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Barracuda 4TB ST4000DM004 SMR sudden implosion - rescue?

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(@Guest 12631)
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Joined: 1 year ago
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Hi, I've done a lot - will list below

tl/dr:

The above mentioned drive is less than 3 mos old. Started making a click (more like a tiny screech). Ran CHKDSK under Win 10 and it started reporting massive bad clusters and declared no available space to move anything. It ran for 5+ hours. When re-booted, the clicking was gone, but the filesystem is now reported as RAW. Drive had one 3TB partition under GPT, probably 30% free, and the rest unallocated (it was the only partition).

Does this sound like it's recoverable?

Longer version:

All SMART data is normal. There are no errors reported in SMART whatsoever. After running CHKDSK and being left with a RAW filesystem, I loaded it up in Linux to clone it with Clonezilla. That immediately failed. Did research and found many people suggesting ddrescue instead of re-running Clonezilla with different settings. Prompt I used was:

ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sda1 clone.logfile

Estimated 5+ hours, but quit after 1.5 hours with "Drive went away. Invlalid path". Said 10% had been completed. Much clicking/screeching.

Rebooted into Windows 10 with the Destination drive. File Explorer showed the entire directory structure, with seemingly intact children folders. Of course the files themselves all come up with a variety of errors. I have no feasible way to peruse this entire rescue partition to find the valid files (although I did happen to stumble upon a few). Again this is literally a brand new drive...

Questions:

1. Is there any recommended software/utility I might use to recover more using the original source?

2. Or a better prompt to use with ddrescue or Clonezilla to get it cloned?

3. Has anyone with recovery experience seen good recovery results through a reputable recovery service after these symptoms, or is it hopeless?

Answers:

1. Never let Windows run a repair over a suspected failing drive, as it can very likely make it worse. Clone it FIRST, then move forward. Do you know this?

Yes. I have been a computer power user for 34 years, starting with a Commodore64. I know the above, and tell it to everyone who mentions they are having HD issues that hinge on failures (SMART data etc). In this case, my brain felt safe because it was a brand new drive. I figured it had a small filesystem glitch and CHKDSK can fix those quite easily (and insists on it in most cases). But it is what it is now.

Any useful help appreciated. I've never ended up in cul-de-sac like this before. No idea where to go next.

Thanks


   
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(@abrsvcs)
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Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 0
 

The screech was likely a head crash and usually means that the drive is junk.  To understand why the folder structure was there, you need to know how the drive blocks are organized.  Any file system will have folders and those folders are nothing but files that contain filenames and pointers to the files themselves.  Think of these like an index where there is a list of subjects and page numbers.  Files are nothing but names on a list (folder) and page numbers (block number of the file).  If the blocks that contain the "folder" information are readable, then the folders will appear to be there.  The individual file blocks may be corrupted or missing which is why the contents are not visible.

The bottom line:  The disk has failed.  Recovery is unlikely from my perspective as it sounds like a physical head crash which has scratched the platter.  This is different from a controller failure which can be recovered by fixing or replacing the controller card (PC board attached to the disk.)

I hope this helps,

Dan


   
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(@Guest 12631)
New Member Guest
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 2
Topic starter  

I guess no one at Northridge Fix actually participates in their own forum with potential customers? I'm not sure I get the point of having these embedded Forums. smh 🤒 


   
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