

On all newer drives except Samsung, cold replacing the PCB will ALWAYS fail. Most all modern hard drives contain an adaptive ROM code which contains calibration data specific to each individual drive. It is extremely rare to find a ROM code which is cross compatible for WD. Usually it's only if you have a large set of drives all made the same day from the same batch (such as drives shipped in a prebuilt RAID array) might you find one that's close enough to work.

 
Posted : 22/12/2016 11:45 pm
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

Do some research though if you want to use a new logic board on the drive. Make sure the model numbers and other info match up closely or it may fail. I ran into this once.

On all newer drives except Samsung, cold replacing the PCB will ALWAYS fail. Most all modern hard drives contain an adaptive ROM code which contains calibration data specific to each individual drive. It is extremely rare to find a ROM code which is cross compatible for WD. Usually it's only if you have a large set of drives all made the same day from the same batch (such as drives shipped in a prebuilt RAID array) might you find one that's close enough to work.

Oww, comeon, swapping a ROM is doable, with nothing much more than a steady hand and a soldering iron, swapping a (several) platter(s) is *something else*.

jaclaz

 
Posted : 23/12/2016 1:52 am
passcodeunlock
(@passcodeunlock)
Posts: 792
Prominent Member
 

As jaclaz suggested it, the original ROM has to be swapped to the new PCB, that has all the informations of the original drive. Finding the ROM should be something similar to this

http//www.xn--9dbbc4eb.co.il/guide/how-to-swap-hdd-pcb-2/

 
Posted : 23/12/2016 1:44 pm
JaredDM
(@jareddm)
Posts: 118
Estimable Member
 

Do some research though if you want to use a new logic board on the drive. Make sure the model numbers and other info match up closely or it may fail. I ran into this once.

On all newer drives except Samsung, cold replacing the PCB will ALWAYS fail. Most all modern hard drives contain an adaptive ROM code which contains calibration data specific to each individual drive. It is extremely rare to find a ROM code which is cross compatible for WD. Usually it's only if you have a large set of drives all made the same day from the same batch (such as drives shipped in a prebuilt RAID array) might you find one that's close enough to work.

Oww, comeon, swapping a ROM is doable, with nothing much more than a steady hand and a soldering iron, swapping a (several) platter(s) is *something else*.

jaclaz

Sure if you swap the ROM chip. I was refuting the suggestion to just match the model and try cold swapping the PCB. If the OP wants to share any details such as what type of drive it is, I can tell him which chip it is that needs to be transferred.

Digitally transferring the code is the safest method. People don't realize this, but with some brands such as Seagate and Toshiba if you overheat and ruin the ROM chip recovery becomes impossible. Even for data recovery companies.

 
Posted : 23/12/2016 6:50 pm
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