[ILUG] disk recovery

[Kae Verens]

thanks for all the ideas. currently trying to make space for the disk image.

interestingly, this one is also an IDE caddy, so I'm wondering if it's the disk itself, or just the caddy. I might even 
fire up an old machine to see if it /is/ the caddy.

I'll try a few of these suggestions anyway. currently going for the DD one.


keep 'em coming,
kae

Paul Murray wrote:
> Niall O Broin wrote:
>> On 12 May 2009, at 13:33, Kae Verens wrote:
>>
>>> still no partitions. nothing else I can think of until I can at  
>>> least rebuilt the partition table.
>>>
>>> any ideas? it's a Maxtor DiamondMax 10, 200GB PATA133 HDD, held in a 
>>> Canyon external USB caddy.
>>
>> Take the drive out of the caddy and freeze the puppy. I've recovered  
>> data from three disks in this way in the last year, most recently 
>> last  week when my 6 month old travelling backup disk went tits up.
> 
> Two points to note with that tactic:
> 
> 1) Remove the controller board first
> 
> 2) Use it as a last ditch attempt because if the drive isn't dead, the 
> condensation inside after it warms up will kill it, you've only got one 
> run left.
> 
> The trouble now is if you've been playing with the partition tables 
> through a broken controller giving incorrect disk sizes, so... after 
> freezing, and if it runs perfectly, you may not actually see the data 
> itself because the partition table is infact still corrupted.
> 
> The incorrect disk sizes showing indicates a controller issue. The 
> controller chips give the disk size info, if that changes dynamically, 
> the controller is fscked and no amount of freezing is going to change or 
> aid that.
> 
> IMHO you need to scour the scrap dealers and ebay for the same drive, 
> with the same controller revision number, preferably within two weeks of 
> manufacture of the one thats on the drive.
> 
> If it was me, then I'd run it outside the canyon caddy (btw... their IDE 
> caddies killed some drives on me, lost the partiion tables, had to 
> rebuild externally to the caddy, but their SATA ones haven't given me a 
> problem yet), I'd run it under a desk fan, and keep it at around 5 
> degrees c.
> 
> The coldest I've ever had to recover a drive from was from a PC left in 
> the boot of the car on a frosty night, and yes, the cold does work, just 
> freezing it should only ever be a last resort as it will kill the drive 
> and kill all remaining attempts.
> 
> If it is the controller thats gone, you should be able to play around 
> with the partition tables, or DD out the entire disk, and run it under 
> scalpel or foremost and carve out your file data. Testdisk already 
> mentioned is good at undeleting partitions too.
> 
> If you suspect the disk media is gone, get the partition mounted and go 
> for files in order of importance and don't waste time dd'ing out the 
> disk, it may not last that long.
> 
> Running dying disks under desk fans has worked a treat for me, never yet 
> had to go to the extreme of putting it in the freezer, and i've 
> recovered from some pretty damn dead disks!
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Paul.